Page 30 of Say It Isn't Snow
She slumps against me, sighing nostalgically at the idea of playing in the snow. “God, I haven’t been sledding in years. I was going to start making ideas for the cookie orders waiting in my inbox, though.”
The strong desire to wrap her in my arms and hold her slams into me. If I do, I might never stop hugging her.
“It’s your vacation. You can’t work the whole way through, or it defeats the purpose.” I bring my lips to her ear and murmur encouragingly. “It’s okay to take a break, sugar. Come outside in the snow with me.”
Her breath hitches and she shivers. Peeking over her shoulder through her lashes, she smiles.
“Okay. But I’m totally beating you.”
Warm laughter rolls out of me. “We’ll see about that. Go check the closet upstairs for Layla’s spare snow clothes. I’ll get the sleds ready.”
CHAPTER 11
HOLLY
An exhilarated screambursts from me as my sled careens down the slope behind the cabin. It echoes off the treetops. I feel so free. More than I have in forever.
Caleb’s sled isn’t far behind me. He yelps with a curse as we reach the bottom, crashing out while I slide to victory over the finish line we marked with two sticks for our sled racing.
Laughter bubbles out of me as I coast to a stop in a thick snowdrift near the frozen pond at the bottom of the hill. I tumble off the sled and pump my arms and legs in the air.
“I win again!”
Caleb drags his sled to my side and leans over me. “Rematch.”
“We can go again and again, I’ll still win,” I taunt while making a snow angel. “Face it, you don’t have what it takes, big guy. All that muscle slows you down. I’m the reigning champion of this hill.”
He tongues his cheek and nods wryly. “It’s sledding. There’s not much to it.”
“Says the sore loser who choked at the end of the race,” I goad with a snicker.
“You and that competitive streak,” he says affectionately.
I take the hand he gives me to stand up, holding on to my hat. He adjusts it for me so it covers my ears again, then dusts the snow off my coat.
“Having a good time?”
“Surprisingly, yes. I forgot how much fun this is.”
“Are you warm enough?”
His hands rest on my upper arms and he caresses them absently with his thumbs. I catch myself enjoying his attentive concern for me.
“Yeah. The coat you gave me is toasty.”
My bust size and curvier hips are more generous than Layla’s old ski clothes from high school. Since I couldn’t fit into them anymore, I’m bundled in his instead.
“Good.” He scoops up some snow and forms it into a ball in his gloved hands. “Because now it’s payback time for kicking my ass, you little speed queen.”
“Wait—wait!” Shrieking with another bout of laughter, I jump out of the way of the snowball he throws. “Oh, it’s on!”
I hastily retaliate, ducking from his onslaught. My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. He chases me all over the clearing surrounding the pond, both of us cracking up.
Running through the deep snow is hard, but I dive behind a tree before he fires off the next one. Making as many snowballs as I can, I start flinging them at him. Two hit him in succession, one in the chest and one in the knee.
“Yes!”
I have just enough time for a victory dance before he rushes me. He captures me in his strong embrace.
