“Snowboarding lessons with Ryan?” Leslie let out a low whistle and jostled the ice in her decaf iced tea as they sat in one of the booths at the lodge bar. “I can’t even imagine.”

“I know,” Kylie said, eyeing her coffee as thoughts swirled in her head about the mysterious morning she’d had with the most beautiful man in the world. If only she could believe what he said, but she couldn’t. It just didn’t make sense.

“So, how’s that going, anyway?” Leslie’s dark eyes were knowing as they studied her, and Kylie found herself squirming slightly under that intense gaze.

“Fine,” she replied, feeling a blush work its way up into her cheeks.

Leslie set down her drink and leaned forward, a grin spreading her red lips as she rested her chin on her tented fingers. “Hm. So why are you turning beet red? Could it be Ryan is teaching you a little more than snowboarding up on that mountain?”

Kylie was saved from answering by the entrance of another woman, Janna, who looked harried and tired and was carrying a diaper bag in place of a purse. A stylish diaper bag, but still a reminder that only a couple of months ago, she and Leslie had given birth. Both had had boys. Adorable, dark haired boys with sweet curls.

It caused a slight ache in Kylie to spend time with them, because it reminded her just how much she did want a family and children.

“How’s Jace?” Kylie asked as Janna sat down.

“He’s in a mood. Poor Ryder looked a little lost when I left him, but it’ll be good for him to get used to taking the baby more often.” Janna sighed and eyed Leslie’s drink. “Decaf?”

“Yup,” Leslie said, holding up her cup to toast with a grin. “Join us?”

“Sure,” Janna said. “Sorry I’m late.” She brushed wispy, unruly curls back into the low bun she was wearing, but they just popped right back. “So what did I miss?”

Leslie grinned. “Ryan’s teaching Kylie a little more than just snowboarding up on the mountain.”

“Is not,” Kylie grumbled, not sure why she felt she had to hide it from her friends. After all, they’d gone through similar things with Ryan’s brothers. But they hadn’t been rejected for a year like she had.

“Ooh, look how red she is,” Leslie said, laughing.

“Am not,” she said grumpily, but she softened when she saw concern in Janna’s eyes. Janna always was the more sensitive one among them. “Okay, maybe a little red. I don’t know what’s even going on.”

“Do tell,” Leslie said, pushing her unsatisfying drink to the side so she could lean forward for the details. “Deets please.”

“Yes,” Janna agreed. “Deets.”

Kylie sighed and sat back in the booth. It felt odd to be the one people were asking about her love life. She’d always been the one on the sidelines, joking about stalking Ryan while grilling her friends, or watching them grill each other, about what was going on with their current men. Now they were married with a baby each and all the attention was on her.

It was a little uncomfortable. “Um…”

“Does he have some awesome tricks? A long…board?” Leslie wiggled her eyebrows and Kylie went beet red and then burst into laughter. How could she be so serious about this when it wasn’t any different than the way she’d teased them about their own sexual experiences.

“Let’s see,” she said, tapping her chin as Leslie and Janna leaned forward eagerly. “It’s definitely no half pipe. More like a super pipe.”

Leslie wrinkled her nose and Janna laughed. Okay, their double entendre game was a little weird with snowboarding terms.

“Should I keep going?” she asked.

Both nodded their heads vigorously.

Kylie laughed. “It’s not like you don’t have your own Hart brothers at home,” she said. “You know what it’s like.”

Janna shook her head. “Ryan’s different. There’s something about him. He’s just really…intense.”

“That he is,” Kylie said. “Let’s see. He prefers the score to be, um, tied up.”

Leslie’s eyes widened. “Bondage?”

Kylie blushed and looked away. “Maybe. Nothing hard-core. Let’s just say it was my um, first run, but I feel like his technique deserves a gold medal.”

“Ah,” Leslie said. “Good to know.” She sat back in the booth with folded arms and a smug grin, and Janna wore a much politer version of the same look. “So, what now? Round two?”

Kylie shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Uh oh,” Leslie said. “Trouble in paradise.” Janna nudged her, as if sensing that Kylie was a little too confused about the whole thing to really talk about it, but Leslie ignored her and pressed on. “Come on, babe. What’s the big deal? You’ve been hunting that man from the moment you met him, and now you have him. Why so sad?”

Kylie shrugged and sipped her soda. “I just… Things are weird now, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” Leslie retorted.

Kylie sighed. “I’m not even sure I should talk about it.”

“Who would you talk about it with, then? Come on, Kylie. It’s good to talk to your girlfriends about this stuff. We’ve all helped each other with our relationships.”

“But that’s the thing,” Kylie said. “It’s not a relationship. It’s just a one-time thing.”

“Did Ryan say that?”

“He did. Before.”

Leslie’s lips curved in a smile. “And after?”

“And after, he seemed to be a bit confused,” Kylie admitted. She felt sweat beading at her hairline and brushed it away with the back of her hand. For some reason this was a stressful conversation.

“Confused, hm?” Leslie grinned. “Do tell.”

“Look, it’s just… He didn’t want me before. He was adamant, and he left. He left us all behind, and I felt like it was a lot do with how aggressive I’d been. Now he suddenly wants something, after almost a year of chasing him, and it’s like, why now? Is it because he’s got Florence Nightingale syndrome, and is confusing help for love? Is it because he feels bad for me because he knows about my foot?”

It was Janna’s turn to sigh. “I think you’re giving Ryan far too much credit. I don’t think he’s that sensitive. It sounds to me more like he finally stopped running from what’s been obvious to all of us. That he’s really attracted to you. It’s just sad that it has taken him this long to see it.”

“What do you mean?” Kylie asked, sitting up a little straighter. “No one thought that, right? I mean he ignored me.”

“Well, there was that thing when you were drunk, and Rex was carrying you.”

“What thing?” Kylie couldn’t remember anything like that.

“You know, when you got drunk at girls’ night?” Leslie replied.

“I thought Janna took me home and tucked me in.” Kylie ran a hand through her hair. “What happened?”

“I feel like we’ve told you this before. Maybe you blocked it out because it didn’t fit with what you were seeing with Ryan. But anyway, a friend of mine insisted on carrying you when you were too drunk to walk—”

“Embarrassing,” Kylie muttered, interrupting.

“Anyway, you were too drunk to walk, and we were going outside with him to drive you home, and Ryan totally intercepted us. I mean, total alpha, confrontation, possessive kind of stuff. Even when he found out Rex was only helping, he insisted on taking you. He carried you to the car and up to your bed.”

“I do remember something like that. But I thought I was just dreaming. That it was you and Janna and my brain was playing tricks on me by inserting him into the memory.”

“Yeah,” Leslie said. “I think it even surprised Ryan himself.”

Janna nodded. “When he set you down, he leaned in, almost like he was going to kiss you, and then he seemed to realize where he was and what he was doing, and he gave me the most embarrassed grimace, and strode right out of there to wait in the car for me while I tucked you in.”

“Weird,” Kylie said. “I don’t get that boy.”

Leslie shrugged. “None of us do. Even Riley says no one really understands Ryan, as much as Ryan seems to understand everyone else.”

“I’m guessing that includes Ryan,” Kylie said. “He doesn’t seem to understand himself any better than anyone else does. And I definitely don’t understand him. Especially now that he’s being so nice.”

Just as she finished speaking, she looked up to see a man standing by the table, holding an enormous bouquet of flowers. Red roses, white daisies, white lilies. Classy and romantic. She raised an eyebrow and waited for the man to somehow move the flowers out of the way so he could see them.

“I have a delivery for a Kylie Rogers,” he said, clearing his throat and coughing as a flower brushed his nose. Kylie’s jaw dropped. She was used to being around flowers but these ones made her heart thump. How Ryan had gotten these up here so quickly, she didn’t know.

Leslie grinned and tapped her fingers on the table while waiting for Kylie to respond. Janna finally stood and took the heavy vase from the man and set it on the table between them. It was enormous, and Kylie had no idea how she was going to get it down the mountain without it spilling or breaking.

She shoved the vase to the end of the booth so it wasn’t blocking her view of either of her friends. Then she tried to ignore it, as Janna thanked the man and took the card he was delivering from him. She handed it to Kylie, and Kylie took it in her hand but didn’t open it.

It was small, a card that would usually be pinned amongst the bouquet, and she knew there couldn’t be much written on it. But she wasn’t ready to read it. Not with her friends watching so eagerly.

“You going to open it?” Leslie asked, checking the time on her phone. “I’ll have to get back and feed Riley junior soon.”

“Of course he’d want you to name it after him,” Janna said, amused.

Leslie shrugged. “I liked the name. Kylie, the card?”

Kylie hesitated and then pushed it to the side. “I’m not ready yet.”

“Well, that boy is. Damn,” Leslie said, looking up at the flowers. “He doesn’t waste any time.”

“Except he already wasted a lot of both of our time,” Kylie said, trying to resist looking at the flowers. She’d often brought home flowers for herself, but she’d never been sent any by a man before. They really were breathtakingly beautiful, and she couldn’t help feeling a warm, pleased feeling when she thought about him sending them to her. But what did it mean?

Did it mean he really was serious about all of this? About being with her? How could sex change everything that quickly? She sighed and figured she might as well open the note after all.

Hope you like them. It’s a lot of pressure buying flowers for someone who works with them. –Ryan

She set the note aside. As happy as she wanted to be about the gift, she still felt like a cloud was hanging over her, blocking some of the sunlight.

“Girl, you’re looking way too sad for being sent flowers by a super-gorgeous, athletic male that you’ve been chasing for nearly a year,” Leslie said.

“I know,” she said. “It’s ridiculous. I guess after so much rejection, it’s hard to believe everything could change just after a little sex.”

Leslie and Janna looked at each other and shared knowing glances before turning back to Kylie.

“Just a little sex?” Leslie asked. “Honey, the Hart brothers don’t just have a little sex. They have a sex storm, powerful enough to blow you away if you aren’t careful. Overwhelming beasts.”

“Right,” she said. “Overwhelming for us. But why would it change things for him?”

Janna sighed. “You know, they say men express emotion and feeling through sex. Maybe it was doing that that made him realize how he really felt about you. Maybe it put him in touch with a side of him he’d been hiding from.”

“But you know Ryan,” Kylie said. “All along, he’s been saying I’m not right for him.” Leslie and Janna looked up at her with slightly guilty expressions.

“He said that to you?” Leslie asked warily.

“Yes,” Kylie said. “Not long before we slept together. And I was fine with that. It was honest, and nothing I didn’t know after he left me here to run off to Australia for that pre-season training. I’m guessing he said it to either of you on occasion?”

Leslie didn’t meet her eyes. “Only when one of the guys bugged him about it. But it was always really obvious that the guy protested too much. Just the fact that he was so easy going with everyone but you made it obvious that there was something different there, even if he wasn’t aware of it.”

Kylie nodded. “I guess so. But just because someone treats you differently, it doesn’t mean they like you. They may hate you, or be annoyed by you.”

“I’m thinking it takes a lot to annoy Ryan,” Janna said. “But I could be wrong. Where is he now, anyway?”

“Presumably back sulking in his lodge. He drove me down here on the snowmobile, but then I told him I wanted to be alone.”

“And alone means us?”

Kylie grinned. “Alone means not him. But I’m glad you two were available to come over and chat. I miss you since the babies arrived.”

“Sorry we’re a little housebound,” Janna said. “But you’re always welcome to come over.”

Kylie nodded, but felt a slight sadness waving over her. It was hard to see her friends move on without her. They were still there for her, and she’d be there for them, and it’d get easier as the babies grew, but it still felt like a circle she just wasn’t part of and couldn’t fully understand. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

Leslie rolled up her sleeves. “But we’ll figure this Ryan thing out. I mean, you pulled him out of his man cave, that has to mean something.”

“But maybe that’s why he likes me?” Kylie asked.

Janna shook her head. “No one else could pull him out. It was something to do with you.”

“It did seem to be when I said I had wanted to snowboard but couldn’t. He was a man with a mission after that. But maybe he just feels passionately about snowboarding.”

“I just don’t know why you want to pin his actions on everything but caring for you,” Leslie scoffed. “I mean he’s finally coming around. Why not be happy?”

“Because I don’t want to get hurt,” Kylie said quietly. The other girls looked at her. “I guess it was easy to believe he didn’t want me. It’s much harder to believe he does.” She shrugged and stood up from the table to stretch. “Well, I guess I better figure out how to get these flowers home.”

“Do you have any orders right now?” Leslie asked.

Kylie shook her head. “I put on my website that I’m going to be busy for a few weeks. And I’m not subbing while I’m learning snowboarding.” Kylie knew she was in an odd situation to be able to just stop work and snowboard almost every day, but it was one of the great things about her life, and she wasn’t going to shy away from it.

“Then why don’t you just stay up at the lodge? I’m sure I can get Riley to set you up with something for no charge. You can come see the babies more often, and it’ll be faster to get on the slopes in the morning.” Leslie’s eyes twinkled and she shared a glance with Janna. “And Ryan will be close by.”

Janna waved a hand at the flowers. “At the very least, you could transport those to a room in the lodge with less risk of a catastrophe.”

“This is true,” Kylie said. “But I don’t know if I want to be so accessible to him.”

“Girl, that’s what locks are for,” Leslie said. Janna high-fived her and they watched her eagerly for an answer.

Kylie looked between her friends and the enormous flowers and laughed. “All right, all right. Talk to Riley. I’ll stay a night and see how it goes. It really might be easier to not have to haul snowboard rentals back and forth.”

“Yeah, snowboard rentals. Now you can rent that nice, big “snowboard” whenever you want,” Leslie said, teasing her.

Kylie grimaced and pulled the flowers in front of her to hide her deep blush, while Leslie and Janna burst into laughter.