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slick fabric that might be a bone. Cassie swallowed the urge to vomit. Despite her silliness, Karen had always been the reliable one in an emergency. And it wasn’t just Karen’s years of nursing; her joking manner hid a cool head and a near-obsessive desire to turn chaos into order. When Sam had broken her arm ten years ago, Karen had been the first person Cassie had called as they left for the hospital. Tom had been the second.
    Cassie turned back to her friend, whose face was as pale as the snow she was lying on. “I looked and didn’t ralph. That’s how you know you’re going to be fine.”
    Karen’s answering laugh was weak. “All that tells me is that there’s no visible blood. We’ve been friends long enough for me to know you only vomit at blood.”
    “There’s no blood,” Doug said, his attention no longer at the walkie-talkie at his chest. “The sun’s out. Lots of things to be grateful for right now.” He was kneeling on the other side of Karen, and he put his hand on her shoulder. “Though I’m sure it hurts.”
    “See,” Karen said, turning her head from Doug to Cassie and back to Doug, her voice laced with pain and her lips stretched into a tight smile. “I told you Cassie and I needed a big strong man in our lives right now.”
    “Well, there’ll be more men in your life soon. Ski patrol will be taking you down in a sled.” He patted Karen’s shoulder before he looked up and Cassie caught his gaze. “Keep hold of her hand. I’m going to get her out of her skis and the movement will probably hurt.”
    Karen’s face screwed up in pain as Doug unlatched her skis. She tightened her grip on Cassie’s hand, crushing Cassie’s fingers until her joints pressed in together and she had to bite her lip not to cry out, but Karen didn’t scream again.
    “Don’t want to be known as a screamer.” The joke slid out of Karen’s mouth like a ghost hidden in the whisper.
    Cassie laughed and gave her friend’s hand a return squeeze. “I don’t think that matters right now.” She ached to know what had gone wrong, but she kept her questions to herself. There would be plenty of time for that later, in their condo, because whatever Karen had done to her leg, a hot tub wasn’t in her future. When Cassie squeezed Karen’s hand a second time, she didn’t know which one of them she was reassuring.
    Three ski patrolmen in bright-red coats arrived quickly, the emergency sled gliding along behind them, and the young boy Karen had shared the lift with was walking alongside a woman in a blue coat like Doug’s, his head hanging down and his shoulders slumped. As soon as Karen was zipped in, the boy walked up to her and, at an encouraging nod from his ski instructor, knelt down in the snow. “I’m sorry,” the boy said, his voice full of guilt, sadness, and fear.
    “It’s okay, Nicky.” Karen hadn’t been crying when the ski patrolmen loaded her into the sled, but as she talked to the boy, Cassie was pretty sure there were tears welling up in her goggles. “It wasn’t your fault.”
    The boy looked like he wanted to say something else, but his ski instructor called him back and he hopped up and ran off, his relief evident in his now-straightened shoulders. One of the patrolmen got between the two handles at the front of the sled and the other man and the one woman each grabbed a rope by Karen’s head. They traversed to the edge of the cat track, and before they took off down the mountain, one of them called out to Doug. “Didn’t even make it down one run this time.” And then they disappeared over the lip and down the slope.
    At some point, Doug had removed his goggles, and his eyes were scrunched closed when Cassie turned her attention away from her friend. Wrinkles bunched between his eyebrows and at the corners of his eyes, and his previously cheerful lips were turned down in a frown.
    “What did they mean by that?” Cassie asked.
    He lifted his head to the sky and sighed. Then he