Chapter Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Riley woke to clear skies. It had stopped snowing sometime overnight, but there was at least a foot of snow on the ground. The plows had come by, but her mother’s car was surrounded by snow and needed to be shoveled out. While her mother was still sleeping, Riley bundled up in her warmest jacket, gloves, and hat and grabbed a shovel from the basement.
It took her almost an hour to fully dig the car out and clean all the snow and ice off the car windows. By the time she finished, she was ready for coffee and a hot shower. When Riley came back downstairs, fully dressed with her hair blown dry, her mother was sitting in the kitchen, also showered and changed and stirring sugar into her coffee.
“Thank you for shoveling, honey. There must be close to a foot out there,” her mother said.
“More than that in spots,” Riley agreed. The wind had caused the snow to drift and in some places it was almost two feet high and in others just a few inches. It was good to remove the snow early as she had done, before it had time to harden and became icy and heavy. “You might want to stay home this morning, Mom. It’s pretty icy out there. I can manage on my own.”
“We can throw some salt down to help with that. And I’ll be careful. I want to get over to the inn and see how badly they are snowed in. I have rubber tips, too, so I should be fine,” her mother insisted.
Riley didn’t like it, but agreed. “Okay, we’ll just go super slow then.”
They left earlier than usual to allow for extra time getting there and navigating the snow. Riley grabbed the scrambled egg dish her mother had made while Riley was in the shower. It was a quick veggie, cheese, and egg scramble and even had some hash brown potatoes mixed in. It was one of Riley’s favorite breakfast dishes that her mother made and her stomach rumbled at the scent of it as she carried it to the car.
It didn’t take long to get to the inn as it was only a half mile down the road and there were few other people out driving. Riley was relieved to see that the inn’s driveway had been plowed and the company her mother hired had also shoveled the walkway to the front door. Riley pulled up as close as she could to the walkway.
“Let me get out first,” Riley said. “I’ll be right behind you in case you slip.”
She left the egg dish in the car so she would have both arms free to help her mother if needed. She would run back out to get the eggs once her mother was safely inside.
It was early still, just seven thirty, so they had plenty of time to get in and ready for breakfast service. Her mother went slowly and made it inside with no issues, much to Riley’s relief. Riley ran back for the eggs and brought them right into the dining room and turned on the warmer.
They got everything else ready and brought it into the dining room, before fixing themselves plates of eggs. Her mother had made a huge amount and they knew that less than half of the guests would want the hot dish. Many people just had coffee or something light for breakfast. Riley always woke up starving. Plus she’d worked up an appetite with all the shoveling. She made herself toast to go with the eggs and took a little side of cantaloupe as well. And more coffee.
The dining room was busy from eight when Franny came down. She was followed soon after by a steady stream of guests, all of whom were concerned about the storm, especially as most of them would be driving home that day. Riley’s mother kept several shovels at the inn for times like this when guests would need to dig their cars out a bit. The plow service had cleared out the driveway and the small parking lot behind the inn, but each car still had a good amount of snow to shovel.
Around nine thirty, Aidan and Luke came down. Aidan ate quickly then went to shovel his car out so he’d be able to drive to work easily the next day. Luke stayed and had a second blueberry muffin and chatted with Franny and Riley and her mother. Franny had come down early, but she had no plans that day and she enjoyed chatting with everyone, too.
“I’m glad I don’t have to worry about going anywhere anytime soon,” she said. Aidan had asked which car was hers and when she said a light blue Camry, he said he’d clear around her car as well.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she protested.
Aidan just smiled, though. “I’m going to be out there anyway. It’s no trouble.” He glanced at Luke and Riley. “I think the two of you said something last night about wanting to build a snowman? We can do that when I get back if you like?”
“Awesome! Riley, you’re still going to help us, right?”
Riley smiled. “Of course. I even wore my special snow pants.” She’d found them in her closet. They were many years old, but they still fit, though maybe not quite as loosely as they used to.
“That sounds fun,” Franny said. “I will watch you from the window and cheer you on silently.”
Riley’s mother laughed. “I’ll join you.”
Aidan returned a half hour later and Luke ran to the door, ready to go outside, but Aidan stopped him. “Not so fast, buddy. Dad needs a cup of coffee to warm up first.”
Riley jumped up and poured it for him. She knew he drank it black, like she did. She handed it to him and he smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
His eyebrows had snowflakes on them. It was flurrying a little and his nose was red from the cold. He sat with them for about ten minutes, until he felt thawed out and ready to head outside again. Riley pulled on her hat, mittens, and coat and they made their way to the front yard. There was plenty of snow there and they found a high drift and shaped it into the bottom half of the snowman. They all took turns scooping up snow and adding it until they had a good-sized ball for the midsection. The last step was the head and Luke scooped up a big mound of snow that Riley helped him to shape into a ball and then Aidan carefully placed it on top.
“We need to make his eyes, nose, and mouth,” Luke said.
Riley thought for a minute. There was too much snow on the ground to use small stones, as they were buried. “I’ll be right back.” She went to the door and asked her mother to get a few things for her and a moment later, she walked back holding a pair of sunglasses, a carrot, and an old pipe that someone had left at the inn.
Aidan laughed. “We’re going for a cool smoker dude. Not sure what kind of message that sends.”
Riley laughed, too. “We had to work with what we had.” She placed the sunglasses on the snowman and Luke loved it.
“He looks wicked cool with those dark glasses.”
Aidan put the carrot into position and handed the pipe to Luke. “Your turn.”
Luke carefully slid the pipe into the snowman, just below the carrot, and they all stood back to admire their work.
“I think that looks pretty good,” Riley started to say but the words were cut off by a snowball that smacked her on the top of her arm. She didn’t see who threw it, but Aidan was frowning and Luke was giggling, so it was pretty obvious.
“Luke, you shouldn’t have done that,” Aidan said. He tried to sound stern, but Riley could see a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
But Riley had already scooped up a ball of snow and while Luke was looking at his dad, she caught Luke by surprise by tossing a snowball his way and hitting him on his side. He spun around with a big grin. “See, Dad, she doesn’t mind. Riley is cool!”
Riley laughed. “I’ve always liked a good snowball fight.” She scooped up another handful of snow, shaped it into a ball, and hurled it at Aidan. He ducked, but not in time. The snowball hit his elbow. They all tossed snowballs at each other for a few more minutes until Luke flopped on his back, signaling that he’d had enough.
“Are you making a snow angel?” Riley asked him.
He looked confused. “What is that?”
“I’ll show you.” She sat in the snow and lay back so that her legs were straight. She put her arms to her sides, then moved them up all the way until they met at the top of her head. She moved them back and forth a few times, then jumped up to see her handiwork. “See, looks just like an angel with its wings spread.”
Aidan watched in amusement as Luke followed Riley’s lead and then hopped up, all excited to see his snow angel.
“Dad, you do it, too,” he demanded.
“I don’t know if I still remember how to do that. It’s been a long time,” Aidan joked. But he got down in the snow and made a snow angel, too. The snow flurries stopped as they headed back inside.
“What are you up to for the rest of the day?” Riley asked once they were all out of their wet coats and shoes.
“We are taking it easy today. Luke has a book report he needs to work on and I have a book I just started last night that is pretty good. I think there’s a football game at one that we’ll probably watch, too. What about you?”
“We’re still heading to my sister’s house for Sunday dinner, I think, and then we’ll hunker down at home after that.”
“Who wants hot chocolate?” Riley’s mother called from the kitchen.
“I do!” Luke said.
“I think I might have one, too,” Riley said.
“Why not? Make it three.” Aidan looked enthused about the idea as well. They went into the kitchen and then brought their mugs of hot chocolate into the living room and sat by the Christmas tree. It had been a fun morning and the hot chocolate warmed Riley up quickly as she sipped it and looked out the window. Everything was covered in white and it looked so pretty. She also noticed that it had started snowing again.
“We should probably head home soon,” her mother said. “I’m not sure what this snow is going to do. We might want to postpone dinner with Amy if it keeps up.”
Riley agreed. She was still worried about her mother slipping on her crutches. They said their goodbyes and on the way home, Amy called, also thinking it might be good to wait until next Sunday.
Once they were settled at home, Riley turned on the Weather Channel and she and her mother sat in the living room watching the coverage. The storm had intensified and was now expected to go on for the rest of the day and would bring five or six more inches. Which would mean more shoveling. But by then, hopefully, it would already be starting to melt. If it slowed by the afternoon, she would go back out there and try to get most of the shoveling done. She was very glad that they’d decided not to go to her sister’s house. It was perfect weather to hunker down, drink cinnamon tea, and watch movies or read. Or both.