Page 2 of Snow More Secrets

He sighed, his voice suddenly close to the phone. “Congratulations, Jake.”

“Thanks, bro.”

We talked for another minute while my sister calmed down, then I said goodbye and called my parents and other sister, Cammie, to share the news.

They were ecstatic, and while Cammie simply congratulated me, my mother spent twenty minutes trying to convince me to go on a date with the daughter of a friend of a friend. Apparently, she was a speed skater predicted to compete in the Olympics.

I let her ramble on until my dad caught wind of what she was doing and took the phone away. “Let it go, Francie,” he said in a voice that always seemed to make her melt and made me and my siblings want to throw up.

“I just want my boy to be happy, Stan.” I heard her sigh.

“I know, darling. But let him get past the Olympics, then you can resume matchmaking.”

“Thanks a lot, Dad,” I grunted. He was usually on my side.

“You’re thirty-five years old,Jacob. I want grandbabies, too.”

“Raven has four kids!”

“They are all girls,” he reminded me. “I love my sweet babies, but we need some boys around here.”

“What about Cammie?” I argued.

Truthfully, I didn’t hate the idea of a wife and kids. I’d thought more about it over the past couple of years. But I wouldn’t give my mom any more ammunition to harass me about it.

My dad chuckled. “What makes you think your mom isn’t pestering her too?”

My mom gasped in the background. “I don’t pester!” she insisted.

“You’re right, darling. I should have said encouraged.”

I rolled my eyes and rushed to say, “I’ll call you guys in a few days to talk about table arrangements. Love you both.” Then I hung up.

Afterward, I grabbed a late drink with one of my buddies and made plans to meet up with several of them the next night. Then I headed to bed, knowing this Christmas Eve would be a night to remember.

Two

HANNAH

“Girl, you need to relax and let your hair down,” said Wendy, my best friend. “Worry about training next week!”

I grinned and shook my head when she did a little crazy dance. “My hair is down,” I teased, running my fingers through my shoulder-length blond hair.

She shot me a dry look. “You’re not as funny as you think you are, Hannah Banana.”

I scoffed, pretending to be offended. Then I scrunched my nose and asked, “Why does taking a break from the ice have to include a trip to Vegas?” It wasn’t exactly my scene. Then again, I’d spent most of my life on the ice. Between home schooling, competitions, and training, there had been little time for “letting my hair down.”

“Because,” she whined with an overexaggerated pout on her lips, making me giggle again. “We both need to take some time to blow off some steam, and you know it. Even Coach told you to take a few days off and forget about the championship.”

The idea of taking a few days to relax certainly wasn’t unappealing. But the US Figure Skating Championships were coming up in the second week of January, and after crushing every other qualifying competition this year, I knew that if I won, I’d make it on the Olympic team. My instinct was to practice as much as possible, but my coach was worried about burnout.

Still…Vegas?

Sighing, I told myself not to be a stick-in-the-mud. “Okay,” I agreed.

A giant smile split Wendy’s face, and she did another little crazy dance. “Yessss!”

“You’re a bad influence, Wendy Lady,” I muttered, using the nickname I’d given her after she told me about her obsession with Peter Pan.

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