I phoned my mother and told her we were still stuck. She said a few of the out-of-town relatives weren't able to make it to the wedding at all, but fortunately most of them – the ones who hadn't had to plan the trip around college classes like Zoey and me – had shown up a few days early.
The wedding wasn't until tomorrow evening, and the highway was supposed to be open by tomorrow morning, so we weren't going to miss it.
Zoey and I decided to explore the town, which didn't take very long at all. The sun was out, but it was bitterly cold. Zoey leaned her body into mine as we walked, and I took that as an invitation to put my arm around her and hold her close. It felt as if I were with a girlfriend, and I knew that wasn't right, but I liked it.
And I guess for the next twenty-four hours, she
was
my girlfriend. Sort of.
We were probably in and out of every store in town before noon, the high point being the fifteen minutes we spent wandering through the 7-11. Zoey picked out a pair of cheap mittens, and insisted on treating me to a pair as well.
We wandered back to the motel, and I wasn't sure what would happen next: what I
wanted
to do was go back to the room, strip her down to her yellow panties, and kiss her – but I wasn't sure she'd go for that. I wasn't sure what the ground rules were, and in fact we'd never really kissed.
We'd made one another cum, but we hadn't kissed.
What happened next, though, was as we were walking through the motel lobby, the girl behind the counter – she was a few years older than us, I guess – said "Say, do you guys like to sled?"
Zoey and I looked at one another. "Sure, I guess," we both said pretty much at the same time.
"There's a big fucking hill right behind the parking lot," the girl said, "and my brother's sled is propped up next to the utility building next to it. You guys are welcome to borrow it."
"Sure," I said, and at the same time Zoey said "Thanks."
"We have to go to the room first," Zoey said. I wasn't sure why; but as soon as we got there, she opened her little suitcase, and quickly stripped down to her bra and panties. She saw that I looked confused, and showed me a pair of thermal underwear, tops and bottoms. "It gets insanely cold by Grandma's in February sometimes," she told me, pulling on the thermals. "You didn't bring a pair, just in case?"
I shrugged, mostly thinking I was sorry to see Zoey's underwear being covered up by thermals.
"Your loss," she said, layering her jeans and sweater over the thermals. She put her shoes back on, grabbed her jacket, and said "Let's sled."
It was a pretty nice sled, sort of a steerable toboggan – I guess when you live in Frostbite Falls, a good sled is a good investment – and there was more than enough room for both of us to ride. She insisted on riding in front, so she could feel the wind on her face, and that left her in charge of steering. I wrapped by arms around her and I
guess
I had my hands on her breasts: but through a parka, a winter shirt, a thermal top and a bra, it was hard to tell.
The first time down the hill, we just went straight, full speed.
The second time, she made us swerve several times, shouting "Yee-ha!" every time she almost made us capsize.
"Women drivers," I muttered as I dragged the toboggan back up the hill. And then "Ow!" as she punched me in the arm (though of course I didn't feel much through my own parka and winter shirt).
I stopped walking and kissed her
"Are you ready for Zoey's Wild Ride?" she asked me as we got ready for our third run.
"No!"
"Good," she said, as we began our nightmare descent.
This time she was too reckless: halfway down the hill the toboggan flipped over. I got thrown off, and she got dragged through the deep snow before she finally came to a stop. It looked like her head was actually under the snow for a few seconds.
I got to me feet and ran over to her. "Zoey, are you okay?"
I helped her to her feet. She was shivering uncontrollably. "I-I think so. The snow was s-soft." She took a few steps, just to prove to both us us that she could. "So f-f-fucking cold. Donny, I have snow in places, uh, places you haven't seen seen yet."
I helped her, half-carried her, up the hill and to our room. She had a few scratches on her face, but seemed otherwise okay. She sat down on one of the beds, depositing a pile of snow on it, and I went into the bathroom to start a hot shower going.
She was still shivering when I came out, fumbling with the zipper of her parka. "I'm going to be s-so black and b-b-blue by tomorrow," she said.
"Let me do that for you," I said. I removed her parka, then pulled her sweater and her thermal top over her head. More snow fell to the bed with every layer I removed. No wonder she was still shivering: she was carrying half of last night's blizzard around with her.
I pulled off her shoes, socks, jeans and thermal bottoms. And I could see she hadn't been joking: she
