Chapter 6
Dale
Iwoke feeling warm and cozy. I didn’t want to open my eyes. Then I remembered. I was on vacation. I didn’t have to. I could roll over and go right back to sleep.
Which was exactly what I started to do until I found myself bumping into a heap of pillows. Then I remembered that Aspen was on the other side of those pillows.
I hoped I hadn’t disturbed him. I held my breath and listened. His breaths sounded even and quiet. He was still asleep.
I closed my eyes and let my body relax, my mind floating into a pre-dream state. What a wonderful start to a great vacation.
I woke a second time to the scent of fresh coffee. It smelled like paradise. I rolled onto my back and slowly sat up, rubbing at my eyes.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” said a voice.
“Morning. Wow, this be is comfortable.” My own voice sounded scratchy.
Aspen was on the couch. He held up his Santa mug. “I agree. There’s fresh coffee.”
“Thanks.” I got up, grabbing my robe from the closet, and headed straight for the bathroom.
When I came out still in my robe, I sat on the end of the bed to put on my slippers.
“Room’s warm but the floor is cold,” I observed.
Aspen laughed. I looked up to see he was watching TV, the volume turned low and captions on. It was polite of him not to want to wake me.
I grabbed myself some coffee and came to sit beside him.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
“Me, too. Strangely.”
“Why ‘strangely’?” I’d asked too quickly. Of course, I knew the answer. I provided it before he could speak. “Sleeping with a stranger. I get it.”
“It was fine, though,” Aspen said. “And being out in the woods in a cabin in a place I’ve never been before, for the first night I thought I’d be up all night. But I felt safe.”
My insides warmed. Making others feel safe was such an alpha thing for me. It gave me connection. In this case, it was to Aspen. I didn’t think he’d intended his words to evoke that vibe in me, and I gave no outward reaction.
“I enjoyed sleeping in,” I commented.
“Me, too. I only got up about twenty minutes ago.”
We finished our coffee and agreed breakfast would be a great idea at the lodge. Together.
I quickly showered and dressed.
Outside, the cold bit at my cheeks. “It’s Grinch weather.”
“What?”
“My little brother used to call it that when it got so cold it hurt to breathe.”
“It is pretty cold today,” Aspen agreed.
We hurried toward the lodge. This time, more people were around. There was a line. But we got a table within fifteen minutes.
I tried to get a read on the other people—the shifters—in the restaurant. Most seemed fairly sedate, but there was a group of four arguing near the back. They did not look at all happy.
“Bears,” Aspen said.
“What?”
“Bear shifters. They tend to talk loudly and gesticulate. I think they’re fine.”
“No fighting?”
Aspen shrugged. “Maybe.”
With our menu came a fresh printout of the daily events. We had the list on our phones, as well, but this was nice. We could look over it together.
Aspen pointed. “Snowman building. One p.m.”
“You mentioned that last night.” I grinned. “I’m guessing it’s something you really want to do.”
“I was just going to watch. But then you said yes.”
“I think we should sign up.”
His eyes flashed excitement. My blood rushed. It has hard not to notice how cute he was.
We spent part of the late morning looking around the lodge, both inside and out. But soon we were back inside our cabin, warming up in front of the new fire I built.
“How are we going to sculpt snow in this weather?” Aspen asked. “We’re going to be running back inside every five minutes to unfreeze.”
“Maybe it will warm up this afternoon?”
I hoped he was right.
We showed up right on time, having signed into the contest on the lodge event app. The air was crisp and clear. And icy.
About ten other groups were there. Not much competition. But I didn’t have much by way of a plan, either. The rules stated accessories would be provided. We were given a sealed bag and couldn’t look inside until the whistle blew.
The event coordinator already looked half-frozen. She announced the theme was wonderland. Whatever that meant. It was obviously a play on the name of the lodge.
A metal bin had been brought out and a fire burned within. We could rush over there to warm our gloved hands and that was it. Even though I wore waterproof mitts, the cold would penetrate when I began working in the ice.
The whistle went off. I dived into the deep drifts.
“We have to work fast or we’ll freeze before we finish,” I said.
Aspen grunted. Together we started shoving snow into a pile to make a big ball for the snowman’s base.
“Wait,” Aspen said. “Shouldn’t we check out the accessories?”
“Let’s get the structure done and then decorate.”
“Okay.”
Several times, we ran to the bin to try to remember the sensation of warmth on our faces and hands.
Not to mention arms, legs and other parts.
It was quite grueling if not so funny. We laughed most of the time as we constructed a three-tier body, especially when the head exploded in our hands and we had to roll another ball.
Finally, we had a basic snowman shape. It was about as tall as Aspen.
“We did good,” I said.
“Now to the details.”
We opened our bag and poured out the accessories. Rocks. Sticks. Pieces of coal. A carrot. A scarf. And a tiny magician’s hat.
“This is it?” I asked. I shook the bag to see if more things fell out.
“I guess we’re all limited to Frosty the Snowman, or we use the sticks as antlers and make a reindeer shifter snowman.”
“Hey, that’s a good idea.”
Since he was an actual reindeer shifter, just to be sure, I said, “You’re not joking, are you?”
“Nope.”
I began sculpting the face. Damn, it was freezing bad enough that my hands were shaking, but moving around helped a little. I shaped the rounded face into more of a snout shape.
“Hey, that’s great,” Aspen said. He was working on putting rocks in the middle to look like buttons on a coat.
Together, we shaped the snow into something weird and lumpy. It looked hideous.
“What do we do with this?” I held up the carrot.
“Reindeer love carrots. We’ll stick it in his mouth.”
I laughed.
Aspen made little snowy tufts for ears on either side of the head.
“More snout,” Aspen ordered. “Wider.”
I packed on more snow. I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, but I kept going.
I could tell Aspen weathered the cold better, that inner reindeer of his no doubt helping. When I lagged and ran to the fire bin to warm up, he took up the slack. When I looked back, I saw that our snowman was the tallest of everyone’s. But that didn’t make it the best. It was very strange-looking.
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 its neck, 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 maybe affection. 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.”