Wicked Winters: A Collection of Winter Tales

by Lucy Smoke

  "Sounds simple enough," he said as he took the map and folded it, sliding it into the back pocket of his jeans. "When will you be stopping by?"

  "Uh..." I pretended to flick through my schedule, but in reality, I had already worked out exactly every single minute of my time tonight so that I knew where I would be every moment, doing my best to ensure no crossover. "Around seven thirty. I should have all the volunteers in place by then and can leave the warmth of the gas heater around about that time to start my rounds. I promised the girl I replaced that I would take as many photos for her as possible and text them through."

  "Great, okay, well I guess I will see you in about an hour then," he replied as he smiled down at me. "Is it against the rules for the organizer to enter a snowman in the competition?"

  "Nope, I am allowed to enter, we have an independent board of judges." I shot him a smirk.

  "Oh yeah? Who?"

  "The local elementary school, there will be a group of them running around tonight, with the official votes tallied tomorrow."

  He let out a chuckle. "That is an independent board. Well, I have an idea in mind that should impress our judges." He flashed his dimple at me before turning to Steph, who was avidly watching us like a tennis match, with her head bouncing from side to side. "Ladies first," he said as he gestured in front of him.

  I watched as Steph and Christian wandered off towards the snowman stall, nervous that Steph would slip up in her role. We had rationalized that there was definitely more than one Stephanie at Boston College to get away with her pairing up with him. As long as she didn’t say her last name, we should be sweet. And since she had already told me that she didn’t recognize any of the guys from the team photo I had shown her a few days ago, I thought we would be fine.

  As they disappeared around the corner, I let out a sigh. One down, two to go.

  It was going to be a long night.

  I checked my phone. Vinnie would be arriving in eight minutes.

  I glanced up at James. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I’m sorry about your date.”

  “Yeah Hayden, it’s okay. Whatever you need to get the article written. I just want to protect Steph. Any luck on finding out more information?” James replied.

  “Not yet, but I am hoping that tonight I can put pressure on each of them separately. See if I can push them into either telling me something or making a move.” I’d been thinking about it all afternoon trying to come up with ways I could interrogate each of them without it looking suspicious. I’d also decided that I was going to angle for an invite back to their place. The first one to make the offer would be who I accepted. I just hoped I’d be able to sneak out in the morning without being seen by the other two.

  At this point, I was okay with my name appearing on the Puck Board if it got me closer to writing the article. I was strong enough to deal with a few hockey players for a few days until I was able to publish the story.

  Checking the time again I realized I had one minute. I felt my phone vibrate with an incoming text.

  Vinnie: Just parked, see you soon Scoop ;)

  My heart gave a tiny thud of excitement. If circumstances were different, I would have dated any of these three guys. They all made me laugh, they all had this weird thing about feeding me yummy food, and it didn’t hurt that they were gorgeous. Again, I wondered how that was even possible. In my research of pro NHL players, I found that the majority of them were missing teeth, had noses that had been fractured multiple times, and busted cheekbones. Yet these three looked like they had walked off the set of a movie. All. The. Time. It was annoying.

  “Incoming,” James muttered.

  Deep breath, Hayden!

  I turned to face Vinnie, only to be swept up into a hug that had my feet coming off the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck, closing my eyes as I breathed in his cologne. Deep and musky, with a hint of fruit at the end. I opened my eyes and saw James watching my face with a furrowed brow.

  I quickly released Vinnie, giving him a playful slap on the shoulder. “Vinnie! Put me down.”

  “Sorry Scoop, you just looked so cute standing there, worrying over your festival, I wanted to put a smile on your face.” His tone seemed contrite as he lowered me to the ground. Which of course made me smile.

  “Well, mission accomplished,” I said with a little salute. Vinnie had on a black leather jacket, probably a protective one for his bike and charcoal acid washed jeans. His hair was done perfectly, as always, with his stud catching the flickering light from the gas heater.

  He just chuckled at my antics.

  “Vinnie, this is James. He’s your stall buddy. James, Vinnie.”

  Vinnie held his hand out to James. “Nice to meet you man.”

  Steph had confirmed for James that she hadn’t been bothered by Vinnie, Christian, or Justin, but that didn’t stop James from giving him the stink eye.

  I coughed under my breath to break the awkward tension, which forced James to put his hand out with a curt, “Likewise.”

  If I’d been concerned about Steph blowing our cover earlier, I was more than worried about James. In his mind, his girl had been slighted by the hockey team, when in reality it was only one ass at this point. And with his chivalrous nature, I was honestly scared he would call Vinnie on it.

  “Hey, aren’t you the sports journalist from The Press? The paper Scoop edits?” Vinnie asked, as he looked between the two of us.

  “Scoop?” James inquired.

  “Uh, yeah it’s my nickname,” I quickly replied to James with a strained smile before turning to Vinnie. “And yes he is, James goes to all of your home games, and when we have the additional money available we send him to your away games.”

  “Yeah, I thought I recognized you. Well, if you’re having a hard time getting to a game, let me know. I’ll talk to coach and see if we can score you a seat on the bus,” Vinnie offered.

  James looked a little torn, battling between not liking the guy because he was a hockey player ergo a Puck Games participant and liking the guy for making a really nice offer with no seeming strings attached. It was nice to see someone else struggling to stay free of Vinnie’s charms.

  “Ah thanks, that would be great, I guess.” James nodded as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

  “Great, I’ll set it up. So, what’s our stall, Scoop never mentioned it.” Vinnie spoke with a mock scowl.

  I smiled sheepishly. “Oh, right. Sorry, you two are at the miniature tree stall.”

  “Miniature trees? For the students in dorm rooms, right?” Vinnie asked as I nodded. “That’s awesome. I remember in my freshman year, I wished I could have had a Christmas tree. Big Italian families always go all out for Christmas. The lack of a tree that year made me really homesick. Hopefully, this helps anyone else that suffers that same issue.”

  “Being homesick?” I asked. My heart melted for the home sick kid.

  “No, big Italian families. Seriously, everything is always a production and way over the top, but I love them. They’re hard not to miss,” he replied, a touch of melancholy washed over his face.

  A small chuckle escaped me. “Do they live far from here?”

  “Oh no, only about fifteen minutes or so, depending on traffic. But that’s like the other side of the country for them. Unless I live in my mother’s house, I don’t get to see them very often.”

  I let out a little laugh. Fifteen minutes? The poor guy. My family was a flight away in New York.

  “You should come meet them sometime. You’ll love them,” he stated, his face earnest in his offer.

  My brain literally short circuited. Did he invite all Pucks to meet his family? If so, then wow, but I doubted Vinnie would play it that way. Not that I knew him well enough, but what with his momma being Italian, she’d probably kill him if she found out about the Puck Games.

  Especially if it was published in the school paper…

  “All right, how about we head over to our stall before peop
le start stealing the trees?” James interrupted, clearly saving me.

  “Sure thing, see you later Scoop. We can pick out a tree for your dorm!” Vinnie called out as he started to walk off.

  I mouthed, “Thank you,” to James as he turned and left.

  I brought my hand up to rub my eyes, but instantly stopped myself, remembering the makeup I had put on before coming to the festival. On top of everything else, I did not need panda eyes. I settled for pinching the bridge of my nose.

  Come on Hayden, you’ve got this. You have them all separated by two stalls, they are permanently stationed, they are all arriving at separate times. Only like, I glanced at my phone, five minutes until Justin arrived and then three hours until it was all over, and I would hopefully have an invite back to their place.

  This is a terrible idea and you know it. What’s going to happen when you turn up with one of them and the rest see you there, hmm?

  Shut up, Inner Voice. You are turning me into a crazy person.

  Only if you reply out loud.

  I harrumphed at myself. Shit does that classify as replying out loud?

  Deciding that I no longer needed to take part in that inane conversation, I headed towards the ticket stall and helped the girls there organize the wristbands into adult and child. There was an eggnog stand being tended to by the on-campus bars which had both alcoholic and non-alcoholic eggnog. Which was conveniently near Christian’s stall.

  I was laughing over a joke when I felt someone standing close by. I turned and saw Justin, his massive shoulders in a brown leather jacket, hands in the pockets.

  “Justin,” I smiled up at him.

  “H, looks like a good turn out so far.” He gestured towards the line of people waiting to be let in.

  I moved to stand near him, thankful for no scrutinizing eyes this time. “Yeah, we’re hoping for about three hundred people. All the money we raise tonight is going to the local women’s shelter sponsored by Professor Turner. She’s going to buy presents for all the children living there at the moment.”

  “There’s a women’s shelter here?” he asked; his eyes widened at the idea.

  “Yeah, about a ten-minute walk from campus. It’s a little hidden, near the skate sharpening shop.” I paused for a fraction of a second. Shit Hayden, you haven’t told him you skate. Fix it. “Did I tell you I skate?”

  “Ah, no, you didn’t tell me, but uh…” he rumbled out, but I cut him off.

  “Yeah, I figure skate, mostly just for fun,” I replied, flashing a smile as I started to lead him to the curb.

  He fell into step, “You haven’t mentioned that before; we should go together sometime.”

  “To the sharpening store?” I asked quizzically, my brain not on its game. I checked my phone for the time. Where was he?

  “No, skating. There’s a really great open rink at the park for the next few weeks. We could go, if you like?” His voice had gotten deeper, causing me to turn to face him. His face was carefully closed off, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, the lines of his arms as they bent to fit his hands into his pockets looked rigid from his stress.

  Was he asking me out on a date? How the heck did that fit into the Puck Games? But really, what was the harm in saying yes? With finals in a few days and then Christmas, it would take a couple of weeks before we could go, and I would have published the article by then, which meant he probably wouldn’t want anything to do with me after that.

  My heart hurt as it filled with that knowledge. They would all be done with me.

  “H?”

  “Oh, yes, I’d love to. But let’s do it soon okay?” Knowing that my time was limited with them, I wanted to rack up a few memories. And I really wanted to have this memory with Justin, flying on the ice together.

  “Yeah sure, that sounds great.” A happy smile spreading across his face. “So, what stall do I have?”

  I peeked around him. Finally!

  “Well, I hope you don’t have a problem with live stock,” I replied, as a horse and carriage pulled up right next to us.

  Justin’s mouth fell open as the horse snorted hot air into his face. “Ahh hey there buddy, I don’t kiss on the first date,” he said as he patted the horse on the nose a bit awkwardly, unsure if it would bite him. After a few seconds he relaxed and stroked the beast’s head with more confidence.

  “Justin, that’s Moon and this,” I approached the other horse, “is Star. They are giving rides around the campus, and you will be running their stall.”

  Moon and Star were silver dappled Clydesdales. They had gorgeous white manes that were left flowing with nothing but a Christmas headdress adorning them. The feathering on their legs matched their manes, the white so pure that it was disappearing into the snow. Their harnesses were made of dark brown leather and had plenty of bells attached, jingling with every movement the horses made.

  The driver of carriage jumped down from his seat in his dual cab open carriage and approached us.

  “I’m Jimmy, you must be Justin. Hayden told me you were a big guy, perfect for handling these two hotheads.” Jimmy put a hand out to shake Justin’s.

  Justin stepped out from behind Moon and reached for Jimmy’s hand. Moon took exception to the lack of attention and huffed on the back of his neck. Justin attempted to ignore the horse.

  “Nice to meet you, Jimmy. I’m giving you fair warning, I’m a city boy, never been near a horse before,” he replied, as Moon started licking the back of his head, pushing his beanie off to an awkward angle.

  I was trying to hold back giggles as Justin reached back and started rubbing Moon’s nose again, to which Moon nipped his palm, causing Justin to flinch.

  “Here now, none of that Moon. Leave Justin alone he doesn’t have any sugar cubes for you,” Jimmy reprimanded the horse. Moon snorted and turned to face the front. “C’mon Justin, ride up in front with me. You’ll just be running the line while Moon and Star do all the hard work. Me, I’ll probably fall asleep after the first two rounds.”

  Justin shot me a wide-eyed stare that said, “Are you sure about this?”

  I just smiled and waved as he climbed into the carriage with Jimmy, who was still talking his ear off. Jimmy got the horses going and they were off, bells jingling, and around the corner before I could say anything else.

  I was headed back towards the ticket stall where my folder was waiting for me when my phone vibrated. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw a text from Justin.

  Justin: You owe me. Big. I already know all of his children’s names and his plans for Christmas.

  A little, evil smile appeared on my face as I read his message. Jimmy had requested a big person as a volunteer, letting me know that the horses would take advantage of a smaller person, so I figured Justin would be perfect. The little devil on my shoulder had also enjoyed the fact that Jimmy would talk Justin’s ear off.

  I sent Justin back an angel emoji and slipped my phone back in my pocket. I told the girls at the ticket stall that they could start letting people in in two minutes, which would have us opening on time at exactly seven p.m. I grabbed the Winter Wonderland folder and flicked to the run sheet I had made myself for the night and started ticking off the first few items. When I was done, I pulled out my phone, opened my notes to the prewritten text I had set up, copied the one I wanted and then sent it to the primary volunteer at each stall – basically all of them but the guys.

  Me: Hi everyone, we are starting to let people in now, so make sure you are all set up.

  I got a few acknowledgements back, easing my worries about the night. Really, besides my plan to try and get myself on the Puck Board, I had decided that I was just going to try and enjoy tonight. Keep it just about the Winter Wonderland. The article could wait until tomorrow.

  For the next thirty minutes, I worked at the ticket stall, accepting money and snapping wristbands into place. My cheeks hurt from all the smiling. I was thankful the stall was a marquee with three enclosed walls, as well as the portable h
eat lamp we had going at the head of the line. Standing still this long would have frozen my toes off.

  Once it felt like the line was starting to dwindle down, I checked that the girls would be fine without me, and then headed off to check on things inside. I walked down the ‘alley way’ of shop stalls selling things like handmade Christmas baubles, hot food, gloves and scarves, jewelry, and other knick knacks. Taking a left at the end, I headed in the direction of the Snowman Competition, according to the wooden arrow sign designed to look like those cute signs that point to Santa. We had a Santa too, he was over by the miniature Christmas trees.

  I stopped to grab Christian an eggnog, ordering Steph and James one each as apologies for ruining their date. They both kept saying it was fine, but it really wasn’t. I knew they’d both been hoping to have The Conversation tonight, but my article had gotten in the way. The least I could do was get them some eggnog.

  When I arrived, Christian must have just finished telling a joke because Steph was laughing and wiping at her eyes. She put her hand on his forearm as she responded to him, which made him smile.

  Instant jealousy surged through me; my hands clenched the cups of eggnog almost spilling it over the edges. Holy crap. I looked away for a second, trying to get my cool back. She was just doing her job, being friendly, being my best friend. She was – almost – officially with James. And she knew Christian was a hockey player.

  “Hayden!” Steph called out.

  I turned back with a very forced smile on my face. I could feel its fakeness but there was nothing I could do about that right now. Fake it till you make it, right?

  “Hey you two, how’s it going?” I asked as I moved into their stall.

  All of the stalls were fairly similar in design, marquees with three enclosed walls and a table. A lot of them had the portable gas heaters as well, so that the people manning the stalls didn’t freeze. Steph and Christian had theirs positioned on the opposite side of the soft snow pile, for obvious reasons.

  “Good, those are our first two entries,” Christian said as he pointed out the two groups of people making their snowmen.