Page 75 of Holiday Home 3
“Are you certain you’re alright?” Anna asked once he’d sat up.
Brushing snow off his arms, then his torso, and eventually his butt once he staggered to his feet, he waited a moment before confirming that he was. Continuing to pat himself down, he didn’t feel any sharp pain, just some dull throbbing in his left hip and his tailbone—and some minor pain to his pride.
“I think I’m good,” he confirmed. “How’s the sled?”
Thankfully, it had also survived its ordeal. Once he finally convinced Anna that he was completely fine, they started back up the hill.
“Ride with me this time,” Avril said. “We can see if Anna’s bad driving or your cursed luck is to blame.”
At that, Anna puffed her cheek out. Liam didn’t think it was either of those two things, but if he had to choose, he’d rather bethe one regularly tumbling through the snow over Anna. Once they reached the top of the hill again, he traded drivers.
“Hold on tight,” Avril sang as he joined her on her sled. “But feel free to hurl yourself off to try and save me a little faster than you did with Anna if your luckisthe problem.”
Not waiting for them, Anna accelerated into her second attempt to reach the bottom of the hill. She would arrive successfully. As she zoomed off, he leaned forward and blew against Avril’s ear, causing her to shiver.
“I’m not letting go, no matter what. If I go down, you go down.”
Avril snorted and glanced back at him. “Then hold on tight, baby, because I’m taking us down hard and fast.”
Even with a substantial head start, they nearly reached the bottom before Anna did. Fortunately, even with Avril whooping as they got within a few lengths of Anna, which ended up getting some of her hair in her mouth, all three of them remained on upright sleds when they skidded to a halt.
While Avril plucked strands of hair out of her mouth with some difficulty due to her thick gloves, making all sorts of faces as she did so, Liam grabbed her sled. Anna followed suit. They added about a dozen successful rides before the next crash. That one belonged solely to Avril, who came up sputtering with snow clinging to the left side of her face and hair.
“I f-fucking hate winter,” she hissed while scraping the snow off her face as best she could. Meanwhile, he and Anna both clutched their sides in an ultimately fruitless attempt to hold back their laughter.
About an hour later, once the light had dwindled to a few meager flecks of orange on the horizon, Avril signaled that she couldn’t handle the elements for much longer. All things considered, she’d lasted longer than Liam had assumed she would. Consequently, neither he nor Anna begrudged her forannouncing her intentions to head back indoors after one final plunge down the hill. Her nose was redder than her hair, and she’d been sniffling for the past twenty minutes.
“One more for all of us,” Liam suggested, unsure where the idea popped up from but open to announcing it. “Let’s see if all three of us can get to the bottom at the same time.”
Avril was the first to realize that he was up to something. “And how are we gonna do that?”
“Let me ride both sleds simultaneously,” he answered.
Anna’s eyebrows knit together. “How do you mean?”
“One knee on each?” Avril grinned, quick on the uptake.
“That’s what I was thinking,” he said.
“That sounds like a dangerous idea,” Anna said.
“But a fun one,” Avril noted, grinning. “I’m for it.”
“I’ll hold on to you both tightly—”
“But not too tightly,” a woman he knew would make a terrible doctor or nurse said. “I don’t want you bringing us down with us if you tumble off.”
Liam turned his gaze to Anna, who remained afflicted with uncertainty. “I promise I’ll let go of you if I feel like I’m about to fall off.”
“And me!” Avril growled, scooping up a clump of snow and throwing it in his direction. It sprayed like shrapnel at his feet, landing short of its target. “I need both wrists in working condition for tomorrow night.”
He threw her a bemused look. “You want to rephrase that?”
“I know what I said, and I stand by it,” Avril said, flipping him off with both hands.
“Okay,” Anna said, corralling enough of her hesitance to go along with his potentially dangerous idea. “Let’s ensure weallshow up to the party tomorrow in working condition.”
In short order, Avril and Anna had placed their sleds side-by-side. Looking over their shoulders at him, they waited untilhe’d put a knee on each sled and grabbed hold of the backs of their jackets before they began to nudge their respective sleds toward the end of the flat ground. They did so carefully, this being the only part where such control over what was to happen was possible.