Snowy Delights

 

*******

 

"Come on!" Daniel shouted from downstairs.

 

"I'm almost done!"

 

"The snow will be gone but the time you're finished!"

 

A couple of minutes later, he saw her rushing down the stairs, pulling down her thick sweater. "Okay, I'm finished."

 

Daniel kept looking at her as if two horns had suddenly sprung out from the top of her head. "What took you so long?" he said and chuckled.

 

"I… uh, I had to shave my legs," she responded with her eyes on the coat hanging on the wall behind Daniel.

 

"I thought you girls did that less in winter time," he spoke with a smile. Sam seemed slightly embarrassed by her previous answer and he found it sweet.

 

"Ah, well," she took her coat and scarf, "if I really abandon that, an entire forest will form, and believe me, that is not a good site."

 

"Okay."

 

Sam smiled and opened the door. When she stepped outside it nearly managed to take her breath away. "Wow…" Apart from the clean street, everything else had been covered by the thick blanket of pearly white snow.

 

"I… second that," was Daniel's response to this simple but beautiful site.

 

Both stood there for a few moments, admiring what was before them. It looked pretty through the window, but it looked gorgeous this way.

 

Zipping up his winter jacket and securing his black cap on his head, Daniel took Sam's hand and stepped away. "Come on," he said.

 

It was early in the morning, around 7 perhaps. And yet, as they walked down the barely shuffled snow, they saw large groups of kids on almost every corner, laughing and running around, enjoying themselves in this snowy morning. The parents must've been still in bed, apart from a few worrying mothers, allowing their little ones to go crazy.

 

"Boy, I remember when I was their age," Sam said with a smile, when Daniel placed his arm over her shoulders, bringing her closer to him. "My brother and I would be out here for ages after the first snow."

 

"Snowball fights?"

 

"Plenty!"

 

"Let me guess, he beat you every time," Daniel said, looking at her.

 

"Are you kidding? I beat his ass every single time!"

 

"That must've been humiliating for him."

 

"You've no idea," Sam chuckled.

 

When they reached the park, it had even more kids there and this time with a lot of parents. Snowmen over there, snow pyramids over here; two young girls lying on the ground, flapping their arms and legs, trying to make snow angels. The laughter, the simple enjoyment of the visitors somehow made it perfect, too good to be true, but it wasn't something Daniel or Sam were going to complain about.

 

"It's nice to see everyone having fun here," Daniel said.

 

"Yeah, after the chaos we see so often at work, this is a wonderful change."

 

Daniel kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arm. "Good thing that we decided to take this walk then."

 

"Definitely," she smiled at him and kissed his lips. She then turned her head and stopped.

 

"Hey!" She pulled away from his embrace and took his hand.

 

"What?" He appeared confused when she started pulling him away from the small path they had been walking on and dragged them over to the rare spots of undisturbed snow.

 

"Let's build a snowman!" she exclaimed.

 

He laughed. "A snowman?"

 

"Yeah! Come on! It's never too late to be a kid again!" Sam sounded like a child ready to jumps up and down in excitement.

 

"Sure," he said and shrugged.

 

They gathered a small lump of snow and began rolling it on the ground, making it bigger and bigger with each roll until it reached the height of their knees. Another lump was then gathered and rolled along the ground until it became bigger but smaller than the first one. "One more," Sam said and took a third lump, this time smaller than the other two and placed it on top of the second big snowball. "Hmm, the body's done correctly but the face…."

 

"I'll be right back," Daniel said and quickly ran away.

 

"Daniel, what?" Sam watched him go with a bewildered stare. She sighed and looked back at their faceless snowman.

 

Minutes later, he returned with a small paper bag in his hands. "Okay, so…." He pulled out a carrot and handed it to Sam. "For the nose." Two apples were next. "For the eyes." And five berries. "For the mouth."

 

Sam couldn't help but laugh at this. "My God… what, no chalk?"

 

"They only had fruits and vegetables," he said and smiled.

 

"Huh, good enough," she grinned and took the apples. When they were placed on the snowman's face, Daniel took the berries and aligned them under the carrot in a form of a smile.

 

They noticed two fallen sticks on the ground and took them. The snowman now had arms. "All that it's missing is a scarf and hat but… a bald snowman is fun," Sam said and chuckled.

 

"And a very handsome one!" Daniel laughed.

 

"Ohh… wow!" A small girl came up to the newly build snowman. "Awesome!" she said.

 

"You like it?" Sam asked her, seeing the happy reaction on this adorable girl's face.

 

"Yeah!" The little girl nodded with a big grin. "Hey dad!" she shouted.

 

It wasn't long before her father appeared with a digital camera in his hands. "That's pretty good." He looked at Daniel and Sam's little creation. "Hey, could you take a picture of us?" he asked them.

 

"Sure," Daniel agreed. The father and daughter ran up to the snowman and posed for the camera as Daniel took the photo.

 

"Thank you," the father said and lifting up the little girl in his hands, he took the camera back.

 

"You're welcome."

 

"Where are your kids?" he asked Daniel and Sam.

 

"Oh, uh, we're not married," Sam said, feeling a blush coming on.

 

"Oh, these days you don't have to be married to have kids," the father laughed.

 

"No, no, we don't have any. That's what she meant," Daniel told him.

 

"Oh, my apologies. You looked like parents to me," he said, feeling a little embarrassed by this. "And with so many kids running around, you building a snowman, I figured your kids must be over there," he nodded at the group of children playing not very far from here.

 

"That's okay. We're actually planning on having one soon," Daniel said and took Sam's hand who tried to hide her blush and her shock at his response at the same time.

 

"Well, you'll love having one, or more. They're a little pain when they're babies but after they start walking… They're great, they really are," the father said and hugged his daughter. "Danielle is my little angel." The little girl giggled to this.

 

"She looks like one, too," Sam smiled and pinched the girl's cheek gently. Danielle giggled again.

 

"Have fun in the snow," the father said and walked away with Danielle.

 

"You too!" Sam said and smiled. "Danielle…. That's a nice name."

 

"Yeah."

 

"It could go well for us if it happens to be a girl," she said and leaned onto him while tugging on his sleeve.

 

Daniel chuckled. "You know I was kidding."

 

"Yeah… but it sounded nice enough," she said, her lips close to his chin. She kissed it.

 

"You'd actually like to have kids with me one day?" he looked down at her with his warm eyes.

 

"I would," she whispered with a soft smile.

 

He could not conceal his grin. Trying to support her weight on him as she was still leaning there, almost hanging onto him, he brushed her cheek with his other hand and kissed her… longer this time.

 

A big snowball suddenly hit his back. Both quickly turned around and saw a small bunch of kids, between the ages of eight and twelve, standing there, giggling innocently at the pair. "Lady and Mister sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" they started singing.

 

Daniel and Sam looked at each other with a small grin. "They're making fun of us," he hummed at her.

 

"They are," she hummed back.

 

Another snowball hit his arm. "Hey!" Daniel huffed. "Aright, that's it!" he said with a smirk and took some snow. "You want war? You got it!" He said and threw the newly made snowball at the kids who ran away with giggles. Some retrieved behind a short wall made of snow; others began gathering new "ammunition."

Sam started gathering snow to make some snowballs of her own. "You asked for it!" she yelled at the kids with a smile when a snowball flew over her head.

 

"The Lady is angry!" A little girl, not older than 10 giggled and hid behind the wall.

 

"And you shall taste her fury!" Sam chuckled and threw a snowball.

 

Four snowballs flew towards Sam and Daniel and they retaliated with two of their own and two more that swiftly followed.

 

"You won't win!" A small boy yelled and giggled.

 

"Oh, we will!" Daniel replied and threw another snowball.

 

Twenty minutes later, when the "supplies" on both sides were exhausted, the "war" finally ended without a victor.

 

"Oh, man!" Sam tried to catch her breath. "Feisty for their age!" she said and laughed.

 

"Yeah. Scary actually," Daniel said with a grin and caught Sam who was ready to fall down.

 

Holding her, Daniel slowly sat down on the snow along with Sam even though both were covered with remains of their battle. A grin was still visible on her face. "That was fun," she said and nodded, seeing the kids, finding other diversions.

 

"I agree."

 

"Brave of you to defend your lady like that," she said and brought her face closer to his.

 

"It was my honor," he replied and put his arm around her.

 

"You are my knight in shining armor," she said and kissed him slowly.

 

"Mm… always, my lady…" he said with a British accent and kissed her back, adding some tongue.

 

They sat there for a while, watching the kids and adults continuing to play in the snow. Soon, tiny snowflakes were becoming visible in the sky.

 

"Started snowing again…" she said softly.

 

"Right on time," he replied.

 

"It looks romantic…"

 

"It most definitely does."

 

It started getting dark. She looked at their watch. "Four PM? When did four PM come?"

 

"The brain forgets about the passing of time when the person is engaged in a fun activity," he said.

 

Daniel stood up and then pulled Sam up. "And after the cold… I'm in the mood for something hot…" he said and came closer to her.

 

"Aha," Sam licked her lips and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Care to give me an example?"

 

"Hot chocolate?" he said.

 

"Oh, you!" she hit him on the stomach and pulled away, leaving him laughing.

 

"You asked!" he said and took her hand. He kissed her cheek and pulled her closer to him as they started heading back.

 

"You know… we did everything today that there is to do on a snow-rich day except a snow angel," he told her after a while.

 

"I think you're right…" she nodded and noticed a large pile of snow by the house. "So…" she quickly pulled away and pushed him on the pile.

 

"Hey!" He fell on his back. "Aren't you supposed to do this on the ground?"

 

"Would you have preferred me pushing you down to the much colder, harder ground?" she said with raised eyebrows.

 

He said nothing but smiled. His arms and legs started moving and pretty soon, he appeared like a snowy angel himself.

 

"Well, that's the sweetest thing I saw today," she chuckled and then fell onto him.

 

"Thank you," he grinned and kissed her. The kisses began softly and then … they became deeper and deeper.

 

"Mmmm… what about the hot chocolate?" she asked in a low voice with her half-closed eyes and wet lips.

 

"It can wait…" he replied and gathered her lips again.

 

Nothing like a good day with snow.

 

*******

 

 

THE END