Page 42 of Party Favors
“What are you doing?” Wren asked.
“I haven’t seen snow in years. Not since a trip to Zermatt six years ago.”
“Where’s Zermatt?”
Amanda shrugged, looking bashful. “Switzerland. I went on a ski trip with my parents.”
“Oh. Wow.” Wren bet that was a fancy-ass trip. “I didn’t know you skied.”
“I don’t. I suck at it, and I get altitude sickness. It was a pretty miserable five days in one of the nicest hotels in the world, to be honest.”
“Lucky you get to experience Father Time Farm and Resort then. I’m sure they’re comparable.”
“This place is more my style,” Amanda said. “It’s charming. I like charming.”
“Me too.” Wren stepped closer to Amanda, sharing body warmth. “So you’ve got snow. What are you gonna do with it?”
“Anything?” Amanda grinned.
“Old year’s resolution, baby.”
Amanda ran. “Snowball fight,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Wren laughed and followed. The snow was blisteringly cold in her ungloved hands, and it was too powdery to pack, resulting in them throwing handfuls of glittering snowballs that came apart in the air before impact.
They ran around the open area behind their cottage, dusting each other with snow, for ten minutes before Amanda wrapped her arms around Wren’s waist and brought her to the ground in a fit of laughter.
Amanda stared down at her. “You have snowflakes in your eyelashes.”
Wren blinked, a little breathless. A little speechless. Amanda’s nose was pink and cute, her cheeks even rosier. “I don’t want this getaway to end.”
“Me either,” Amanda answered easily, and maybe it was easy for her. It was aspirational. Like saying “good” after someone asks, “how are you?” It might not have been true, but it was nice to hear.
“Have you ever made a snow angel?” Wren asked because it was easier to ask a silly question than a hard one.
“No. Not that I can remember.”
“Here. I’ll teach you.” Wren pushed Amanda onto her back in the snow and straddled her waist. Frigid wetness seeped into the knees of Wren’s pants, but she didn’t mind. “Spread your arms and legs.”
Amanda gave her a cheeky smile and obeyed. “This is a pretty unconventional teaching method.”
“It’s an old year’s resolution. Straddle Amanda Ellis every chance I get. Now move your arms and legs up and down.”
Amanda grinned and lifted her appendages out of the snow, then back in the snow, then out again, very purposefully misinterpreting Wren’s directions.
Wren laughed and pinned Amanda’s arms to the ground and directed their movement, creating wings. Amanda moved her legs herself.
“See?” Wren kissed Amanda’s mouth gently. “You’re an angel.”
“A corrupted one.”
“Fallen.”
“Very.” Amanda kissed her harder.
Wren pulled back. “Have you enjoyed your corruption this New Year’s?”
As Amanda considered the question, Wren waited on pins and needles. She needed to hear Amanda say that she’d loved it. That she wouldn’t trade it. Wren would hold on to those words, pull them out to admire and remember like party favors once Amanda was gone and their main connection was through cell phone screens and Twitter DMs.
