It only took two runs for the hill to look insurmountable. Cassie sat on her sled at the bottom for a while, throwing snowballs at the others whenever they were within range. Madison retaliated after she pelted them in the side of the head, and Cassie took a snowball to the chest.
“Wanna stop being a dick and help me build a jump?” Madison asked.
They both climbed halfway up the hill then used their sleds as shovels in the snow. The jump ended up way too high to be safe, but that stopped exactly no one.
Everyone did a drumroll on their sleds before Cassie took the first run. She sped toward the jump and then—
She was flying, hands clutched to the sides of her sled, wind rushing in her ears. It couldn’t have been more than a second or two until she hit the snow again and continued down the hill, but her heart felt like it was still in the air. When her sled came to a stop she rolled off it and made a snow angel, beaming up at the sky. She didn’t even mind the cold.
She trudged up the hill three more times to get that flying feeling again.
They made it back to Parker’s as the sun was setting—granted, only a little past four. In the laundry room they took off their snowy boots, jackets, gloves, everything needing to dry out. Cassie tucked her hands under her armpits to keep them warm.
“Hot chocolate?” Parker suggested.
“If Erin will let us.”
“If I’ll let you what?” Erin asked, coming to lean against the doorframe.
“Have some of your hot chocolate?”
“I’ll even make it for you if you ask nicely,” Erin said.
She turned to head for the kitchen before Parker responded. “Please will you make us some of your hot chocolate, Mom?”
“I’d be delighted to,” Erin said. “What kind?”
“Chocolate supreme,” Parker said.
Cassie smiled, thinking of the chocolate heart as she eased onto one of the stools in the kitchen. “White chocolate, please.”
Erin put milk on the stove and asked about sledding. Parker started in on a dramatic retelling of Caleb taking the jump too quickly, flying off his sled, and getting his head stuck in the snow. She was halfway through the story when Erin opened the white chocolate cocoa box. Parker was too engaged to notice, but Cassie was watching; Cassie saw the smile creep onto Erin’s face. Cassie’s insides felt warm even though she could still feel the chill on her cheeks.
Erin looked at her but glanced quickly away. Cassie bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling too hard.
“Did Caleb hurt himself?” Erin asked, back at the stove stirring the milk. Her cheeks were flushed.
There was no better feeling than making a pretty girl blush.
“No, he’s fine,” Parker said. “Do we have marshmallows?”
“Probably. Why don’t you go look?”
“Because I’m lazy and I don’t want them enough to look for them.”
“Oh my God,” Cassie rolled her eyes and got up. “I’ll look.”
Their pantry was basically a decent-sized walk-in closet. Cassie smiled imagining Adam’s face as he got told off by Erin, here among the cereal boxes and canned goods.
“They’re probably up high,” Parker called from the kitchen.
“I’ll help her,” Erin said, adding, “you worthless daughter of mine,” and making Parker laugh.
Erin didn’t help, though. Instead she came in, barely out of Parker’s view, and kissed Cassie. Cassie almost fell over. Erin caught her by the elbow and grinned into her mouth and Cassie felt too big for her body.
“Got ’em,” Erin said as she pulled away.
She left with the marshmallows as quickly as she’d arrived. Cassie could still feel Erin’s tongue in her mouth.
“How many?” Erin asked Parker as Cassie remembered how to walk and made it back to her place at the counter.
“Three, please,” Parker beamed.
“Cassie?”
Cassie blinked. “One’s fine.”
Erin dropped two into Cassie’s mug, sliding a grin her way. Cassie swore she was going to give her a heart attack.
Cassie tried to estimate how far the pantry was from the counter. She got off on doing things she shouldn’t, sure, but they hadn’t been ten feet from Erin’s daughter.
Erin hid a grin behind her mug of cocoa.
Cassie let herself get a milk mustache and refused to wipe it off when Parker laughed at her.
The next day began with a good morning kiss and ended with game night at Haylee’s. Cassie beat everyone handily in Connect Four until they were no longer willing to play her anymore. They moved on to Life, which quickly turned into Life with booze, and devolved into just the booze part when Parker got mad that she ended up with four sons and flipped the board over.