Free Silver Heart by Victoria Green Page A

Christmas this year. He pulls me up in one smooth move. My board begins to slide, so he puts out his foot to stop it. He then spins me around so that I’m parallel with the bottom of the hill.
    “Put your weight on your heels. I’ve got you.” He keeps his grip on my left hand, but slides his right one to my hip. The power of his touch shocks me.
    “Okay. Now, slowly…I’m going to guide you down. At ninety degrees I want you to switch the weight to your toes and move your hips up.”
    I’m trying to obey his instructions, but even through all the layers of fabric, I feel a slight tingle on my skin from his touch.
    “Good, Silver…Now toes!”
    I complete the turn! I actually do it!
    “Awesome job!” he says and laughs. “Are you ready to turn the other way?”
    “Only if you keep holding on to me,” I whisper, then immediately want to kick my brain’s butt. Hopefully Sawyer hadn’t noticed the double innuendo in my words. I can be brave and honest about most things, but there is no way that he can know about my feelings for him. I can’t risk our friendship for something as silly as a crush. A strong, inexplicable crush on a hot, sweet, kind, amazing friend.
    “Are you ready?” he asks, snapping me back to reality.
    I take a deep breath and nod.
    “We’re going to do the same thing we did before, just opposite sides this time. Start on your toes and then shift your weight to your heels. Ready?”
    I take a deep breath. “Ready.” I trust him. I trust him with my whole heart. And with my body.
    Within minutes, I’m turning from side to side. What’s even better is that Sawyer never lets go of me for a second. I’m slowly gaining confidence and feeling that slight sense of freedom he always boasts about.
    Then it all comes crashing down as I hit an icy patch and plummet, bringing Sawyer down with me. We collapse in a laughing fit, me on my back with my legs bound, him directly on top of me.
    “This is why I insist that you wear a helmet,” he says, tapping the hard gear on my head.
    He never wears any kind of protection. Right now, he’s just sporting his usual gray hoodie, gloves, and a black hat. Even in the dimness of the night I can see that his cheeks are flushed from the frosty wind.
    “At least I didn’t hurt you this time,” I say. Last winter—the last time Sawyer had attempted to teach me to snowboard—I plowed into him so hard that I split his lip open.
    “You’re the only girl whose touch will be permanently tattooed on my mouth,” he points to the scar in the center of his bottom lip. Suddenly I’m melting. The snow below me is freezing cold, but my body temperature is soaring, threatening to set me on fire from the inside.
    I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and hold my breath as he shifts his weight off me.
    He rolls over, placing the left side of his body flush against my right. “Adam told me I’m not allowed to come out here with you ever again,” he says. “He’s threatening to tell your parents that we’re hanging out.”
    I shrug. “Yeah, well…”
    “You know that they’ll murder me if anything bad happens to you, right?”
    “Trust me, they’ll also murder me if anything bad happens to me,” I tell him.
    He laughs again and props himself up on his elbow to face me. Wisps of dark hair that were previously covering the side of his face shift, revealing a deep cut running from the side of his temple all the way into the area covered by his hat.
    I immediately shoot up into a sitting position. “Sawyer!” Before he can stop me, I’m taking off his hat. “What’s this?”
    He jerks his head back and pulls down the hat.
    “What happened?”
    His jaw clenches. “Do you even have to ask?”
    “I thought you said that you were done fighting with him.”
    “Asshole slapped Lyla,” he said, avoiding my gaze. “So I broke his jaw. That pissed him off. I guess he wasn’t counting on the fact that his son was going to grow up one day.”
    “Is this