It had surprised Ellie, too, but not nearly so much as the sight of him in those snug black boxer briefs. The man was well endowed.
“Details, details. That does nothing to change the fact that the man was cleaning—in his underwear!” Claire all but shouted those last words. “A sight like that would have made most hetero women seriously horny. Tell me you at least enjoyed checking him out.”
“I didn’t check him out.” Oh, yes, she had—from head to toe and back again. “Okay, so maybe I did—a little.”
And Jesse had noticed. Ellie had seen it in his eyes.
“I bet he was ripped. Climbers usually are.”
“Yes, he was.” Ellie took a sip of her wine and closed her eyes, remembering all that beautiful, masculine terrain. Broad, powerful shoulders. Scars from combat. Biceps encircled with tribal tattoos. Rounded pecs scattered with dark curls. That eight-pack. Those obliques.
“Could you see a bulge?”
Ellie’s face flamed. “What kind of question is that?”
Okay, she had seen that bulge—seen it and felt a jolt of lust in response.
“Oh, come on! Since when did you become a prude? When you and Dan slept together, you told me everything. You even told me how big his—”
“Good God! Would you knock it off?” Ellie had been fresh out of college then, silly and na?ve. She’d had no idea how unpredictable or painful life could be, how everything she loved could be torn from her in an instant. “Well, I haven’t slept with Jesse yet, have I?”
There was a moment of silence.
“Not yet, huh?” Claire sounded satisfied. “Was that a Freudian slip?”
“You’ve got me flustered. I’m not going to sleep with him at all. I’m not—”
“You’re not ready. So you’ve said.” Claire let it go, changed the subject. “Hey, you still have Mondays through Thursdays off, right?”
“I’m on call every other Monday.”
“I bought tickets for you and me for Scarlet Mountain Resort’s next Women’s Day on Tuesday. I haven’t been on the slopes yet this season, and neither have you.”
“Well, I’d have to find—”
“I’ve already asked Mom if she would watch the kids, and she said yes. You need to get out and have a little fun. I’ll even buy lunch.”
What could Ellie say? A day skiing with her sister? “Wow. Okay. Thanks.”
They talked about other things after that. How Cedar was hoping for a raise at work. How much Claire loved her new office. How she and Cedar wanted to get a puppy so that they could practice being parents.
“You can practice with Daisy and Daniel any time you like,” Ellie offered.
“I knew you would say that. I thought we’d start with something easier and work our way up to human children.”
Ellie wasn’t sure a puppy was that much easier to manage than a toddler, but she held her tongue. As they ended the conversation, she found herself wondering whether Jesse would be on duty next Tuesday.
Chapter 5
Jesse was sitting in the lodge eating lunch, when his Team pager went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and scrolled through the message.
AVALANCHE. UTE RIDGE TRAIL. ONE SKIER MISSING.
Shit.
He slid the pager into his pocket and reached for his mic. “Forty-two to dispatch.”
Matt answered. “We heard the call go out on the radio. You’re cleared to go.”
Jesse shoved the rest of his lunch back into the bag, retrieved his skis from the rack outside, and skied the short distance to the Ski Patrol chalet. He was in and out of the locker room in under two minutes.
“Hope you find him!” Matt’s words followed him out the door.
There wasn’t much chance of that, but Jesse didn’t have the heart to say it. He had responded to four avalanche calls in his time with the Team. Not once had they recovered a live person. When he’d asked Megs about this, she’d told him it was the norm in Colorado. Most avalanches happened in the backcountry, far from towns and cities. If the victim’s buddies couldn’t find him, there was almost no chance that he would still be alive by the time rescuers arrived on the scene.
“There is always hope, and so we try,” she’d said.
Driven by that hope, Jesse ran to his vehicle, stowed his skis and boots in the back, then climbed into the driver’s seat and set out for Ute Ridge Trail, a good ten minutes away. Knowing that every one of those ten minutes could make a difference between life and death, he pushed on the gas, driving as fast as he could.
Megs’ voice came over his police radio. “The missing skier is a male, aged twenty-two. The victim’s friends say he was wearing a beacon.”
That was good news.
“The sheriff’s department is loaning us its chopper. A K9 unit will arrive via helicopter.”
More good news. A well-trained avy dog could find a victim in a fraction of the time it took human rescuers.
Eight minutes later, Jesse reached the Ute Ridge parking area. As the first person on the scene, he now became Incident Command. He grabbed the radio from its charger and clipped the mic to his parka. “Sixteen-ninety-four, arrival on scene. I’m heading up to the slide area as Ute Ridge Command.”