Page 12 of Texas Christmas

“I think we should make a snow angel.”

“A what?”

She tugged me forward by the hand. “You know, I’ve seen this in movies. You fall backwards in the snow and move your arms and legs to make an angel.”

It sounded vaguely familiar. I didn’t tend to watch television or movies, but when we were kids we would watch Christmas movies with my mother.

“Here.” She pointed to a flat stretch of undisturbed snow. “Turn around.”

She moved us so that our backs faced the area she’d indicated, then grabbed my hand again.

“Okay, on three we fall back. Ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her childlike enthusiasm. I hadn’t expected this from Abby. She seemed to be a pretty serious person, but maybe the tree decorating had gotten her into the Christmas spirit.

“One...two...three!”

We both fell backwards, hands still connected, landing on our backs in the snow. Abby released my hand and started sliding her arms and legs out and back. I followed suit. After a few passes, she gingerly got to her feet and stepped away from the angel.

Her face lit up when she saw the result. It took my breath away. Abby always looked kind of somber and serious, but right now, she looked like a kid, with a huge smile on her face.

“Oh! Look! It worked!”

I rolled to my feet, admiring the two side-by-side snow angels. Abby took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of our work.

“These are beautiful,” she said happily.

“They are beautiful,” I said, turning to face her. “But not as beautiful as you.”

Reaching forward, I pulled her into my arms for a long, hot kiss that left me wanting more.

Abby looked up at me with wide eyes before shivering.

“My ass is wet,” she said. “We should probably get inside.”

She turned in the direction of my house, then suddenly took off at a run.

“Last one to the house gets the last shower.”

I didn’t tell her that there was a second shower behind the house. Instead, I fixed my eyes on that shapely ass with the wet yoga pants plastered to its curves and followed her to my house.

Abby

I woke up the next morning feeling uncharacteristically cheerful. After we’d gotten back last night, Peter and I took turns in the shower. I put on some sweats that his mother had loaned me, and then we sat by the fireplace drinking a glass of whiskey.

By the time we were done, my eyes were heavy. It had been a full day, what with falling out of a tree, inspecting the ranch, meeting Peter’s family, decorating the tree, and making a snow angel. Definitely much more eventful than my typical Sunday, that’s for sure.

When I started to nod off on the couch, Peter took me by the hand, walked me to my room, and after pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, headed into his own room. I’d been sorely tempted to follow him, but then again, I probably would have fallen asleep on him if I’d tried to do anything else.

The sun was shining in the window when I woke up, and I was shocked to see it was after nine o’clock. As a rule, I was an early riser, usually waking before six a.m. to go for a run before I went into the office.

I got dressed and headed downstairs. I wasn’t surprised to see that Peter was gone. A note on the bathroom mirror let me know that he’d gone to take care of the animals. I sucked down a quick cup of coffee from the pot on the counter, then headed out to help him.

Peter was in the goat pen, trying to wrangle the little terrors as they jumped around.

“Do you need any help?” I called.