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Soup was on the stove and bread was in the oven, and I was settling down at my sewing machine for a comfortable afternoon working on the quilt Emily was helping me design. It still seemed too good to be true—Sebastian and I had finally been approved for adoption, and we’d be able to pick up our daughter two days before the Winter Star. Her room was decorated with everything she’d need, but I wanted to make something with my own two hands for this.
I heard someone calling my name from outside and set my sewing to the side to hurry to the door. “What happened?” I cried at the sight of my husband supporting his water-logged best friend on our front porch.
“You know the pond? South of the pasture?”
“Yes, I know the pond.” Someone had been camping in that area before I moved in, and I was still dragging their trash out of the water to this day. “What about it?”
Sebastian hauled Sam over to one of the kitchen chairs and let him fall into it with a heavy squish. “Sam challenged me to an ice-sliding contest.”
I covered my face with both hands. “How old are you two, again?”
“Hey, at least I let him go first!”
I shoved Sebastian away with a laugh. “You have no sympathy. Sam, are you okay?”
He was shivering, but he wasn’t turning blue. On a closer look, I could see that he was only wet up to his waist. That pond wasn’t very deep, after all. I usually just trapped crawfish in there during the warmer months, it wasn’t deep enough for much else.
“We used to d-do that all the time,” he replied, teeth chattering. “J-just see who could slide th-the farthest.”
Sebastian’s eyes were crinkling up in the corners as he smiled, and I shook my head. “Well, if either of you had thought to ask me, I would have told you we haven’t had a hard enough freeze lately for the ice to be thick enough to walk on.”
“B-but it was frozen over!” Sam protested. I met his stare and raised my eyebrows, and he lowered his head and muttered something under his breath.
“Can you find him something dry to wear?” I asked Sebastian. He was a lot thinner than Sam, but I knew he had some baggy sweats that might work. “Soup’ll be ready in a minute.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Sebastian kissed my cheek, then bent over to sling Sam’s arm across his shoulders. “All right. Let’s go.”
“No!” Sam shrank away from him and reached out for me. “I want you to do it!”
I was already halfway to the stove. “What? Why?”
“Because you’re a farmer!” Sam explained. “You have, like, farming muscles. I don’t think Sebastian has ever lifted anything heavier than a coffee cup!”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “I got you up here, didn’t I?”
“That was just adrenaline. Your best friend was dying of hypothermia.”
I turned away to hide my snort of laughter, and Sebastian gave a heavy sigh behind me. “Very funny. Come on, Sam. Let’s find you some dry clothes.”
They made their way back to their bedroom, Sam leaning on Sebastian like a human crutch and complaining the entire time that Sebastian was going to drop him. I listened to their bickering distractedly as I checked the bread in the oven, pulling it out to let it cool on the rack. The soup was just about ready, and I pulled it off the heat and reached for my stick blender (a wedding gift from Caroline) to puree it.
I didn’t hear anything over the noise of the blender, so I didn’t notice Sebastian’s approach until he was wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. “Did you make pumpkin soup?”
“I thought it sounded good on a cold day,” I replied. “How’s Sam?”
“He banged his knee on the ice when he fell in and it’s pretty swollen. Doesn’t think it’s serious, but he probably needs to rest it.”
“Well, we don’t have a guest room yet, but he’s welcome to sleep on the couch tonight,” I replied.
Sebastian hugged me a little tighter. “Thank you.”
“If he wants a shower, I think we still have grandpa’s shower chair in the attic. He’ll have to go without hair gel, though, unless you want to share yours.”
“Not gonna happen.” He kissed my cheek again before moving away. “Sam? Are you dressed yet?” he called as he crossed back toward our bedroom.
I busied myself with setting the table for three. I had an odd assortment of chairs, from the old bench seat that had been in the house when I bought it to one covered in crystals that Gunther had given me after I found some artifacts for the museum (I’m pretty sure he was just trying to get rid of it). I set two chairs side-by-side and made sure one had a thick cushion on its seat, so Sam could prop his foot up while we ate.
Sebastian and Sam came back into the room, Sam still leaning heavily on my husband. I could see that he was barely putting any weight on his left leg, and he gave a sigh of relief when he was finally sitting at the table. Sebastian helped him arrange his leg on the other chair before taking his place opposite Sam.
The pumpkin soup was hearty and creamy, the perfect thing to warm you to your toes after a cold day. The bread was slightly less successful, but we made the best of it by scooping out the uncooked part in the middle and dipping the crusts in our soup. While Sebastian volunteered to clean the kitchen, I brought Sam the phone so he could let his mother he was staying with us tonight, then helped him over to the couch.
He caught my sleeve as I started to go. “Hey, uh…thanks.”
I shook my head. “Don’t mention it. You’re my friend, too.”
“Not just that. This is…I don’t know how to say it.” He leaned over to look past me, to where Sebastian was up to his elbows in soapy water. “You’re really good for him. I don’t think I’ve seen him this happy before.”
I smiled, a little sadly. “He’s good for me, too. When I first moved here, I thought I’d just spend a little time in the country, do some soul searching before I went back to a corporate job. I never dreamed I could be this happy.”
“Yeah. You’re a good egg, kid.”
I covered his face with my hand and pushed him down into the cushions, grinning as he started to laugh. “How old are you again? ‘Cuz I’m pretty sure I’m older than you, kiddo.”
Sebastian pulled us apart before it could turn into a full wrestling match and we made Sam’s knee even worse. He found an old black-and-white monster movie on the TV, and we cuddled up in grandpa’s ancient leather armchair while Sam lay on the sofa.
There’d been some light snow all afternoon, but I easily caught the sound of sleet hitting the roof as the freezing rain the weatherman had been warning us about started to roll in. “If this keeps up, I bet you boys can go ice sliding tomorrow.”
Sam groaned.