Page 21 of Christmas at the Ranch
“It’s perfectly safe. You can sit in the front,” Drew encouraged her. “It feels like riding a bumper car at the fair but without the tracks.”
Samantha fingered the arrowhead necklace. Marigold said it protected the wearer from danger, and it had stopped the icicle from falling on her.
She didn’t really have a choice.
“All right,” she agreed with more confidence than she felt. She gulped her coffee. “You have to steer, in case I need to close my eyes.”
The snowmobiles picked the guests up at the ranch. Samantha was afraid she’d be cold, but the guide outfitted everyone with thick parkas and gloves. The guide’s name was Buck and he was the opposite of the brash tour guide at the Elk Refuge. Buck went over the safety instructions with the precision of an airline pilot before a flight. By the time everyone climbed aboard the sleek snowmobiles with their soft leather seats and duck-like feet, Samantha felt confident and secure.
Not even Buck’s descriptions of what they were going to see prepared her for the breathtaking scenery. The snow had stopped falling and the air was crisp and bright. The sky was bluer than anything she had known in New York, and the snow was a blinding white.
First, they crossed miles of snow-blanketed fields. The Teton Valley fell beneath them and in the distance, Samantha could see the ski tram and skiers making wide circles in the snow.
Drew placed his hands lightly around her waist and something inside Samantha shifted. She had that feeling of not wanting the moment to end.
Then the fields stopped and they entered the forest. Icicles glittered in the trees and squirrels darted in front of them. Samantha noticed all kinds of animal footprints, and Buck allowed the group to stop and take photos of a family of deer. Samantha texted Charlie and Emily a picture of the deer and captioned it, “Santa’s reindeers taking a break on Christmas day,” and sent it with a meme of Santa Claus asleep in his sleigh.
There was one frightening moment when they reached the top of Togwotee Pass and a snowmobile skidded into a snowbank. Samantha waited, the mountains fierce and forbidding above them, and wondered whether they should turn back. What if there was an avalanche and they were all buried in snow?
But Buck calmly helped the snowmobile get back on the trail. He handed around flasks of hot coffee and chocolate bars he kept for such occasions. By the time they all started their engines, Samantha’s fears had subsided.
On the way back, she let Drew drive the snowmobile. Her body curved into the familiar rhythm, and she couldn’t remember having so much fun. When they left the snowmobiles at the entrance of Teton Village, she wanted to do it all again.
“That was wonderful,” Samantha said, beaming.
The guests had dispersed to have a late lunch and buy souvenirs. Samantha and Drew sat at the coffee bar in the General Store. The store was like something out of the 1950s. It sold everything from vacuum cleaner bags to motor oil to Christmas cookies in heart-shaped tins. There was a section of packaged foods, and another of cowboy hats and leather boots.
“I knew you’d enjoy it,” Drew replied. He had ordered hot chocolate with whipped cream for both of them. “It’s even better than skiing. There’s that feeling of just you and the mountains.”
“Jackson Hole is like a scene in a midcentury sitcom.” Samantha waved outside the window.
A red sleigh was parked in the square, and the Christmas tree was decorated with miniature skis and ski poles. A group of children was having a snowball fight, and adults warmed their hands in front of an outdoor fireplace.
“You know the TV shows I mean,” Samantha continued. “Every family had two freckle-faced children and their biggest problem was when they mixed up the Christmas presents for their favorite teachers.”
“Life doesn’t always have to have problems,” Drew said and sipped his hot chocolate thoughtfully. “Sometimes, you can stop and enjoy yourself.”
Drew seemed more relaxed than he had been at the ranch. The circles under his eyes had disappeared and his cheeks were tan from the afternoon sun.
“It’s hard to stop when my next book might not be signed up because of poor sales,” Samantha sighed, poking her whipped cream with the straw. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t write Sloane Parker books. It’s what I look forward to when I get up in the morning.”
Drew studied her curiously.
“You really love writing, don’t you?”
“More than anything,” Samantha acknowledged. “Even as a little girl, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I filled so many notebooks with stories, my mother had to buy them in bulk from Costco. After college, I got a job at a PR company but I never thought I could write books as a career. Then I got laid off and at all my interviews, the human resources personnel only wanted to know if I was experienced at Snapchat and Instagram. WhenCharlie read a few chapters of my first Sloane Parker book and said I might actually earn a living at it, I thought I’d won the New York lottery.”
“You went snowmobiling today over some of the most challenging terrain in the west,” Drew reminded her. “Maybe you could do some of the things you pretend to do on Instagram.”
Samantha touched the arrowhead pendant. She hadn’t mentioned it to Drew. She wasn’t sure if he would think it was silly.
“Today was different,” Samantha answered slowly. “Our guide told us exactly what to do. I couldn’t get on a plane by myself and go somewhere new. What if I lose my passport and get stranded in a foreign country? Or my credit cards get stolen and I have no way to get home? That happened to Sloane when she was trailing an art thief through the Swiss Alps. He stole her credit cards and her phone, so there was no way for her to contact British Intelligence. Sloane had to work for a month at the local cheese shop to afford a new airplane ticket.” Samantha smiled at the memory of the plot. “It was one of my favorite books to write. I bought a whole selection of cheeses to get the details right. My favorite was Edam cheese. Even Socks liked it, and he’s not a big fan of dairy.”
“You’re afraid of being afraid,” Drew said. He gazed at Samantha and there was something new in his eyes. “You’re braver than you think.”
“How do you know I’m brave?” she countered.
He placed his mug on the counter.
