“You mind being close to me?” Brooks turns to look back at me. This close, I can see the playfulness lighting up his hazel eyes. The ends of his auburn hair stick out from under his black hat.
I steal a quick kiss and wrap my arms around his waist. “I don’t mind at all.”
“On the count of three!” the kids shout from next to us.
“On three, or on ‘go’ after three?” I ask.
“On three,” Brooks and the kids all shout back at once.
“Sorry.” I bury my face in Brooks’s neck as the countdown is on and wait as Brooks shoves us to a slow start.
“Why aren’t we moving?” Brooks huffs, scooting back and forth to try and get the sled to tip over the lip of the hill. The thrust of our hips as we move back and forth has me holding back a groan at the visual.
I can think of more enjoyable things to be doing with our hips than trying to sled.
Leaning back, I push off the ground as we finally gain a bit of traction, but it’s useless. The kids are already halfway down the hill by the time we get any momentum.
As the cold wind whips around us, it’s hard not to laugh. I can’t remember the last time I’ve come out here to go sledding. With the bar being my main priority, things like this always got pushed to the side.
I would ignore every responsibility if I got to do this with Brooks every day.
Even if we’re sliding down the bottom of the hill well after the kids.
“Yes! Told you we’d win!” The kid eggs Brooks on as he hops off his sled and walks over to us. “We’re better.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Brooks reaches into his pocket and pulls outa twenty to hand to the kids. They pump their fists in excitement as they trudge back up the hill.
“I can’t believe we lost,” I tell Brooks, wiggling off the sled. “I thought for sure our weight would make us go faster.”
“I got too cocky, thinking we’d get off faster.”
“You want to get off faster?” I waggle my eyebrows at him.
“Charlie!” Brooks looks around to make sure no one is around us. It’s busy, but no one is paying us any mind. “You can’t say that out here.”
“You started it.”
“Oh yeah?” Brooks bends down and before I know what happens, a thwack of snow is hitting me square in the shoulder. “What do you have to say about it now?”
“It’s on.”
Brooks tries to run from me, but I pelt him in the back with my own snowball. He fires one back and it nails me smack on the side of the neck.
“That was low!” I shout after him, scooping up more snow and lobbing it at him. Brooks deftly dodges it.
“You just need better aim.” Brooks winks at me.
“It’s going to be hard when I’m freezing already.”
I can already feel the snow melting, trickling down my neck and soaking the collar of my sweater under my jacket.
“C’mon, Charlie. You can do better,” Brooks teases when I throw another ball at him and it misses him again.
Not thinking, I make a move and tackle Brooks to the snow. Grabbing a fist full of snow, I shove it in his face. “How about that?”
“That’s not fair!” Brooks sputters. “You’re supposed to throw the snow at me.”
“And you keep dodging me!”
