Page 33 of Catch Yourself a Snowmance
“I’m cold. Will you snuggle me?”
“Get a sweater,” I tell him, turning to grab a mug from the cabinets.
Our friends laugh at Mitch’s antics, but then everyoneseems to drop the issue by the time I’m serving muffins and scrambled eggs. And, yes. I volunteered to cook. No one wants to tease the chef.
The snow keeps falling all through our meal.
Liam pulls up his weather app. “Looks like another big snow day. We can still get out, but there’s no telling if we’d get back in. I think it would be wise to cancel hitting the slopes.”
“No snowboarding?” Gage looks over at me from across the table. “And just when Carson was getting the hang of it.”
I glance at Alyssa. She’s at the foot of the table and I’m around the corner, right next to her. She smiles a soft smile at me.
“I hung up my snowboard. I was going to ski today, if we went.”
“I’ve got something we can do,” Noelle offers in her cheery teacher voice.
“Tell me it doesn’t involve glue and construction paper,” Mitch says.
Liam shoots Mitch a look like the one my dad would shoot me when I was bugging my sisters.
“It does not,” Noelle answers sweetly. “But I do have some craft supplies if anyone is so inclined. I thought we’d maybe bake cookies later. But in the meantime, I have a …” She looks around at each one of us, her face expectant and alight with the anticipation of whatever she’s about to say. “... a karaoke machine!”
“Nooooo …” Jennifer says. “Not Karaoke!”
“It will be fun!” Noelle says, and I almost believe her.
I can’t sing. Not a bit.
“What about those of us who can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” Alyssa asks. “We are cooped up here for the rest of the day. Maybe we don’t force everyone to endure bad singing.”
Noelle deflates just the slightest, but then she perks up almost as quickly.
“I know!” she exclaims. “A talent show! Those who want to sing can. Those who don’t want to sing can do something else.”
“What about just reading our books and napping?” Jennifer asks Noelle.
“We’ll have time for that and a talent show.”
Jennifer shrugs.
Alyssa leans over toward me, so I lean to meet her halfway. She places her mouth right near my ear. “What’s your talent.”
So many answers rush to my mind. Not that I’ve got thousands of talents to choose from. The answers are flirty and cross lines we haven’t officially decided to cross.
“Cuddling,” Mitch whispers from the other side of the table.
“You’re on Santa’s naughty list,” I whisper back to Mitch.
“What, because I have 20/20 hearing?” He answers me at full volume.
“That’s not a thing,” I correct him.
“How else did I hear you if I don’t have 20/20?”
Noelle smiles and turns to Mitch with the sweetest expression. “I think it’s mainly for vision—that system of stating perfect eyesight. When a person hears without any sign of loss, we just say,normal hearing.” She raises her eyebrows and tilts her head. “I only know because of teaching. I’m sure lots of people would be unsure of the exact terms.”
“Normal hearingdoesn’t sound impressive.” Mitch nearly pouts.
