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“What?”
“Your entire family is all kinds of interesting. Let’s make a snowman to represent each one of you. Maya the rockstar oncologist, Korina the badass social worker, Myles the buff veterinarian, and Helene the talented barre instructor. Then there’s your dad, a commanding principal, and your mom’s a financial whiz. And then there’s you…” I trail off, at a loss for words.
“You’re amazing.” Matthew brushes my cheek with his gloved hand. The tip of his nose is red, and I want to tiptoe to kiss it.
“Matthew, I want this—us—forever,” I say confidently. “I mean it. For the rest of my life.”
“Yeah?” His eyebrows quirk up, and a wide smile pulls across his face.
He wants this too.
“I do.” He pulls me right into his arms in the middle of the cramped upstairs hallway. “I love hearing you murmur at the crosswords in the mornings. I love the way you give Bear and me a kiss on the forehead when you get home, and how nerdy you are and how nerdy I can be with you. I want to be your family.”
“I want to spend my life with you too.” He picks me up off the ground and kisses me.
My heart flutters with joy, almost rupturing at the seams.
This is seriously the kind of thing that only happens in books. I mean, the man I’ve had a crush on for years is kissing me in his childhood home, and we’re agreeing to spend our lives together?
Madison rushes past us, shoving us out of the way. “See ya, losers,” she chides, bringing us back to the present.
We’ll talk about our plans, and maybe even our real engagement, after we beat his siblings to a pulp.
“We have a game to win.” I spring into action. We need, um—” I count the members of his family in my head, adding myself. “Twenty-two medium-sized snowballs and twenty-two small ones. Go get started; I’ll collect everything we need.”
“On it.” Matthew and I exchange another kiss, but it’s not just any kiss. It’s the kind of kiss that lingers long after it’s over. He sighs, pulling back. “But only because I want to crush Myles.”
“Me too.”
I speed through the house, grabbing ribbons and twigs, searching frantically for supplies like my life depends on it.This isn’t a snowman-building competition anymore—it’s war.
By the time I return to Matthew, he’s rolled most of the snowguys and snowgals, each one standing two feet tall.
We scramble to put together the final touches.Charcoal stains my gloves as I make each snow face out of the coal Mary handed me when I rushed out of the house.
The ribbons around Madison and Gabby’s snow necks whip in the wind. A pair of my Chanel ballet slippers lies by Helene’s snow feet. I drape a stethoscope over the snowlady meant to be Maya.
Maya and I had a chance to talk and clear the air. I know she would never intentionally try to cause a rift between her brother and me. She was so concerned that I’d hurt Matthew, I don’t even blame her. In a way, I’m glad she told me first, because it gave me a bit of time to process the reality of what Matthew was going to share with me.
“Those are going to be my mom and dad.” Matthew motions to the larger snowmen in the back as he drapes a scarf over the one that resembles his father. I shuck off my bright green ski jacket, tossing it over the snowman that’s meant to be Mary.
“Perfect.” I smile, barely feeling the cold. Matthew stabs branches and sticks into the sides of the snowy bodies.
An idea springs into my mind, and I drop to my knees, shuffling over to the pair of snowmen resembling Matthew and me. He has a pair of glasses on his snow face, and mine is holding a small book and wearing bright pink lipstick. Quickly, I form a small shape on the ground beside us.
“Is that Bear?” Matthew asks behind me, noting the pointy ears I’m finishing up.
“Of course; he’s family.”
“You’re something else.” He picks me up, kissing me again as the airhorn sounds.
Game over.
“Time to wrap it up, folks! Let’s boogie to the deck,” Jack hollers in a voice that only a man who’s been the principal of an elementary school for twenty years can manage.
In the distance, the other siblings’ creations stand tall and proud. Myles and Helene’s snowman is massive, probably ten feet high, with a Red Sox baseball cap perched on top like a cherry.
“Boooo!” Madison jeers. “Yankees all the way!”
