Page 20 of Falling Like Snow

“Are you okay?” Asher calls, running over from a random yellow sled at the bottom of the hill. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize you’d go so fast—or so far to the right.”

The red saucer comes soaring out of the bushes and lands in the snow next to us with a soft thud. Asher and I turn to find Micah climbing out after it.

“Thank you,” I tell him, picking up the sled.

Micah nods. “No problem.”

“And sorry again,” I say.

“Nothing to be sorry for. I’m glad you’re okay. Maybe get your head checked for a concussion, though”—his mouth swoops into a tilted grin—“or who knows what else might slip out.”

I can only hope my cheeks are red enough from the cold that it hides the fact that they’re burning with embarrassment. “Will do.”

“ ’Kay. Well, hopefully I’ll see you around again,” he says. “Ideally under less hostile circumstances.”

“Yeah… hopefully,” I say with a nervous laugh.

Micah grins as I turn to Asher, whose gaze is darting between me and the tall, handsome hockey player. “You ready to go?” I ask him.

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “You sure you’re okay? I feel awful.”

“I’m good,” I assure him as we head back toward the yellow sled he rode down on. “Don’t feel bad. I’m a little sore, but it was actually—”

“Hey,” the now-familiar deep voice calls from behind me. I pivot to face Micah. “You have pretty irises too, Sloane Sullivan.”

With that, he walks away, leaving me wordless.

Chapter Six

“Of course he knows who you are,” Hannah says from my passenger seat the next evening. “You’re the mayor’s daughter. Literally everyone knows who you are.”

“I guess that’s true,” I say, driving down Oak Avenue in a cute but itchy gray sweater beneath my coat.

“Not to mention it’s Bramble Falls,” she continues. “We’ve all gone to school together our whole lives.”

“Good point.”

I spent all day overanalyzing my entire (short) conversation with Micah, each time coming back to the fact that he knows who I am, despite the two of us running in completely different social circles and having never spoken.

But Hannah’s right. My mom is the face of Bramble Falls. Plus, Micah and I are both juniors, and I’m certainly not some invisible wallflower. Of course he knows who I am—the same way I know who he is.

“Still,” I say, pulling into the parking lot of the high school, where the Jingle and Jam concert is being held in the gymnasium, “he was definitely flirting.”

“I seriously can’t believe Preeti and I skipped sled-riding,” Hannah says, checking her makeup in the visor mirror. “Figures we would miss something interesting.”

“It’s the price you pay when you choose warmth over fun,” I tell her.

“Well, what did Asher say about the flirting?”

“Nothing. We left after the crash, and neither of us brought it up.”

“You didn’t want his take on the vibes?” Hannah asks, closing the visor.

I find a parking space. “Asher and I have never talked about our crushes… or, you know, people who might like us.”

“Um, yeah, because there’s never been anything to talk about,” Hannah points out. “It’s only ever been the two of you. But now that there is something to talk about, it might be helpful to have a guy’s perspective, you know?”

I put the car in park and open my door, grabbing our bag of treats from the Caffeinated Cat on my way out. “Is there something to talk about, though? It was one very short conversation.”