It was the middle of December, the air crisp and clean, snow lightly falling to the ground where it sat, building into a nice layer on the ground . Ashley and I sat inside next to the fireplace, resting against a large pillow, our favorite books in our hands. Becca had gone home to visit family for the holidays, so it was just Ashley and I.
The problem with sitting at home not doing anything physical is that I get antsy. I need to get up and do something. I kept trying to read my book but I couldn't stay focused on it. I think in the three minutes I kept trying to read, I made it through a single paragraph.
Finally, I closed my book and looked out the window, trying to think of something to do that wouldn't drive Ashley absolutely insane, like I usually did when I got this way.
"Honey," she said, putting her hand on my arm. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, baby," I answered. "I'm just starting to get fidgety."
"I can tell." She smiled at me, a warm understanding smile that made my insides melt. "Is there anything I can do?"
"I don't know. You want to go for a walk in the snow?" She thought about it for a minute and said that she would and we got up to get warm clothes on.
A few minutes later, we were ready to go. Both of us in two or three layers of clothes, hats and gloves...the works. Ashley was wearing her snow pants; big bulky things that made funny sounds when she walked. She had on her thick winter jacket while I went with a nice heavy sweatshirt and my black drover coat, which my mum had brought back from Australia, along with some thermal pants, jeans and my waterproof hiking boots. Smiling at each other, we stepped out, the cold wind feeling good against my face.
We held hands as we walked, looking at the houses and their decorations. It felt good to be outside with the woman I loved. We walked along slowly, just enjoying being with each other. I put my arm around her shoulders and she held onto my waist, doing nothing but looking around and talking about unimportant things.
After an hour or so, we realized we had walked clear out of our neighborhood and into a small wooded area behind the development. It took Ashley stepping on a branch to break the spell we had woven, both of us suddenly stopping and looking around, not seeing the trees for the forest, as it were.
Ashley started laughing first, but I joined her quickly. It seemed ridiculous that we could walk what seemed like two or three miles, completely out of our neighborhood and not even notice. I leaned back against a nearby tree and doubled over from laughing so hard, my hands on my knees.
I was taken by surprise when a snowball hit me right in the chest, bits of snow spraying all over the place, hitting me in the face.
I looked up, spitting snow out of my mouth and saw Ashley, her red hair flying as she ran away from me, her infectious laugh echoing in the air. I grinned and ran after her, ducking under tree branches and around bushes. This was exactly what I needed.
I kept up the chase for about a minute and realized she was heading for the stream that ran through the woods. I smiled and changed course, taking a route that would get me to the stream before Ashley's zig zagging path.
She came to a clearing and turned to look for me and realized I wasn't there.
"Will? Are you there? Where'd you go?"
I thought about letting this go on and letting her get scared but I wasn't that kind of guy. She'd be angrier than anything and probably end up kicking my ass. Instead, I ran out from my hiding place behind the small bushes and grabbed her around the waist and dragged her to the ground, laughing the entire time.
Ashley rolled with my tackle and ended up on top of me, falling to my side, laughing loudly, her breath clouding the air. I laughed along with her, holding her close to me, both of us lying on my coat in the snow. She leaned over and kissed me, her breath warm against my lips. I returned her kiss and then smiled, the two of us just resting there, looking up through the snow kissed trees into the cloud-whitened sky.
Ashley grinned at me and whispered in my ear. "I have an idea."
I turned my head and looked at her, raising my eyebrows.
She leaned in and licked my ear. "Snow angels!" She rolled off of my coat and laid in the snow, waving her arms and legs madly, indeed making a snow angel. All I could do was laugh.
"Come on, you stick in the mud! Make snow angels!"
I shook my head and shrugged out of my coat and lay down next to her and started making a snow angel. Ashley surprised me by suddenly getting up and diving over me onto my coat, leaving me there in the snow. I looked over at her and she laughed, unzipping her coat.
"Great," she said. "Now I'm getting warm." I simply grinned at her and she continued laughing. I crawled over to her and lay down next to her on my coat. I quickly pulled up her shirt and blew a raspberry on her belly, which I knew tickled her immensely, but it seemed like the perfect thing to do.
She tried to curl up in a ball, laughing all the while, and then laid back down as I stopped and smiled down at her. She looked up at me and bit her lip, which she knew I found sexy. She shivered from the cold. I hadn't pulled her shirt back down. I looked down at her flat tummy and saw that she had snowflakes on her skin. I looked Ashley in the eye and moved my mouth to her stomach.
I looked up at her from there and stuck out my tongue, licking away a single snowflake. She gasped and moved her hand to my head as I moved my tongue across her skin to another snowflake, gently licking it off of her. He chest rose sharply and her green eyes closed as my tongue touched her.
