Page 66 of Snow Going Back

‘Woo-hoo!’ she yelled, raising her arms up high and laughing as the echo bounced back at her.

She slid to a slow stop at the bottom and was tossed out at the last moment by a stubborn snowdrift. Standing back up, she grabbed the sledge and began to jog back up the hill, panting slightly from the exertion.

‘What’s the matter?’ Sam asked, overtaking her on the way up with a challenging grin. ‘Have I worn you out already?’ He wiggled his eyebrows and sped up.

Kate laughed again, feeling wonderfully carefree as they played away the afternoon. The slope Sam had taken her to wasdeserted but for the two of them. A remote hidden gem that none of the local kids knew about.

‘Not a chance. It takes more than a few sprints up a hill to wearmeout,’ she told him, catching him up at the top.

‘Yeah?’ He looked down at her, his breath freezing in the air between them. ‘That sounds like a challenge.’ He cocked an eyebrow.

Kate pulled her long dark hair back from her face and looked up, her frozen breath mingling with his. She felt the magnetic pull of him that she’d stopped trying to pretend didn’t exist and bit her lip, stepping away from him with a grin of her own.

‘No,thisis a challenge,’ she said, stepping up to the steepest part and getting ready to dive down on her sledge. ‘Bet you can’t beat me to the bottom.’

Sam’s grin widened, and he let out a low chuckle as he followed her with a determined glint in his eye. ‘Oh, you’reon, lawyer girl.’

Kate shrieked as he sped up. ‘Winner gets to cook the turkey!’ She dived off the edge just as he reached her.

‘Whoa, the stakes have beenraised!’ Sam dived after her.

Kate cackled with glee as she looked back. A moment later though, she realised he was catching up with her. ‘No!’ she wailed. ‘I take it back! The turkey’s off the table!’

‘No way – too late,’ Sam shouted as he slipped past. ‘Weightalwayswins at sledding, rookie!’ He turned onto his back for the last part of the slope and laced his hands behind his head, shooting her a grin.

She let out a sound that was half laugh, half frustration as Sam became the clear winner, but then her attention sharpened as she realised they were running too close together. ‘Hey, watchout!’ she called.

Sam looked back just in time to see the upcoming collision, and he pushed off his board, grabbing hers and instinctivelyshielding her in a bearlike grip just before impact. Kate turned into him, letting her board fall away, and they rolled over and over for what seemed like an age, until they finally came to a stop in a mound of deep fluffy snow.

Unsure which way was up after their dizzying fall, Kate blinked and tried to blow the crazy mess of hair off her face, scraping it back with her hands when that didn’t work, and as her line of sight cleared, she met Sam’s stunned gaze above her. They stared at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing.

‘Oh my God, that was crazy!’ Kate exclaimed.

‘That wasreckless,’ Sam added with another shocked laugh. ‘We really should have thought about that before we jumped.’

‘Well, we’re alive, so…’ Kate trailed off, suddenly incredibly aware of the weight and heat of Sam’s body on hers.

He was still holding her close to him in his tight, protective grip. She looked up at his handsome, chiselled face as their cold, white breaths mingled in the air and saw his expression change as he registered it, too. The air suddenly seemed heavier, this thing between them that kept rearing its head whenever she let her guard down filling every pore of her body and every inch of space around them like it was liquid. A warm and dangerously addictive liquid. Kate pulled in a deep breath, but that movement didn’t break the bubble this time. This time, the invisible pull just seemed to grow more intense than ever.

‘Yeah,’ Sam murmured, his voice low. ‘We are.’

It was different this time. Harder to pull away, with the heat of him pressed against her and her own traitorous body begging not to be peeled away. But although it took every ounce of energy she had, Kate ripped her gaze from his and slowly pulled back. She might not be able to control her feelings, but she could still control her actions. Even if doing so felt physically painful.

Feeling her move spurred Sam into action, and he instantly released her, pushing back to give her space. He looked away, quickly shielding his expression, but not before she caught the brief troubled frown.

‘Sorry, I must be crushing you,’ he said, standing up and shaking himself off.

‘No, not at all,’ she replied. There was no evidence of how shaky she really felt in her voice, she realised thankfully.

Shaking the snow out of her hair, she turned away for a second to get a more solid grip on her composure. Taking a deep breath in, she turned back around with a bright smile.

‘Well, I think I’ve had my fill of near-death experiences for today! Shall we head back?’ She waited, praying he didn’t try to convince her to stay. She needed to get away from him for a while and clear her head.

‘Sure,’ he replied. ‘I’ll grab the boards. You head on back to the truck.’ He pulled the keys out and threw them to her.

‘Thanks,’ she said, catching them.

Kate watched him walk away, her smile dropping to a worried frown. This was becoming a problem. A very real one. She’d tried reasoning these feelings away and shutting them off, but neither was working. She needed to get away, get him out of her head completely. She needed that headspace to focus on her other worries. On herreallife. And hopefully, in a few more days, she’d be able to do that. She just had to get through Christmas. Because Christmas was now onemorething they were going to share.

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