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“Where to? Sledding?” Chris asked. “Holly’s probably there with Felix now.”

Annie wasn’t sure if her body was quite ready to be hurled down a hill in some sort of plastic vehicle, but she moved mindlessly with the rest of the group upward to the sledding point, where Jimmy was eagerly waving to her.

“Miss Annie! Miss Annie! Ride with me!” Jimmy yelled. His sled was absolutely massive and had two designated seats that allowed them both plenty of space between them to comfortably share. Annie crunched through the snow to get closer.

“See you ‘snowpokes’ at the bottom!” Annie waved. Once she stepped into her sled with Jimmy, they moved in glorious slow motion; her hair flowed in the wind, and Annie let her arms go up like she was on a roller coaster. For a few moments, she was weightless and free, and it was a glorious bliss that ended all too soon.

“Again!” Annie demanded once the sled had come to a complete stop. She stared at Jimmy, assuming he would be just as eager to return to the slope together too.

“Oh, sorry, Miss Annie, my mom’s calling me,” Jimmy shrugged, abandoning the sled.

“Tell your mom to wait,” Annie demanded, her eyes wide and pleading. God, I sound so creepy, Annie cringed, but I need one more fix. A moment later, Bailey and Nick’s sled stopped gracefully a few feet away.

“Oh, what fun!” Bailey smiled, her cheeks looking exceptionally rosy in the evening light. She stood up, managing to somehow exit the giant sled in such an elegant manner that it looked rehearsed. Just then, Chris and Holly came giggling down the hill, and Bailey put out her two arms for each of them to grab but by doing so they managed to pull her down with them, all of them erupting into buoyant laughter.

Annie was in no mood for silly antics; she needed to glide down that hill again. She narrowed her eyes and decided to haul the heavy sled back up by herself. But without saying a word, Nick took the entire sled from Annie and lifted it above his head, maneuvering it up the hill, not bothering to glance back at Annie’s look of surprise as she stomped behind him. When they got to the top, Nick put the sled down and let out a breath, the only sign that carrying that beast back up alone had perhaps been a tad more challenging than he had let on.

“That was … wow … thank you,” Annie finally stammered. “I wanted to try it one more time,” she tried to explain, feeling foolish at her ferocity.

“Yeah, I could tell and was not about to get in the way,” Nick said, making his way back down the hill, sans sled.

“Wait,” Annie said, stopping him. “Do you want a ride down?”

“Yeah, honestly, I was hoping you’d ask,” Nick said with a big smile.

“I’m taking the front seat,” Annie warned him, and he nodded in understanding. When they were given the signal that they were clear to go, Nick held the sled and allowed Annie to get situated before pulling the sled back a bit farther.

“What are you doing?” Annie turned back to ask.

“Giving us a running start!” Nick exclaimed with a wicked grin. Annie’s eyes widened in childish excitement. Nick ran, and the jolt of motion turned Annie forward. After a few steps, he hurled himself inside the sled, almost missing the seat but landing with a loud triumphant laugh Annie couldn’t help but echo.

And then they soared, the hill wide and endless beneath them. Annie could feel the grip she had spent so long clenching loosen in an exhilarating rush. She turned her head to see Nick behind her, laughing and radiating unbridled joy. Annie flushed with the feeling of flying. When they landed back at the bottom of the hill, giggling and shaking snowflakes from their clothes, it was all too clear and unavoidable. She had done it. She had fallen madly for not just the thrill of riding in a sled, but for the man who had shared it with her. Nick.

“That looked enchanting!” Eve called to Annie, coming closer to offer her gloved hands.

“It was!” Annie exclaimed, taking Eve’s hands and stepping out of the sled. Annie turned to Nick, but he was literally rolling himself out of his position and into a pile of snow. After making a rogue snow angel, he jumped up to join them and grabbed the sled. Annie’s heart raced, needing to share her revelation.

“Have you had the chance to ride yet?” Nick asked, and Eve shook her head, looking toward Ferguson. “You take this one and you and Ferguson can try it together.”

Eve beamed at the idea and waved Ferguson closer.

“Have fun!” Annie cheered to Eve before stepping out of the designated sledding area and searching for a place to have a private conversation with Nick, the words desperate to free themselves from her chest.

“There you two are, you silly gooses!” Bailey laughed, running over to Nick. She looped her arm through Nick’s to pull him closer.

“Pretty sure the plural of goose is geese,” Annie said.

“We need to pick a Christmas tree!” Bailey exclaimed to Nick.

“Don’t you already have several?” Annie asked, knowing full well there were decorated trees in every corner of town. Bailey continued to ignore Annie and dragged Nick to a lot of bare trees for sale, skipping all the way. “Oh, Nick, listen!” Bailey swooned, putting her head toward a speaker playing music. “It’s our song!”

“An instrumental version of a random, vaguely Christmasy song is ‘your song’?” Annie asked, but as expected, Bailey ignored her yet again, too lost in the moment. Instead, she hummed, already eyeing nearby tree options, deep in contemplation.

“I’m not like all the other girls,” Bailey explained, slowly making her way through the first few trees, gracefully placing herself between trees like she was in some sort of elaborate ballet. “I’m all in on the Charlie Brown Christmas trees! I know, I know, I’m so quirky, right?” Bailey giggled, turning to admire a small tree. “But the sparser the better, if you ask me. It offers more space to love it. And it helps me to remember the more important parts of the holiday season—we’re meant to be treasuring the simple things.” Bailey stared off into the distance, allowing her eyes to go misty before she let out a laugh and turned down another row of trees.

“Is a Christmas tree monologue by a manic pixie dream girl needed for a made-for-TV Christmas movie, because Bailey just checked that off for us,” Annie eyed Nick. “Seeking a Charlie Brown tree must be a requirement of every holiday heroine, right? I could have written that line, and I don’t even watch Christmas movies.”

“You don’t watch Christmas movies?” Chris blinked at Annie, crestfallen at her admission as he suddenly stepped beside them.