Naimh raised her glass in a toast to Sam. "You've got an imagination,

I'll give you that.”

Sam saluted back and took a sip of her drink. After that, though, the room Lapsed into silence. It had been a long day on the mountain, and we were all pretty tired. The alcohol wasn't giving us any energy. If anything, Mari looked rather sleepy drunk, and even Sam was dragging quite a bit.

"A question for everyone," I began several decibels louder than normal conversation. Bleary-eyed Mari looked like she had to wake up just to pay attention. "Did everyone get in enough skiing today? And by that I mean: Do we really need to go back tomorrow?”

Belle leaned forward and dropped her elbows onto her knees.

“What are you suggesting?"

I shrugged.

“I'm suggesting we skip going back to the mountain tomorrow and just sleep in."

Sam frowned.

“Kind of a wasted opportunity being up here and all. We all came here to ski, didn't we?"

Naimh Licked her Lips and snuggled in tighter to me.

“You may have come here to ski. I just came to be with my friends." She emphasized the last word by pecking my cheek

Mari giggled and said to Sam, "You just want to go skiing again because you're the only one who can keep up with him on the slopes."

"No, no," Sam said defensively, holding up a hand palm out.

“Not the motive, I promise. But if we don't take advantage of being up in the snow, what else are we gonna do?"

“We can still get out and enjoy the snow," I reasoned and pointed to my left. "The beach is a few blocks that way, and it's a snowy beach probably well-suited to building snowmen and taking pictures. The cabin has a big shovel and a foam sled, so we can drive up into the hills a bit and see if we can't find a nice place to build a sledding run.

Those are the sorts of things we can all do together as a group."

“NOW you're talking." Zofi plopped her wine glass onto the coffee table. "No more feeling like a cow on ice trying to ski."

I blinked and Let my eyes run up and down Zofi's svelte body.

“Nobody would EVER call you a cow."

Zofi blushed and smiled coyly at me.

Naimh raised her hand. "I vote sleep in and build a snowman tomorrow."

Mari's hand shot up. "I vote sleep in no matter what we do after!"

Belle shrugged.

“I'm good whichever way, actually.”