a closed in porch, then down two steps into deeper snow. It was awesome. Archie took my gloved hand in his and lead me around the lodge. We pressed against the side, and he snuck a peek around the side.
“Any minute now,” Jake called. “They’re going to come out. Don’t hit her.”
“No shit,” Ian said. “Any other advice you wanna give?” The thump of snow and a grunt had me clapping a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing.
Well that, and the fact that Coop had just come around from the back corner of the house and stealthed toward us, snow crunching under his feet. There was the sound of scuffling from out front, and Archie’s shoulders were shaking.
I tapped his back as Coop gave me a look. I could read traitor in his eyes quite clearly. No, I wasn’t choosing between them.
“One sec, babe,” Archie said, distracted. “Trying to figure out where Coop is hiding. Then we can leap out and pelt them.”
Yeah. About that. Coop was almost to us, and when I raised my eyebrows at him, he balanced a rather hefty snowball in one hand, and he motioned for me to duck with his free one.
“Archie,” I said, because truly, he deserved another chance.
“One more sec, Bubba and Jake are re-arming.”
Okay. Coop shot me a look and then glanced down like was I going to do it or not?
Uh huh. I ducked, and Archie pulled back from looking around the corner in time to take the snowball right in the chest. The spray of snow spattered me, but it was hilarious as Coop let out a war whoop. Even funnier when that whoop echoed from the others. The snow started to fly, and it was every man—and in my case, woman—for themselves.
Grabbing handfuls with my gloves and packing them together, I flung them at the guys with no small amount of joy. Some of the snowballs shredded apart before they even made it to their targets, but others had sweet little poofs as they hit their backs or their chests.
Jake toppled Ian into the snow and the two tumbling damn near took out Archie. Coop snagged me and dragged me backwards as the pair kicked up more snow. I couldn’t tell if they were fighting or wrestling or snow swimming. It was even funnier when Archie pelted them both and they turned on him.
Gray-green eyes dancing with laughter, Coop tugged me away from the battle. “Snowman,” he whispered. Yeah, I could definitely go for that.
Except, building a snowman was a lot harder than it looked like on television or in books. First we had to pack the snow and try to roll it into a ball. It didn’t always cooperate. Coop and I broke the first one by falling on it together while trying to get it to keep rolling. Then massacred a second one because he shoved snow down my back.
Fuck that was cold.
I was so getting him back for it.
“You know, it’s easy to tell who are not the engineers in the group,” Jake drawled, and Coop and I turned as one and shot him the bird. He just laughed and started packing snow together. “C’mon, Baby Girl. I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Archie called, and I twisted to find him with the base of a snowman already started as well. “This is at least decent enough packing snow. It could be much worse. How about we leave this to the experts? In this case, me?”
Ian snorted. “Where did you get certified in snowman expertise?”
“Every winter for ten years,” Archie declared. “You Texas folk are out of your depth.”
Oh, that was so the wrong thing to say.
The race to build the better snowman was on. Ian joined me and Coop as Archie and Jake went a little crazy. “C’mon,” he said, giving me a nudge. “Let’s finish this one you two started.”
Between the three of us, we got the base set, then the body, and I was working on the head while Ian cut toward the woods to find arms and Coop headed back to the house for something to make eyes and a hat for its head.
I glanced over to where Jake was actually shaping his in the snow. It wasn’t so much three balls stacked together as a squat looking dude that might resemble Santa when he was finished. Archie was doing something similar. They were packing and shaping the snow so they had features. They were