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“That’s one advantage of it, I suppose,” Tess sighed. “Were Anna and I at least decent players?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely.” He glanced at Anna, hoping she wouldn’t think he was already backtracking on what he’d claimed outside by making a false statement. “You both played well, and you learned surprisingly quickly, Anna. I was actually pretty relieved by that; it made it a lot easier for me to pull off my scheme.”
“I suppose I’m happy to have been of service,” Anna replied, smiling.
“You’re both very intelligent, and none of you made any glaringly bad mistakes last night. I wouldn’t put it past any of you being better than me if you’d had my uncle as yours.”
“He does this a lot, Anna,” Tess said, leaning around him to see her. “He undersells himself, almost chronically. He’d be your underclassman at Bellmore if he realized how talentedheis.”
“I’m just saying what I believe to be true,” Liam replied defensively. “I don’t think I’m underselling myself.”
Tess fired a pointed look at him. “Really? With everything that’s happened recently, I would think you’d finally consider raising your self-judgment.” She beckoned at the woman sitting on his other side, but they both knew that was an obfuscation.
“Maybe,” he admitted, warmth needling his face.
“Confidence is important, and you deserve to feel confident,” Tess said, an air of finality punctuating her statement.
Before an awkward silence chafed his skin for too long, Anna came to his rescue.
“I think the snow should be good to go. Shall we go check?”
“Yes, let’s,” Tess said, standing up first. She ushered them up, and then the three of them began constructing their igloo.
Chapter Twenty-Three
What Confidence Looks Like
If there’d been any doubt before that Anna had built at least a few igloos in her time, it vanished the moment she took the handsaw to the pile of snow they’d created an hour ago, which had turned stiff thanks to the water, time, and chilly weather compressing upon it. The first block soon emerged, and she smiled. Removing the loose snow clinging to it and then slicing away the imperfections she’d found until it emerged as a proper block, they received their first workable block.
While Anna cut more, Tess took one of the shovels at Anna’s discretion and tramped down the snow where the younger woman had decided they would place their igloo. Ten, twenty, eventually thirty rectangular blocks were cut from the pile of snow, which still had plenty left to shave off.
“Okay, this is the part where we want to build our first layer,” Anna explained. “We want to make sure that we lay them close to each other, but then shave the blocks by cutting the seams between them so that they point toward the center of our circle before we press them together.” She pointed at the scissors and the yarn attached to it. “We can stretch that out to the block as we go higher and higher; it’s a good general baseline for how steep we want to cut the angles. After that, we’ll want to slope the tops of the blocks so they also angle toward the center of our igloo. That’s how we make sure we get the dome shape we’re after and avoid the walls from collapsing as we go higher and higher.”
With him and Tess trusting her expertise, the three of them got to work. Warned by his mind that he’d pay for it later, he still volunteered for the role of muscle, carrying the cut blocks, which Tess would take over the role of making more of, to Anna, who began working on shaping the blocks while kneeling in the circle she’d made earlier.
Over about thirty minutes, they ended up with two rings of the igloo built, their ends and tops sloped to Anna’s satisfaction. While carrying over his two-dozenth block, Liam’s muscles started to groan at him for the elongated strain he’d put on them. However, he kept his woes to himself, not wanting to be the one who interrupted the good pace they were making.
“Do you think you could plug the gaps you see with snow?” Anna asked, giving him a welcome break from carrying the blocks.
By the time they completed the third ring of their igloo, Anna decided it was time for them to discuss creating the door.
“Would you like to do it, Liam?” she asked.
“I don’t want to ruin it if I mess up,” he quickly said, glad Tess didn’t overhear. She’d probably have huffed at him again for his self-pessimism.
“It’ll be fine, trust me.” Anna smiled.
And so, he relented.
It turned out that they still had plenty of time before he’d cut the door, but they’d needed to decide who would do it soon. With Tess having reduced their enormous pile of snow to a little blip left in her yard, most of the snow blocks they’d need were all just waiting for their turn to be added to the igloo.
Before adding a fourth ring, they moved the cut blocks into the igloo. Afterward, Anna had him climb over the three-tiered wall they’d so far made and join her and those blocks. From there, they made the fourth ring, which made it pretty much impossible for him or Anna to get out without likely wrecking part of the wall.
“Okay,” Anna said, smiling at him as she handed over the trowel, pointing at the best spot for him to make their shared entrance and exit. “All you need to do is cut us a door. Go all the way through with your thrust, then saw away.”
“Anything else?”
Anna shook her head. “No. It will be fine. When you’re done, bring the block in here. We’ll use it as part of the overhang of our tunnel out later.”
