Page 27 of Stuck in Christmas

I raised an eyebrow.

“Sled with you,” Eli laughed. “What did you think I meant?”

I felt a tug on the edge of my coat and looked down to find the precocious kid from the town square standing there. “Hey, Miss Renee. Do you need someone to go sledding with you?”

“Well,” I hesitated.

“Because I used to beskairtof going down the hill, but I’m not anymore. Because I’m a big kid now,” the kid continued. “But if you needsomeone to sled with you, to be safe, you can ride with me.”

Freaking precocious kid. Who had that one on their holiday movie BINGO sheet?

Eli’s amused reaction and the kid’s innocently wide eyes felt like a test. Another test in the holiday hell. I would pass this one. “Well, if you need me to go with you.”

“I don’t need you to go with me,” the kid balked. “I thought you needed me to go with you.”

“Oh. My bad. Of course.” I pressed my hands to my heart. “My apologies. Let’s go.”

Eli handed the sled to the kid and squeezed my arm. “I’ll meet you at the end.”

“C’mon, Miss Renee,” the kid scrambled to carry the enormous sled as he made his way to the starting line.

It was freaking adorable.

We waited for sledders to take their turn down the hill.

“Is there a secret to going fast?” I asked him.

“Yes, ma’am,” the kid nodded. “First, you push off really hard so you can buildmore mentum.”

“Morementum?” I asked.

“Yeah. You go faster the closer to the end.”

“Oh,momentum.”

“That’s what I said.” The kid frowned.

I nodded reverently. “Of course. Continue.”

“Then, when you’re getting yourmore-mentumgoing, you have to get small on the sled, you know, get your elbows and feet in so they don’t stick out.”

“Roger that.” I saluted him.

Then, it was our turn. The kid turned to me. “You’re ready to go?”

I searched the crowd for Eli, who waved from the bottom of the hill. It warmed my heart and did things to my insides that I couldn’t discuss because of the limits of my hell.

“We’ll be at the bottom of the hill soon enough, and you can hang out with your boyfriend again,” the kid said, rolling his eyes and making a gagging motion.

Maybe it would be best to focus on the sledding? We settled onto the sled, and I tapped the kid on the shoulder. “He’s not my boyf?—”

The kid pushed off, and we hurtled down the hill much faster than I thought this sled could travel. The scenery whooshed by, and I remembered some celebrity or another who was killed by running into a tree while skiing. My stomach clenched, and my soul might have left my body for a few seconds as we went airborne over a bump.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you about the end,” the kid yelled over his shoulder, barely audible over the rushing wind and my pounding heartbeat.

“What?”

Before he could say another word, we abruptly reached the bottom of the hill, where we hit an even bigger bump that sent the sled flying in one direction, the kid squealing with delight in another, and I landed smack on top of Eli.

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