I thought Mia and I were on our way to a semi-cordial relationship, but other than a grumpy good morning, she’s had her earbuds in the entire flight. She demanded to wheel her own bag from the baggage carousel outside to the driver the resort sent. I understand why she’s mad about this team building, and we have a lot of training to do, but we have no control.

I eye her next to me on the bench of the pickup truck that’s taking us up to the lodge. She’s a control freak. I should have pegged her for one—the way she’s religious about her schedule, the way she always has one of those green shakes in her hand.

It takes a few minutes before she realizes I’m staring at her. She plucks an earbud out of her ear and shoots me the dirty look she’s perfected over the last couple weeks.

“What?”

“You’re pissed because you’re not in control.”

Her eyes narrow. “I’m mad because I need to train and we’re going to be fighting for a chance to do that here.”

“Maybe we can work something out.”

I lean forward, tapping our driver on the shoulder. The lady, who looks like she could kick my ass any day of the week, looks at me in the rearview mirror. “Do you know if they’d let us rent the halfpipe for an hour or two, so it would only be us?”

“Can’t say for sure, but probably not.”

“Figures,” Mia sneers as she returns her attention to the scenery outside the window.

“Really? I could make it worth their while.” I don’t usually throw my name or my money around, but I was just making headway on my own trick, so I get where Mia is coming from.

“You’re throwing your clout around?” Mia asks.

The woman’s attention darts to her in the rearview mirror. “It’s not about the money,” she says. “The halfpipe will likely be closed in a little more than an hour.”

“What?” Mia sits up, both earbuds hanging down now. “It’s beautiful out there.”

We each look out the truck windows to see the sun shining down. It couldn’t be better boarding conditions.

“The wind. It’s supposed to come up this afternoon. It’s the first round for the weekend. Didn’t anyone in your group look at the weather?” She shakes her head in disbelief.

We probably take for granted that it’s skiing weather, but Mia and I both know the wind is a factor when it comes to flipping in the air.

“Can you take us back to the airport?” Mia asks and I swear she’s seconds away from leaning over the seat and grabbing the steering wheel to take control.

“I could take you to Denver, but then I’d have a lot of people mad at me.” She laughs like she’s the headliner at some comedy gig. “Because you’ll never get out of the local airport now.”

Mia’s hand lands on her leg and she balls it into a fist. “You can’t be serious. All of this in the span of a couple hours?” She looks at me with her mouth ajar like ‘aren’t you going to take care of this.’

“The airport was running smoothly when we left.” I offer my bit of advice and if the driver’s bored eyes in the mirror are my response, I clearly don’t know shit about their airport or the minute-by-minute weather changes.

“That was then. Weather can change fast, Mr. Kale. Just like life. This wasn’t forecasted a couple days ago, otherwise I’m sure they wouldn’t allow the two top prospects for gold to be stranded somewhere.”

The truck slides on the road and Mia’s hand reaches out, grabbing hold of my thigh. My dick jumps in my pants despite the circumstances, but she lets go as soon as she realizes what she’s done.

“Stranded?” Mia reacts like she just told us a meteor is about to land on Earth.

I understand her reaction, the two of us having to survive in a log cabin by ourselves for however long we’re stuck here is not exactly going to let us sail into the Winter Classics on good terms. The girl has finally spoken more than two words to me. This much togetherness and she’ll probably murder me in my sleep.

“Probably by morning would be my guess.”

Mia’s gaze zeros in on me, her eyes widening as though we know each other well enough to have an unspoken language. “Then take us to Denver,” she demands.

The truck wheels slide again. “Should have put on the chains,” the driver mumbles.

I glance out the window the sun still shining down, but white snow is whipping across the ground now, visibility dwindling the further we head up the road.

I shift my gaze back to Mia and then out the windshield again. This time we do share a common look that says fuck, we’re stuck together.

She closes her eyes and leans her head back on the seat, inhaling a deep breath, her lips now a tight line.

A few minutes later, the driver parks the truck outside the lodge. A lodge way too big for the two of us, which might be good because maybe we can stay on separate levels and not have to speak a word to one another.

Mia’s out of the truck immediately, grabbing her suitcase from the back and a little like a toddler, stomping her way up to the lodge.

“Normally I’d show you around, but I better get back before you have a third guest for the night.” The driver laughs, handing me the keys to the place.

“Thanks.”

“The fridge is stocked with what was requested. There’s firewood on the south end of the cabin. I wouldn’t be trying to work the outside hot tub in the coming days.”

“No worries on that front,” I mumble, pushing the thought of Mia’s curves in a bikini as far from my mind as possible.

“If you need anything, call the main number, but from the looks of it, we might not be able to get to you. You’re a big strong guy and that girl of yours seems like she can hold her own, so I’m not worried.” She nods, heading back to the driver’s side of the truck.

The vehicle circles around and heads down the hill. I look up to the cabin where Mia’s arms are wrapped around herself, her angry expression directed at me.

Jogging up the snow-covered pathway with my suitcase in hand, I step under the overhang of the porch. “Sorry.”

She says nothing as I unlock and open the door. “Would you like me to carry you over the threshold?”

There’s zero amusement from her, not even an upturn of the corner of her lips. Grabbing hold of her suitcase, she walks into the house.

Great, this is gonna be a blast.