The Shuddering

their most recent fall. “You’d be down there, otherwise,” he said.
    Jane nudged him to shut him up, but Sawyer was smirking at the bodies fifty feet beneath them.
    “What, you don’t like the bunny hill?” he asked.
    “No, man, I love it,” Ryan said, “especially at thirty-five miles per hour.”
    “I’m not going on any black diamonds,” Jane said. “So just forget it.”
    “You can stay on the greens with your pal,” Ryan teased.
    Lauren laughed dryly at the far end of the lift.
    “What?” He leaned forward against the rail, shooting a look across the chair to the blonde at the far end. “Is that a challenge I hear?”
    Lauren grinned, shrugging beneath the thick padding of her coat.
    Ryan leaned back, peering at his sister.
    “What’d you do?” he asked, “Invite a professional?”
    “Don’t do it,” Sawyer warned. “Challenging Adler in boarding is like challenging a shark to a…” He paused, thinking. “A surfing competition.”
    “And how would a shark stay on a surfboard, exactly?” Jane asked, amused.
    “By his fins,” Sawyer said. “Naturally. Moral of the story: don’t challenge a shark. Ever.”
    “Ever?” Lauren asked.
    “Oh my god.” Ryan let his head loll back, looking up to the sky. “It’s on.”
    “It’s on?” Lauren asked him. It was her turn to lean forward, a wry grin spread across her mouth.
    “It’s on.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “This should be fun,” Sawyer said.
    “There’s a little something you don’t know about me,” Lauren confessed, swinging her board beneath her with a wide, innocent smile.
    Ryan raised an eyebrow at her. “A secret?”
    “It’s about to be revealed,” she said, lifting a gloved fist before bursting her fingers forth—a magic trick guaranteed to blow his mind.
    Ryan leaned back, the bunny hill giving way to a thousand trees beneath their feet. Jane leaned against him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see her smiling.
    “Was this a setup?” he asked under his breath, the cold burning his cheeks.
    “Like you need a setup,” Jane told him, her temple nestled against his shoulder.
    “And that would stop you?”
    Jane bit back a smile, eventually replying to his question, “Not a chance.”
    Jane sat wide-eyed in the powder as Lauren sailed down the hill, tailing Ryan like a champ. Lauren had mentioned that she had boarded before, but she never said that she could keep up with the best of them. Before Jane was able to snap her left foot into her binding they were gone, leaving her and Sawyer in their snow spray.
    She watched them until they were mere blips on the hill, then glanced over to Sawyer. He was lying against the snow likea fallen angel, his arms stretched out, looking like he was trying to get a tan.
    “How long has it been since you’ve done this?” she asked.
    Sawyer lifted his head to look at her, his chin pressed to his chest.
    “Three seasons,” he told her. “I’m going to eat it.” He grinned up at the sun, and for a moment she considered just sitting there with him—the two of them in a single spot all morning, enjoying the view, relishing the company. But that would have been desperate and obvious: two things Jane Adler wouldn’t allow herself to be.
    She smiled, adjusted her hat, and rocked onto her toes.
    “Later, alligator.” She offered him a salute.
    He was up on his board before she could gain ten feet on him. She was still trying to get her bearings when something snagged her jacket and pulled her backward. Sawyer missiled past her, only to throw her off balance, Jane’s arms shooting out behind her; she winced when she connected with the ground, but she was laughing a second later. She couldn’t help it, because just ahead of her, Sawyer flew forward, rolling down the mountain before skidding to a stop with an audible yelp.
    Sitting outside the lodge beneath a multicolored umbrella, April spotted Ryan and Lauren first. They slowed at the bottom of the hill, each of them bending down to unstrap one leg, then sliding back in the line that would take them up the mountain again. April couldn’t help but crack a smile as they pushed each other around. Their obvious flirtation raised her spirits. They laughed a bit too loudly as they waited in line, standing a bit too close together, Lauren pestering him by tugging at his zippers, Ryan reciprocating by pulling her hat off her head.
    She spotted Sawyer and Jane fifteen minutes later, both of them looking