Eli flicks more snow at me. “Maybe you can help build the snowman. I have half the torso. Hugh already has the head done.”
He’s right. Hugh has a lumpy, oval mass of snow that could function as a head, and is watching Eli make his section bigger.
“All right. I’ll make the butt.”
Hugh cracks up, and I grin at him. In minutes we have our snowman constructed, and I tell Hugh to go ask for snowman clothes, confident Mom will know what he means. He comes running out with the wooden box cradled to his chest.
“Mom got this kit when she was a kid,” I tell Eli, opening the box and handing him the three sturdy black buttons. “It has all the pieces you need to make a snow gentleman.”
I help Hugh shove the stick arms in place and let Eli put on the buttons. Black beads form the snowman’s smile, and flat black rocks serve as his eyes. His nose is a wooden carrot with a plain stick on one end, to be shoved in place so only the carrot is seen. I lift Hugh to place the top hat that completes the look on our snowman’s head, and then plop onto the snow to look at our masterpiece.
“You know, this may be the best one I’ve made yet.”
Eli sits beside me, knocking against my shoulder in the motion. “It can’t be worse than the holiday horror show you described from last year.”
“It wasn’t a horror show,” I say immediately. “It was like a homicide site.”
“Yeah, that’s much better.”
Hugh walks all around the snowman, inspecting him. “You like him, bud?”
He charges at the snowman, trying to wrap his arms around him. “I love him!”
“Just try not to break him. Maybe we’ll be able to keep him through Christmas.”
Hugh smooths a hand over the snowman’s torso and backs up, and looks at me with an expression I know too well. “Brace yourself,” I tell Eli, as Hugh roars and charges at me. I catch him with an “oomph,” and a feeling like a bowling ball just rolled into me, and roll him onto Eli to give myself time to stand. Eli tries to tickle Hugh, but Hugh’s snowsuit makes that futile. I had the time I needed, and chase Hugh all around the yard as soon as he’s upright, feigning a dragon roar. Eli gets in on it, sometimes chasing Hugh, sometimes doubling back to help Hugh chase me, and Hugh’s laughing so hard he drops to the ground a few minutes later and says he’s tired.
Eli rushes over to me, wrapping me in his strong arms. “It’s okay, Hugh,” he says. “I caught him for you.”
I turn my face toward Eli, and he’s so close our noses touch. “That’s two times in the last week you’ve caught me.”
He has the sweetest smile on his face. “You’re clumsy. Odds are I’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch you. And to warm you up. Your nose is freezing.”
“Yours isn’t much warmer.”
I pull Hugh upright and urge him toward the house, Eli following behind. “You admitted I caught you when we were dancing,” Eli says in a low voice. “You know that, right?”
Dang.
“Maybe.”
He pulls me toward the door as he closes it, meeting my lips with his for the briefest instant before starting to take off his snow gear. Just enough of a tease to make every thought fly from my mind. “We should see if Seth and Fred want to hang out later,” he says, unzipping his coat. “We could build another snowman in the park. I’ll show you where I make mine every year.”
“Sounds great. Right now, though? I need some hot chocolate.”
THIRTEEN
ELI
I’m absolutely exhausted when I go to bed Thursday night, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Part of it is that after I talked to Jack Wednesday night, I spent another hour working on his gift before I went to bed. That late night bled into an early morning.
Most of it is the movie-perfect snow day I spent with Jack, his family, and our friends. We watched three movies throughout the day that started first thing in the morning, built a snow dog for our snowman (though I think it’s more of a snow blob), played a few games with Mrs. Benson and Janet (and Hugh, when we pretended and randomly threw down cards with him), and met Fred, Seth, and Jack’s friend Kenny at the park.
I pass out within a minute of hitting the pillow Thursday night and wish I could repeat Thursday right when I open my eyes Friday morning. Then I sigh and get ready for school, though Idon’t really mind going. It’s the last day before Christmas break. Yesterday was a preview of the next week I’ll have off. I’ll gladly go back to school today to finish this bit of the year and properly be on break.
We don’t do much in most of our classes, anyway. We watch a holiday short in Spanish, listening to the Spanish dub and reading English subtitles. We have to identify three dimensional shapes we can see in pictures of ornaments in Geometry. Chemistry is pretty interesting. McGee lets us analyze microscope slides with snowflakes he’s preserved over the years. He got one during the storm on Thursday and tells us we can look at it after break, since it needs a few days to be ready.
