The helicopter flew low, outcroppings of rock at the top of the mountains seemed close enough to touch. Tripp leaned forward to look at the snow conditions. The sun sparkled off the whiteness, and he nodded in satisfaction.

Charlie’s voice in his earphones reminded him he was not alone. “Look. Another heli.”

They were coming in to the drop off point and another skier beat them to it. The helicopter out to their front lowered to the top of a ridge, about ten feet above the snow, and a skier dropped out. Then the bird whipped away. He and Charlie watched as the person cut arcs in the snow, tearing up the powder.

The driver asked if they wanted to go to a different location. Another day Tripp might have been adamant about finding untouched snow, but this was his favorite place to ski off trail and one person’s cuts weren’t going to ruin that. “No, take us down.”

Charlie nodded, gave a thumbs up. He was the easiest going Baldeez brother, and Tripp held that title in the Valdez family. Someone had to be easy going in their royal and drama filled lives.

They clicked into their skis and then the doors were open. Wind whipped through them, shaking their clothes and searing across the sliver of skin underneath Tripp’s goggles. Tripp adjusted his neck wrap to cover up. He sat on the edge, waiting for the go from the driver. Miles of almost untouched snow lay out in front of him. Then he dropped. He leaned forward, angled his skis, and bent his knees. Landing in the powder’s cloud-like cushion felt wonderful. He whooped, watching snow roll up and over his thighs as he took wider turns to accommodate.

Charlie’s whoops behind him told him they were both down and he began cutting down the face in earnest. His favorite kind of run, steep, smooth, full of powder. The skier before him knew what he was doing. And skied the same track Tripp would have. As he rose and fell with each turn, he breathed in the bright of the blue sky that felt so close, the crisp smell of winter and pine, and the glorious freedom all around him.

They entered trees, pines stretching to the sky. The ground below him was white, but the powder was deceptive as far as depth and Tripp kept a sharp eye for rocks. Very few signs indicated the skier ahead of them had taken this path. Tripp almost forgot about him. An hour later, they were navigating one of the more difficult parts of the mountain, a narrow ravine, with ridges, filled with snow. As he clipped through the sharp fast turns, he caught a glimpse of a figure jumping into the air and then landing out of sight.

He took the next lip himself and crossed his skis before landing into the next turn. He worked his way out the bottom chute into an open, more gradual decline. He pulled up to a stop. Charlie sprayed snow beside him as he joined him.

“What a run! One of the best days I’ve ever had! This snow is incredible.”

Tripp nodded. “Tell me about it. And the best is coming.” His chin indicated a drop off to their right. Their slower flat area sat on a ridge with drop offs all around. The safest path lay off to the right. Plenty of drops and steep narrow ledges to thrill even the biggest adrenaline junkie, but it was better than taking the area to the left of the trees which included a section where if you got going too fast and didn’t think, you could ski right off a ledge, the snow hundreds of feet below.

A happy shout startled them both. Then a skier jumped off a rock outcropping above their heads, bits of snow dropped as the bottoms of his skis sailed over them and then landed in the snow far out to their front.

“Whoa!” Tripp was impressed. Excellent form. Then the skier continued without a word but made his way to the left.

“Watch out!” Tripp shouted.

The skier faltered and almost caught an edge and then went over the ridge. Charlie and Tripp rushed to the lip, searching for him. But he had moved out of sight.

“He looked like he knew what he was doing.”

“True. Should be fine.” They kicked up their skis, skiing back the way they’d come so they could go off the ridge at the right.

A forest filled the area to their left and rose up above them the longer they skied down. A sharp crack startled them and then a loud rumble above them. Avalanche. They skied up the side of the snow bank and started bouncing at a perpendicular climb up the side. Grabbing trees to help keep the momentum, they at last reached the top of the fifteen foot embankment and stood in the trees on the ridge, trying to see the path of the snow.

“It may not reach us.” Charlie pointed and Tripp followed his finger through the trees to a rumbling and rolling powdery pile of white that made its way towards them.

A spray of snow covered his boots and a high grunt surprised him. The third skier joined them.

Tripp pulled his goggles up onto his forehead. He must have cut over through the trees, no easy task from the other side.

“Tripp?” Her voice startled him. Thick dark curls escaped her hat. When she pulled her own goggles up onto her forehead, he smiled in surprise. “Jenneca?”

“J.C.!” Charlie raised a gloved hand to bump her fist which she returned.

“Ah, you’re J.C. The other member of the women’s team.”

She shrugged, “Hopeful member. Torn ACL.”

“It’s not slowing you down today.”

“No—”

The snow entered their valley, rumbling through just three feet below where they stood.

Jenneca let out a long breath. “You’re lucky.”

“We are?”

“Yes, when I heard the crack, I saw the direction of the snow so I high tailed it over here to make sure you were ok.”

Tripp wanted to feel smug, overconfident, but admiration won over pride. “You did that? You could have been skiing into a nightmare.” She could have seriously injured herself besides.

She shrugged. “We’re the only ones up here, at minimum I could alert the heli and I would have the closest pin as to your location.”

His eyes appraised her. Sincerity shown from her face, decorated with red goggle lines. “Thank you.”

A faint pink warmed her cheeks and she said, “You’re welcome.”

The snow rumbled again below them, further along.

Charlie shifted. “Now what?” He pointed to the new snow right in front of them. “Can we ski on that?”

Tripp frowned. “I think we’d better stay up here in the trees for as long as we can.”

“Or, we go back to the other side and ski that way.” A challenge glinted in her eye. “It’s epic.”

“Epic.” He grinned and shook his head. “And here I thought you were the nice baker’s daughter.”

She lifted a shoulder. “I am the nice baker’s daughter.”

“Fair enough. I’ve taken that side of the mountain but I usually go alone. Do you, have you..” He didn’t want to insult her but he also didn’t want anyone skiing off any cliffs either.

“I can hold my own.” She lifted a pole toward Charlie. “It’s him we should worry about.”

“What? Me?” Charlie opened his mouth in pretend shock.

Tripp smirked. “Down the left side we go, but we stop before the ravine. And watch your speed.”

“Ugh, yes father.” She took off back through the trees the way she’d come.

Charlie laughed. “So now you’re her father. Good luck getting anywhere with her.”

“I heard that.” Jenneca’s voice carried back through the trees.

“Let’s go.” Tripp took off, not comfortable being the one to babysit the others. He was usually the first one to tear up a slope. He grunted. But he had also never skied with Jenneca before. Something about her alerted all the protective instincts inside, and he wanted to slay all her dragons and shield her from the rain. Watching her take a small lip and rise up into the air in a beautiful arc, he acknowledged he might be the one in need of rescuing.

He caught up. Might be time to show off a little. He let out a whoop and took the same lip then landed mid turn to cut around her and down to the edge of the ravine.

The other two joined him with big smiles. And Tripp grabbed his water for a drink. “Best snow I’ve been on in a good long time.”

“You haven’t been skiing in a good long time.”

Tripp nodded in acknowledgment. “Lots of new players now.” He tipped his head. “So you’re the famous J.C.?”

Her cheeks colored, which he enjoyed.

“Famous. Yeah, I’m known worldwide as the one who tore her ACL.”

“Ouch. Right in the middle of trials?”

“Yeah. It was rough.” Her face pinched then she shrugged it off. “I’ll try again.”

“You up here training?”

“I needed a break today, but yeah.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“You hoping to train?”

“I don’t know. Don’t know what I can do after all this time.”

She appraised him, and he stood taller under her look of approval.

“It might be too late.” He assumed it was, but standing next to Jenneca he filled with a wild sense of hope that he could make up for lost time. The enticing dangling what if called to him.

She grinned. “Charlie should join us. Ours, a sordid group: The what ifs, the has been and the never could.”

“What!” Then he shrugged. “I suppose I can be the never could.” He pulled his goggles back down over his eyes. “But you should see me out on the water.”

They turned to face the ridge, the part where they would need to fully concentrate, because it was narrow, one side a cliff face and the other a sheer cliff. Fifty yards of pure thrill if Tripp were by himself. But now he worried for the others, for Jenneca. He indicated they go first.

Charlie whooped and leapt out over the ridge. He landed just right and Jenneca’s shoulders relaxed. She took her turn with precision, and it was Tripp’s turn to relax that she was so in control. Once she was bouncing through her turns about halfway down the ridge, he studied where he would land. To start the decline, he must drop about ten feet. Calculating which direction he wanted to start his first turn, he slipped over the edge and dropped to the snow below.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. No more avalanches and plenty of amazing snow. He had never partnered in skiing with a more compatible woman. He was keeping things less reckless because she was here. He felt that he and Charlie would be more daring in their jumps and might try to outdo each other more, but Jenneca far out passed him in form. She was beautiful, her graceful arcs and quick cuts, her skis hugging each other as if they were one.

“Oh! Watch this!” Her voice carried over the snow in a laughing energy that surged through him.

Charlie and Tripp turned to stop while Jenneca picked up speed down the steep incline to their front. She hugged her body and tucked her arms and headed straight for a wall of snow.

“What’s she doing?”

At the last minute, she adjusted her angle and hit the snow wall with enough speed she travelled straight up and then she used the momentum to flip in the air, coming down on her skis with a graceful turn and then holding out her arms as though she’d finished her first Olympic run.

Tripp was amazed. He’d never tried such a thing. But that was about to change. He tore down the steep decline and hit the wall just as she had. His flip was hairy, his skis wide and barely in control, but he completed it and skidded to a stop beside her. “That was remarkable!”

She grinned. “I know! I’m impressed. It took me at least five tries to master that move. I had to wait to try again until I found the perfect embankment. Years, I worked on that.” Her face glowed with approval.

Charlie took the same flip and skidded to a stop on his side in a ball of snow, laughing. “I will get that yet!”

He dusted off the snow and took off ahead of them. “See you at the bottom!”

They were nearly finished. “I wish we could do this another five hours.” Tripp felt an odd sense of sadness.

“Me too.” Her sigh sounded wistful. “But tomorrow it’s back to training and I love that just as much.”

He scooted his skis closer to her. “I’m happy I met you, Jenneca.”

“You know, we have met before.”

“What!” He shook his head. “I would remember.”

“As children. We used to play with the whole gang outside the palace.”

He thought on it. A new realization hitting him. “Jen? Did you go by Jen back then?”

“I did. That was me.” She shrugged. “Well, should we go?” She readjusted her goggles.

But Tripp didn’t want her to leave just yet. He placed a hand on her arm. “I’ve missed you.” And he did. Every now and then he thought of his childhood best friend and wondered where she’d gone off to. “We had good times back then. I’m sorry I lost touch.” The childhood donuts and treats at the bakery had added to the fun friendship of course. He had counted himself the luckiest kid to have a friend at the bakery. He chuckled. “It pays to know the baker’s daughter.”

She laughed. “Coming from a Prince of Torren.” She shook her head, her eyes shining. “It’s good to see you again, Tripp.”

He couldn’t let her take off again. The air between them sizzled with heat. Soon they’d be with Charlie and he’d miss his chance. He felt reckless, desperate. “You know, you were my childhood crush.”

She gasped, face reddening more than ever.

He laughed. “Sorry, that’s awkward. Eat dinner with me.” Now that he’d spent a day with her, he wanted more.

Her eyes clouded and he remembered that dufus Jorge, sitting with her in the hot tub. “Unless you’re seeing someone?”

“I need to focus.”

She hadn’t looked particularly focused on anything but Jorge last night. He bristled. “It’s just a dinner between old friends, but I can see you’d rather not. That’s cool. Maybe I’ll see you on the slopes, or in training.” He pushed with his poles and tore down the mountain in the direction Charlie had gone. Their heli would pick them up at the bottom and hers would as well. Probably for the best she didn’t seem interested. He needed to focus.