Page 28 of Catch Yourself a Snowmance
“Wake up, Carson.”
“Yeah. Yeah. I am.”
This time, he pushes up with both arms and sits up. I move up to the couch too.
“Wow.” He stretches his arms overhead and then he grabs for his T-shirt and pulls it over his head. “That was great. Is that what you do for a living?”
“No. Just for fun.”
He studies me. “Thank you. That’s just what the doctor ordered.”
“You’re welcome. I … um …”
“Are you sleepy?”
I’m exhausted. Between the day on the slopes, the heavy food we ate for dinner, and the way massaging him relaxed me, I could fall asleep like abear for winter.
“I’m not too sleepy,” I lie.
“Me neither.” He yawns.
We both laugh.
“I don’t know why, I just feel like savoring this for a little while longer.” I look around the cabin so he doesn’t think I’m talking about the connection I’m feeling with him.
“Yeah. I could stay up for a little while longer,” he says.
I shiver just the slightest. Without a word, Carson stands, walks over to the stack of blankets by the fire and grabs one for me. He drapes it over my lap and takes his seat on the couch again.
“That was sweet.”
“No trouble. You looked cold.”
“So, four sisters?” I ask, not only to shift the conversation, but because I want to get to know him better.
“Yeah.” He smiles over at me. “I was the annoying baby brother for a long while.”
“Annoying?”
“Oh yeah. I really was.” Carson shakes his head and chuckles. “Until my next youngest sister, Hannah, came along. Then, according to our mom, I went from little shadow to my oldest two sisters to miniature bodyguard over Hannah. That instinct only doubled when Rosie came along.”
Carson launches into a few amusing stories about ways he bugged his older sisters. I watch him, unable to tear myself away. I yawn into the back of my hand a few times, but I try to hide it. I don’t want this night to end. As soon as we go to bed, we’ll wake with our group of friends. Who knows when we’ll get time alone again after this. The snow isn’t falling. We’ll probably go out again tomorrow.
“So, what about you?” Carson asks.
“Me?”
“Yeah. Brothers? Sisters? Cousins? Are you close with your family?”
“I have an older brother. We get along pretty well. He doesn’t live near here. He’s in North Carolina. We basically see one another on holidays and special visits nowadays.” I look over at Carson. “You’d like him. He loves watching football on the weekends.”
“The bigger question is whether he’d like me.”
I smile at the idea that Carson would even care what Brock thought of him.
“I think he would. As far as my family, I’m closest with my grandma. She’s a lot of fun, but also very easy to talk to. She was a model when she was younger. And a stewardess. Then she met my grandpa and they got married. She traded all that in for motherhood and family life. She always says, ‘No regrets. We all choose our paths, and we can’t choose them all. So embrace the ones you choose and make them ones you’ll never regret because you made the most of them.’”
“Is she the one you baked with?”
