Page 51 of Hiding for the Holidays
“Clara? Leo?” I hear Grant calling out names, and Leo pulls back with an audible sigh.
He stares down at me with a pleased grin on his face as he slowly licks his lower lip, my eyes trailing the movement. He doesn’t say anything, just grabs my hand and leads me out of the tiny ice hut.
“There you are; we thought you’d run off on us,” Grant says, looking between us. His eyes drop to my lips, and I instinctively wipe my glove across them, afraid there is some sort of visual clue that we’ve just kissed.
“I think there’s a snowman-building contest starting soon; do you guys want to join it?” Leo asks, tugging me along as we exit the ice sculpture area.
I decide that’s just what I need to cool myself down, so Iagree, along with the other two as we make our way to the field where the contest is being held. Most of the other groups are families, but there are a few couples in their twenties participating, too.
We decide to do something family-friendly, since there are kids around, and make a snowman couple with a dog. The problem is, none of us are actually very good at building snowmen, and the snow is too fluffy; it’s not packing snow. When my third attempt at the base snowball for the snow-woman collapses again I drop to my knees and groan in frustration.
A soft ball of snow hits me on my shoulder, and I look up in surprise. Leo is grinning at me from ten feet away. “What’s the matter?” He asks in a teasing tone. “A little snowball got you down?”
I narrow my eyes at him as I gather a handful of snow. When I launch it at him, it’s almost completely fallen apart by the time it’s reached him, since it’s not packing snow, and I growl in annoyance.
“Is that the best you got?” he asks as he bends to scoop some more snow. I quickly bend to gather my own snow, and when I glance up at him, I see Asher rush past him, dropping a large handful of snow on his head as he passes, before running over to my side as he laughs in victory. “Ash! You traitor!”
“I can’t be a traitor if I was never on your side,” he replies. He quickly looks at me and winks before gathering more snow. We both launch our sad attempts at snowballs at Leo as he runs to hide behind Grant.
“Hey! I’m not your shield!” Grant groans half-heartedly as he eyes the three of us.
“They’re ganging up on me! Come on, help a brother out and at least make it two on two!”
“I think since you started this, you deserve to face us three-on-one,” I tell him factually.
He peeks out from behind Grant and narrows his eyes at me. “That’s how it is, huh, shortcake?”
I launch my snowball at his head, but it misses him completely and hits Grant in the chest.
“Whoops! Sorry…” I bite my lips, trying to hold in my amusement at the look of exasperation on Grant’s face as he looks down at the snow on his jacket.
His head tilts up towards me slowly, his eyes connecting with mine. I feel something spark between us, and before I can name it, he suddenly lunges, running straight for me.
I let out a shriek as I try to turn and run, but the snow and my boots slows me down and before I know what’s happening I’m flying through the air as Grant tackles me. He manages to twist us in the air so he takes the brunt of the fall, although the snow softens it a lot, anyway.
Before I can even react, he’s pushing to his knees, hovering over me with two handfuls of snow and a huge grin on his face.
“I didn’t mean to!” I plead, raising my hands in defense as I eye both hands nervously.
His eyes narrow right before a snowball hits him in the back of the head.
He whips his head around, looking over his shoulder to see who threw it. I take the distraction and grab his wrists, shoving his hands towards his own face.
He tries to fight back at the last second, but he still ends up with a face full of snow. I giggle at the look of shock on his face as I try to climb to my feet, but he quickly pulls me back down and lays over me, his face inches from mine, the cold snow dripping from his face onto mine.
“Eee!” I shriek as the cold drops touch my skin. He shakes his head quickly, raining down more snow as I wiggle underneath him, trying to get away.
“Can’t take what you dish out?” he says, a huge smile covering his face.
“You’re supposed to be on my side!” I complain with a small pout.
He chuckles and leans down further, whispering in my ear, “I am.”
Then he jumps up and runs towards Leo, who’s so taken off guard he trips over his own feet, landing on his ass as Grant lifts up armfuls of snow and drops it on his head.
I laugh so hard at the two of them that my side hurts. A hand appears in front of me, and I take Asher’s offered help to pull me to my feet.
“As fun as this is, what do you say we go get some lunch and warm up?” I nod, and he slings his arm over my shoulder and starts to lead us out of the field.
