Free Pride by Robin Wasserman Page B

dark, like the ruins, with a quiet dignity.
    She was about to take his hand when she felt the first spatter of rain.
    Rain? In the desert?
    Before she had time to be confused, the skies opened up. It was as if bucket after bucket of icy water were being dumped from above—the rain fell fast and hard, pelting their skin, turning the desert dirt around them into rivers of mud.
    “What the hell is this?” Kaia complained as they both scrambled back into the truck. “It s not supposed to rain in the desert!”
    “Sometimes it does,” he said simply, hoisting her into the passenger seat, then rushing around to the driver’s side, finally throwing himself in and slamming the door.
    They looked at each other—both sopping wet, their hair and clothes plastered to their bodies—and burst into laughter.
    “This is, by far, the weirdest date I’ve ever had,” Kaia said, wringing out the edge of her shirt as best she could.
    “Who says it’s a date?” he retorted, but with a smile.
    “We should probably wait for it to let up before we drive home,” Kaia said, gesturing toward the opaque sheet of water flooding down the windshield.
    “I guess we should,” he agreed. “Cold?”
    “What?”
    “You re shivering.”
    She was cold, she realized. She hadn’t noticed. She nodded and, hesitantly, he put an arm around her. She inched to the left, resting herself against him. It wasn’t much warmer—but she stayed.
    She leaned her head against his shoulder and they listened to the rain pelting the truck, spattering against the soft ground. She shivered again, and he held her tighter. His wet hair was still dripping, and she watched the drops of water trace their way down his face. They looked like tears.
    They sat there together, motionless, for a long time.
    And then the rain stopped. And they drove away.

chapter

5
     

    “Beth, did you really think I’d be coming to ski school with you?” Kane asked, laughing.
    She blushed and shook her head. “That was silly. I guess I thought maybe you’d teach me—”
    He snapped her ski boot shut and helped her latch it to the ski, then grabbed his board and began guiding her toward the bunny slope.
    Kane laughed again. “Me? Only if you want to land in the hospital. Trust me, you don’t want to pick up any of my bad habits.”
    The hospital?
    Beth’s heart plummeted as she pictured herself in a broken heap at the bottom of a snow-covered cliff.
    “It’s going to be fine,” Kane assured her, catching her look of terror. “I just want you to learn from the best. This way, I can get some good boarding in—and then we’ll have all afternoon to spend together.”
    “Okay,” she agreed. She leaned over to try to give him a quick kiss through his ski mask, and practically toppled over into the snow. “And Kane?” she asked as he steadied her. “I’m sorry again about last night.”
    “No apology necessary. And I’m glad I got the chance to go to bed early, for once. You were right—we have a big day ahead of us!” he said heartily, and with that, he grinned and glided away, waving in farewell as he careened down the slope.
    Beth took a deep breath and inched her way toward the sign marked WHITE STONE SKI SCHOOL: BUNNY BEGINNERS . If she was having this much trouble on flat land, she wasn’t too eager to find out how she would fare on the slopes. But she supposed she didn’t really have another option.
    Beth took a place next to Miranda, the only person in the lesson she recognized. They exchanged a quick glance—the disappointed Oh, it’s you vibe was palpable.
    But there was little time for disappointment or hostility, not when the instructor, a chipper young woman in a fluorescent orange ski suit and matching skis, had already started rattling off instructions at lightning speed.
    Knees locked, knees bent. Shift your weight. But not too much. Hold your balance. Ski poles down. Arms out—
    It was far more than Beth could take in, and by the time the