By mid-afternoon, she's restless. Pacing the small cabin like a caged animal, picking things up and putting them down, staring out the window at the endless white.
"I'm going crazy in here," she mutters.
"Then let's go outside."
She turns to look at me. "It's freezing."
"There are jackets in the closet. Boots too."
"Fine," she says. "But if I get frostbite, I'm blaming you."
We bundle up in the warm clothes I stocked the cabin with, layers of flannel and fleece beneath heavy jackets. The boots are a size too big but nothing that another pair of socks can’t fix.
The world outside is silent and white. The snow has tapered off to flurries, but everything is covered in a thick blanket that sparkles in the weak afternoon sun. Our breath fogs in the air as we step off the porch.
"It's beautiful," Jade admits, her voice hushed. "I'll give you that."
"I told you."
We walk for a few minutes, our boots crunching through the snow, neither of us speaking. The trees press close on all sides, heavy with white, and there's something peaceful about the isolation that I didn't expect.
I'm just starting to relax when something cold and wet explodes against the back of my head.
I spin around to find Jade standing ten feet away, another snowball already forming in her gloved hands, a grin spreading across her face.
"Did you just?—"
The second snowball hits me square in the chest.
"You're going to regret that," I tell her.
"Am I?" She's already backing away, laughing. "You'll have to catch me first."
She takes off running, and I run after her.
The next twenty minutes are chaos. Snowballs fly back and forth, most of them missing wildly, a few landing with satisfying thuds. She's faster than I expected, darting between trees and using them as cover, but I'm bigger and my aim is better.
When I finally catch her, we're both breathless and soaked, snow clinging to our hair and melting down our collars. I grab her around the waist and spin her against the exterior wall of the cabin, pinning her there with my body.
"Caught you," I pant.
She's laughing, her cheeks flushed red from the cold, her eyes bright with something I haven't seen before. Joy. Pure, unguarded joy.
"You cheated," she gasps. "You have longer legs."
"All's fair."
"In love and war?"
"Something like that."
The laughter fades slowly from her face as she realizes how close we are. Her back against the rough wood of the cabin wall. My body pressed against hers. Our breath mingling in the frozen air between us.
"Phoenix," she whispers.
"Tell me to stop." My voice comes out rougher than I intended. "Tell me to stop and I will."
She doesn't.
