Page 25 of I Still Do

“Okay, time out. Zac? You hear me, buddy? Time out. I have an idea.”

He peeked cautiously around the tree, half expecting one of the kids to nail him with yet another snowball. It was a relief to see they’d come out, their faces full of curiosity. Cora and Dare came out into the open as well.

Mom was watching through the glass door on the porch. She’d come out earlier and taken several pictures and some video before retreating inside again where it was warm.

“What’s your idea, Uncle Grey?” Zac fidgeted in the snow, barely containing his energy.

Grey paused for dramatic effect. “I think you and I should team up against Cora and Uncle Dare. We have ten minutes to make as many snowballs as we can and then have a huge finale of a snowball fight. What do you say?”

“Yeah!” Zac pumped his fist as a giant grin brightened his face. “We’re gonna get you, Uncle Dare!”

Grey laughed hard at the boy’s enthusiasm.

“We’re in,” Cora announced with Dare’s nod of approval.

That daring look on her face had Grey wondering what she had up her sleeve. He noticed Zac, shivering a little, even if he didn’t pay any attention himself. They wouldn’t be able to stay out too much longer. “All right, then.” He knuckle-bumped with Zac. “Let’s do this.”

Dare and Cora took off down the driveway and disappeared behind the snow-covered minivan that Flynn’s family must have driven in.

“Come on, Zac.” He waved his nephew around the side of the cabin. There, they spent ten minutes making as many snowballs as they could. Once time was up, they both armed themselves with as many as they could carry and then waited.

The sound of hesitant footsteps in the snow drew closer. Grey grasped a snowball in one hand, leaned around the corner, and let it fly. It landed right in the middle of Cora’s stomach with a satisfying thud. Her mouth formed an “O” before she threw one in his direction. He ducked out of the way.

“Incoming!”

For the next fifteen minutes, the teams threw snowball after snowball until all four of them were covered with the evidence of their battle. Dare picked up Zac and held him above his head. Grey had one more snowball left and launched it at Cora. She dodged it and, with one sweeping motion, knocked his hat right off his head.

She took off running and ducked around the side of the minivan away from the cabin. Grey followed her at a full run. When he found her on the other side, she screamed and threw his hat at him to distract him and tried to get away.

He ignored the hat completely.

Instead, he dove for her, catching her around the waist and causing them both to land hard side by side in the snow.

Cora laughed, her breath mixing with the cold air to create little white clouds.

“Did you really think you’d get away with stealing my hat?” He lifted himself up on one elbow so he could look into her face.

“If it helps, it wasn’t pre-meditated.”

“Uh-huh.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You just had no choice but to grab it and run?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it again and shrugged, her cheeks turning even redder then they already were from the cold.

In all the excitement of the snowball fight, most of the hair she’d carefully tucked under her winter hat had escaped. Strands of it framed her face, and there was no way he could stop himself from removing his glove and brushing the hair aside.

They both stilled the moment his hand touched her cheek. Her breath caught as he leaned in closer, drawn to her in a way he could no more control than the blizzard that had trapped them there in the first place. Her eyelashes fluttered twice before drifting closed.

His lips barely brushed against hers when the sound of Zac laughing had her pushing against his chest at the same time he was jumping away from her. He tried to cover his warring emotions over their near kiss by grabbing his hat and pulling it over his head, even though it was half-full of snow.

Dare and Zac rounded the corner. The little boy cheered. “Yeah! You got your hat back!” He ran forward and gave Grey a high five. “We won!” He proceeded to do a dance that had all three adults laughing.

“All right, little man, we need to get you inside before you turn into a Zac snowman,” Dare told him. He shot Grey a look that insinuated he knew exactly what had been happening when they came around the van.

Cora dusted her jacked off. “You know what? I think we all deserve some hot chocolate. I’m pretty sure Grandma said there’d be some waiting for us when we went inside. What do you say?”

That was all Zac needed. He took off running and Dare raced him to the door leaving Grey and Cora to walk back together.

“There should seriously be a cap on that boy’s energy,” Cora said with a chuckle. “I’m so tired.”

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