Christmas in the City - Jill Barnett Page 0,46

a toasty wood fire talking while they drank coffee mixed with whiskey. Lunch was spicy lean corned beef and cabbage. She loved it and ate as much as Conn did. Two plates!

When they walked back outside, a mountain of snow had been formed along the curbs because the horse drawn snow plows had been hard at work. The ten-horse teams lumbered down the streets while the workers shoveled sand from carts behind the plows. One team turned the corner. The horses were frosted with a coating of frozen sweat and snow, and icicles hung from their harnesses like gems.

After the plows passed, the snow was piled in mountains along the roadside, where children bundled in mufflers threw snowballs at anyone wearing a large hat. Another group of kids had made an ice slide in the banks of snow by the curb.

She and Conn watched them play for a few minutes. The boys would run halfway down the block, leap on the snow bank, and slide down it standing up, their arms out wide to help them keep their balance.

Before she could blink, Conn was running down the street and onto the snow. His height and weight made him slide even faster, and people stopped and watched, cheering him into a perfect landing. He turned, swept his hat off his head, and made a bow. She was laughing so hard when he joined her she could barely speak.

He made some stupid comment about a man's sport while they walked toward the sleigh.

"A man's sport?" She repeated, her hands planted on her hips.

He turned back just as she began to run down the sidewalk. She went over the bank and pressed her ankles together, and held onto her hat. She slid down the icy snow bank to a round of whistles and applause.

Conn was staring at her with an open mouth. She marched back toward him, her chin high and feeling more than smug.

"Where'd you learn to do that?"

"I was raised in New York, too. And if you'll remember, I've had more years of practice than you." She hopped up into the sleigh, pulled the lap blanket over her, and said, "Well, are you going to stand there all day or are we going to go sleighing?"

He muttered something about bossy older women that made them both laugh.

Snow was in the air. It began to fall a few flakes at a time, slowly at first, then faster and heavier. A light wind near the river carried clouds of snow in whirling eddies. Sparks from the potbellied woodstoves flew from trolleys and tin chimneys, and disappeared as if they were gobbled by the falling snow.

The trees of Central Park were covered in snow, making it a fairyland right in their own city. The Egyptian obelisk poked up out of the snow like a giant icicle. All the statues were dusted white and keep off the grass signs leaned at cockeyed angles.

They parked the sleigh and walked down a covered path where children were having a snowball fight. She gathered up a handful and hit Conn, knocking off his hat like the kids from across town.

He spun around, completely surprised, then he slowly walked toward her, revenge on his face. She laughed and taunted him, and then turned and ran as fast as she could.

He tackled her in the snow and rolled with her down a hillside, tumbling like children and laughing. She tried to smear his face with snow but he pinned her to the cold wet ground. He grinned down at her. "Cry uncle?"

"Never."

He rubbed snow in her face and watched her squirm and shout.

"That's not fair! You're bigger than I am."

"I'm bigger than everyone." He grinned down at her. He seemed like a giant against the gray sky, and she understood where he had gotten his name. There was snow in his hair and all over his face. She slipped a hand out from under his and swiped the snow off his eyebrows and chin.

He mimicked her motion and brushed the snow off her face with a tenderness that didn't fit his size. But when he was done, his hand cupped her cold cheek. His smile faded. His look turned intense. He stared down at her mouth.

An instant later he was kissing her. She was forty years old and until this very moment Eleanor had never been kissed with an open mouth.

The first thing she noticed after the shock passed was that their lips fit together perfectly. His mouth was warm