Page 71 of Under the Mistletoe
He scooped up some snow and added it to the growing mass. “Me too. See, this isn’t so difficult after all.”
Twenty minutes later, they had talked through a lot of basic life questions and had a five-and-a-half-foot snowman. Well, at least the three round pieces were in place.
Logan hurried over to the truck and returned with a bucket. He pulled out a handful of rocks and held them out. “Want to do the honors?”
Devin picked up a rock and pressed it into the middle section of the snowman. “I thought you were supposed to use buttons and coal.”
“Well, since I didn’t want to rip apart my mom’s jacket, I decided these would work. Besides, this way, we aren’t leaving trash behind.” He grabbed one of the rocks and pushed it into the snow a few inches above hers.
“I can’t believe we built a snowman!” Devin added the last of the three rocks for the buttons and moved on to the mouth. “Now I wish I’d added that snowman-building contest to the events.”
“You could still do it.”
“I don’t have enough time. I’m not even sure people would show up.”
“Have you learned nothing?” Logan pulled out his phone and shot off a text message to his sister-in-law.
Logan
What do you think about helping Devin and me plan a last-minute snowman contest for Monday when school gets out?
The reply was almost instant.
Hannah
We’re in. Boys would love it. I’m texting Janie, Olivia, and Leah now.
He pointed the phone toward Devin. “See?”
She just smiled and buried her head into his chest as he wrapped her in a bear hug. Maybe not the fanciest first date, but it had been memorable. “Will you go to the Adam dance with me?”
She offered an impish smile. “Are you going to wear a suit?”
“How about a really nice pair of jeans?”
“You at least have to wear a tie.”
“Fine, as long as you’re my date.” He dropped a kiss on her nose.
Then he stepped back and pulled two sticks from the bucket. He held one out to her. “Are you ready?”
She took one and on three, they both stabbed an arm into the snowman.
Then Logan grabbed the carrot he’d taken from his mom’s fridge and held it out to her. “Do the honors?”
She giggled as she jabbed the carrot into the snowman’s face. “Thank you. No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
The words scraped against him. She had no idea how amazing she was or how easy it’d be to do things like this for her the rest of his life. Right now, she wasn’t ready to hear all that. But he would prove to her that she was worth showing up for every time.
twelve
Showing up for Devin had sounded easier when he wasn’t staring at a blank page with a chapter due. He needed to leave within the hour to get to the snowman-building contest, but he couldn’t very well leave before sending this off to Christina. He couldn’t even turn in the chapter late because Christina had plans. She was waiting for it this minute. He had about ten texts that said so.
Logan drummed his finger across the keys as gibberish filled the screen. That wasn’t helping. He highlighted it and pressed delete.
He had five chapters to wrap this story up and convince his team that he could handle book four. Not that book four was going anywhere. He’d roughed out three different plots for the synopsis and still hadn’t had anything really stick. Now he only had two days to get it to them.
The first three books had just come to him. Like he wasn’t writing the books but rather was recording what the characters were doing in his head. But what was he supposed to do when the characters stopped talking? When the world in his head had gone still. The once colorful realm had become a black void.
