Page 46 of Cabin Fever Baby

“Missed!”

Then another neck full of snow made me squeak. Hudson was above me, a huge snowball in his hands. I rolled, catching him in the knees so he toppled backward, butt first into a drift.

He was stuck and the big snowball he’d made crumbled over his head.

I couldn’t stop the laugh at his shocked face. Then I dove after him until we were both flat. I rolled off him until we were side by side. I started moving my hands and legs and he laughed up at the sky, then he followed suit.

We made haphazard snow angels, giggling like children.

I stared up at the chaotic flakes that blustered above us. There were so many they blurred into the heavy white sky. Iopened my mouth to catch a few on my tongue. When I glanced over at Hudson, he was looking at me.

His smile had softened, but he kept staring.

Right then, I felt pretty damn perfect.

THIRTEEN

4 Days til Christmas

I wasn’tsure how snow could be in every single fold of my three layers of clothes, but between the snow angels and the snow shovel fight—we never did anything small, that was for sure.

We’d rolled ourselves inside after the snow angels. The weather was beyond awful and there wasn’t a plow in sight. The ominous quiet that came with far too much precipitation was unnerving.

Living most of my life in the Syracuse area, I was used to snow. But this was beyond what we had for a whole month on average. I stomped the worst of the it off on the porch, but there was no getting the caked-on ice off me without a damn hair dryer at this point. I kicked out of my boots as soon as I stepped over the threshold into the entryway.

Within minutes, there were puddles around both of us as we peeled off layer after layer until we were both shivering. I was down to my Grinch underwear as I sprinted into the living room to get a blanket for Ocean. I dipped into my suitcase for one ofmy flannels and returned to drape it around her. She shivered as I did up the buttons and pulled her wet hair out of her collar.

There was something visceral about seeing your woman in your clothes.

Even if she was only my woman for now.

I scooped her up and set her in the chair near the fireplace. She was chattering behind me as I fumbled over the controls for the gas fire. Thankfully, it lit quickly, and I bumped the flames up on high.

She tucked her feet up into the red and black flannel with the buffalo check blanket wrapped tightly around shoulders and over her bare toes.

“You okay?”

She nodded, her teeth still chattering. “Just gotta get the chill off me and my t-t-teeth will stop.”

I rubbed her arms,kissed her forehead, then I stood. I went around behind the chair and pushed her a bit closer to the fire so I could grab some clothes for myself. I was going to actually have to see if this place had a laundry room the way we were going through outfits.

But for now, I still had a pair of sweats and a thermal. I stopped to check on her, then I went to make us some hot coffee and raid the cookies again.

She was still cold after the coffee, so I convinced her to go up for a bath.

I was tempted to go up with her, but it seemed as if she was working something out in that overactive brain of hers. Instead, I busied myself with checking out her food offerings. She had enough provisions to hold us for another week, if need be.

Which would include Christmas.

I hoped, for her sake, that her family could get out here. We still had a few days before things were hopeless. I had a bunch ofwinter recipes in my head, thanks to my mother. She’d instilled her love of cooking into all of us, but especially me.

Len had made sure to learn a few basics that could impress a woman. Finn had the best palate of any of us since he was always traveling for his job as an architect. I was pretty sure he was better at finding a bougie restaurant than he was at cooking.

I sautéed some chicken with the decent spice situation this place had before making an easy cream sauce, thanks to a can of cream of mushroom soup I found in the cabinet.

“Well, that smells amazing.”

I turned with a towel over my shoulder. “Hey. You look much better.”