Page 28 of Stuck in Christmas

Or maybe I was on the ground because I definitely landed on something hard. And as we’ve already established, I couldn’t possibly be thinking about hard bodies in this holiday hell.

No siree, Bob.

“That was awesome! Wanna go again?” The cute kid stood beside us, nearly swallowed by thesnow. “Ugh. Mushy stuff. See ya’ later, Miss Renee.”

I waved, I think. It’s hard to tell when you’re lying on top of the hard - ground - that is also soft, and warm, and inviting, and the only thing you can think about is if the solidgroundwanted to go back to the Inn and celebrate not dying on the snow hill with an afternoon in bed.

Maybe we could read?

Between the lines.

Eli stared into my eyes, and once again, everything fell away. “How was it?”

“Hard,” I breathed.

His eyes widened, and I laughed.

“I mean, the sledding was great. The landing, not so much.”

Eli pulled me closer. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought the landing was the best part.” He leaned up to kiss me, and I don’t know what came over me, but I rolled off him and rolled right into a snowbank.

“Sweet Christmas,” I swore.

Part Nine

Fourteen

It was another beautiful December day in my personal holiday hell. The sun cast a sparkle over the bustling outdoor ice skating rink. Laughter and cheerful chatter filled the crisp air, mingling with the faint sound of holiday music from nearby speakers. The entire town seemed wired with them.

The rink, framed by tall pines dusted with snow, glimmered like a sheet of glass, reflecting the joy of skaters gliding skillfully across the surface. And the requisite hot chocolate stand was doing brisk business toward the entrance. I could almost taste the cocoa and tiny marshmallows.

I held Eli's hand tightly, excited and nervous, as he led me onto the ice. His smile was contagious, lighting up his face as we glided along the surface to stop in the far corner of the rink.

“You’re a ringer. I had no idea you were such a great skater,” Eli said. “You made it seem like you didn’t know how, and I was going to be your savior.”

I patted him on the jacket and smiled up at him. “I never said Icouldn’t. I said it had been awhile. When I was younger, I was in love with the Winter Olympics. I wanted to be a champion figure skater.”

“Wow. You are a woman of many talents, but I haven’t heard you talk about winning gold. What stopped you?” Eli prompted.

I laughed. “I realized I didn’t like the cold very much.”

He took my hand and began slowly skating around the outside of the rink, avoiding the showboating teenagers and rookie skaters who would be trip hazards if we went any faster. “It’s hard to be an ice skater in the summer.”

“Exactly. Plus, New Orleans isn’t exactly known as the ice skating rink capital of the world. If I were serious about that, we would have had to move to Wisconsin, where they have training rinks,” I answered.

“Wisconsin is freezing in the winter.”

“Not much warmer in the summer,” I snorted. “But don’t worry about me. Not long after I decided to give that up, I found my life purpose.”

Eli slowed to a halt along the edge. “Telling stories.”

I nodded. “Yes. Telling stories. Even as a kid, people would approach me and tell me their story. And not like they were talking to a child either, but like a grown-up. They had wonderful stories - places they’ve visited, people they met - and the more I heard about them, the more I wanted to tell others about them.”

“You are a pretty good storyteller,” Eli admitted.

“You read my writing?” I blinked a few times.When did he have time to do that? More importantly -how- did he do that?

He shrugged. “I might have looked you up.”

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