Page 66 of A Hard Sell

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Building snowmen turned into building snow forts, which turned into a snowball fight, which, mercifully, turned into snow angels.

This was more Luka’s speed, although admittedly, he was certain he had burned off all of the treats and then some during the snowball fight. He was lying back now, watching the white sky above, feeling tiny prickles on his face where sharp flakes landed.

Zara was chattering away, telling Luka about all the new presents she got, even though he had been there when she had opened them.

They fell into silence as Zara debated which present was her very favorite—probably the guitar—when Jade sat up.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked Luka, brushing the snow from her head.

Luka sat up too, cringing. Somehow it felt worse to lie to little humans who trusted him implicitly. “I like a man named Thomas.” True at least.

“What do you like about him?” Zara asked. She scooped up a handful of snow and began licking it off her mitt.

“Ew, Zara, that’s gross!” Jade scolded.

Zara gave her a long-suffering look. “It’s fresh, Jade. Mom says it’s allowed.”

“But dogs could have peed on it.”

“Not if it’s white!”

“Uncle Luka, should she be eating that snow?” Jade asked.

Luka tried not to laugh. “I think it’s safe if it’s freshly fallen, Jade. But you’re right, you definitely want to avoid the yellow snow.”

“Hmph.” Jade glared at Zara, who grinned and resumed licking her mitt. Then she turned back to Luka. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Why do you like Thomas?”

“Oh.” Luka flopped onto his back again. “He’s very smart. Decisive. Creative. He’s a good leader, people follow him. But he’s also very, very sweet once you get to know him. And we like a lot of the same things. And he’s funny, in a cheesy sort of way. He makes me laugh, anyway.” The flakes tickled his face. They were getting bigger and fluffier.

“Is he handsome?” Jade asked.

“Extremely.”

“Can we meet him?” Zara piped up.

“Oh. I don’t know, hon. Maybe.”

“But I want to!”

“I would love for you to meet him. We’ll have to see how things go.” He chewed the insides of his cheeks as two wide pairs of eyes stared at him. “Who wants some hot chocolate?”

“Me!” they both shrieked.Ah, the power of hot chocolate.

They opened the back door into the kitchen only to find Yasmin and Marta facing off. Marta was holding a box of fruit snacks.

“Do you have any idea how much refined sugar is in those things?” Yasmin snapped.

“It’s sugar, Yasmin, not heroin.”

Yasmin sucked in an outraged gasp.

Luka inched the kids back out. “How about one more snowman?”

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