Mills and Boon Christmas Joy Collection. Liz Fielding

you talking about me?”

      She glanced over her shoulder; all the color left her face and she bit her lower lip.

      “Carter, how nice to see you this morning,” Elizabeth said quickly.

      But he wasn’t interested in being sociable or pleasant right now. Unless he was wrong—and let’s face it, he wasn’t—Lindsey had pretty much just relegated him to booty-call status. Well, hell. He’d been thinking they were something special and she was getting ready to show him the door?

      “We’re you talking about me, Lindsey?” he asked again.

      She turned her face down and wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Yes, Carter, I was.”

      He didn’t know what else to say to that. And he hadn’t been expecting her to admit it—especially not in front of Elizabeth.

      “I thought we were past that.” He gritted the words out. “Didn’t last night mean anything to you?”

      She stood. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”

      “That’s too bad,” he said, blocking her path. “Your distraction isn’t going to be just brushed aside as easily as that.”

      “Carter, please. I don’t think this is the right time.”

      “Too bad. I’m tired of running after you and never feeling like I’m good enough. You know that you can’t keep me dancing to your tune forever.”

      “You haven’t been dancing to anyone’s tune except your own,” she said, her temper flaring. There was a red flush on her cheeks as she stepped forward, pushing her finger at his chest. “We aren’t normal couple material. You have a life that takes you around the world, I don’t. I’m here working and trying to figure out—”

      “Figure out what? How to not be afraid of the one thing that makes you special?” Sure, he had weaknesses, but she did, too. How could she not see that with her, he was different? With Lindsey he had a shot at being the man he’d always wanted to be but had never been able to figure out how.

      As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he’d gone too far. She shoved her way past him. He wanted to take it all back. To pull her into his arms and apologize, but he couldn’t. He knew he should, but he wasn’t built that way. And the farther out of his grasp she moved, the meaner his thoughts became.

      “Don’t walk away like that,” he said.

      She shook her head, and he saw the sheen of tears in her big brown eyes...but she didn’t let them fall. “At least I have something that makes me special and I’m not afraid to admit it.”

      What the hell did she mean by that? “I’m not hiding.”

      “Yes, you are hiding. Everything you do is another barrier to keep everyone from seeing the real man. The boy I met at seventeen already had those barriers in place, so I wonder if you even know who you really are anymore.”

      She’d cut a little too close to the bone with that observation, and later on he’d feel the bruising, not just to his ego but also to his soul. But right now he was too busy trying to even the score and make sure she walked away as deeply hurt as he was.

      “You’re not seventeen anymore, either, and maybe hiding away in Park City isn’t the solution for you,” he said harshly. “You fell. So what? A lot of skiers fall. You were injured and now you’re better. It’s time you stopped hiding.”

      He’d gone too far again, and this time she didn’t look as if she was going to cry. Instead it seemed she might actually hit him. “Congratulations, Carter, you’ve ceased being a distraction and become an irritant. And one I’m happy that I am able to walk away from.”

      “Just like you walk away from everything else in life whenever it doesn’t come easily to you,” he said. “At some point, gorgeous, you’re going to have to stop running scared.”

      “Screw you, Carter.”

      * * *

      LINDSEY WAS HUMILIATED, angry and hurt. She strode out of the restaurant and away from Carter and all the people who’d witnessed their argument. God knew no one was going to refer to her as the Ice Queen after that outburst.

      She was shaking and felt as though she might be sick, so she sat on one of the chairs dotted along the hallway. She put her head in her hands and felt as if she wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come.

      There were a lot of times when she had cried. The day they’d told her she’d need surgery. The day she’d gone back and found out she’d need a second surgery and a long recovery period. But this was the first time a man had made her feel this way. She wondered if she’d started the fight and pushed him away because it was easier to be alone than to figure out how to be with him.

      In one preemptive strike she’d made sure she didn’t have to worry about him or who he was with when he was away from her. She’d pretty much made sure she’d never have to see him or talk to him again.

      It was difficult for her to clear away the anger. But once she did, she knew that if she hadn’t been trying to save face with Elizabeth and called him a distraction, none of this would have happened.

      She also knew that it had needed to happen. There wasn’t any path for the two of them. She knew that now.

      She was flawed...but that wasn’t why she’d started the fight with him. She should have just been comfortable enough to tell him how she felt. That she was riddled with uncertainty, but admitting that she didn’t know what she was doing still wasn’t easy for her.

      Especially with Carter.

      She heard footsteps, and looked up to see one of the families from her ski lessons.

      “Morning, Miss Lindsey,” Jeremy said.

      Oh, crapola. Had they witnessed her fight with Carter? She forced a smile, grateful to have an excuse to slip behind her iron wall once again. “Morning, Jeremy. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. How are you today? Looking forward to our lesson?”

      “I’m good. We are going for a toboggan ride this morning,” the boy said.

      “Jeremy loves your lessons,” Mrs. Smith said. “I know you probably get asked this all the time, but can he take a picture with you?”

      “Sure,” Lindsey said.

      Jeremy came over to her, and she wrapped her arm around his little shoulders and leaned in and smiled. The same fake smile she’d used for years after defeats at world-champion events. And it seemed to fool them as they smiled and waved goodbye.

      She sat back in the chair and realized that if she could find away to slip back into that persona as her normal, everyday self, she’d be fine.

      Yeah, right.

      “So, um, maybe you were right about not talking in the restaurant,” Carter said from where he stood across the hallway.

      She’d been too caught up in Jeremy and his family to notice that he’d arrived. She hated that she’d said those mean things, but she knew under her anger there was a kernel of truth. For him as well, she thought.

      “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

      “I’m not,” he retorted, flashing that familiar smirk. “I put ‘big embarrassing fight with Lindsey’ on my resolutions list.”

      She shook her head. “Glad I could help. I’m good at that.”

      “Just like I like being a distraction,” he said, coming over to sit next to her. “That hurt.”

      “I know. I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s not something I would have said to you.”

      He lifted a dark brow. “Then why did you say it to Elizabeth? She’s my friend, too.”

      She knew that. She’d said