I walked over and circled our sculpture, shaking my head.
“What?” Aspen put his hands on his hips.
“I don’t think anything can help this poor guy.”
Aspen jumped forward, picked up the tree branch sticks and stuck them in the top of the head. “Better?”
Now it looked like the snowman had had an unfortunate accident with a tree. Finally, we wrapped the scarf around itsneck, shoved the carrot in its mouth, and stood back. So much for trying to be creative.
We were timed for this event. The moment the whistle blew, all hopes were dashed for us.
When the judging was finished, our shoulders slumped in defeat. We didn’t even make runner-up to third place.
“Well, that didn’t work out,” I said. “No one could even tell what we’d made.”
Aspen grinned up at me, squinting in the bright sunlight. “I had fun.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It was great. Thanks for doing this with me.”
“It was fun, wasn’t it?” I looked down at my mitted hands. “I can’t feel my fingers, though.”
“Let’s go get something to eat. All that work made me starved.”
“I could eat a lot right now.” We’d had a late breakfast and skipped actual lunchtime. Now it was mid-afternoon.
Together, we walked back to the lodge. Inside, I rushed to the fire, pulling off my mittens. I held my hands up to the flames in the big hearth, feeling them start to come back to life.
“I think I almost got frostbite.” I turned to Aspen, who looked horrified. “I’ll live,” I reassured him.
“After all that, sorry we didn’t win.” Aspen bowed his head.
“It’s win for me. I really enjoyed myself. And my reward is going to be the biggest, juiciest burger they’ll serve me.”
“I’m buying,” Aspen offered, still looking a little worried.
“No need.”
“I want to. Please.” He lightly touched my elbow.
I noted that was the first time he’d reached out. We hadn’t even shaken hands when we met.
His eyes were the softest brown, the whites very bright. Deer eyes. Showing me so much sweetness and trust. And maybeaffection. We were getting along well, but I hadn’t quite expected that.
For two people who had wanted to be alone for the holidays, we were definitely liking non-alone time, because I was right there with him enjoying myself, enjoying meals and snowman building. If he wanted to buy lunch enough to say “Please” I’d be a fool to decline the invite.
“Okay,” I said. “But I’m likely to eat a lot.”
“Order whatever you want.”
7
Aspen
“I’m going running,” I announced.
“In this cold weather?”
