Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or any of the canon book characters, and am making no monies from this story. Any Original Characters belong to the author(s).
Notes: This story was written around the year 2007, so technology is not as advanced as it is today. People still used landlines, and texting, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat were still in the future or in their infancy.
This story originally appeared on the HDA site, authors' names Aspen and Evergreen.
As always, many thanks to Jenn "Sparks" Hart, who graciously allowed us to use Bella Scarpetti in our story.
This is pure fluff and feathers and romance with a capital 'R'. If you're looking for angst and pathos and deathbed scenes and heartbreak, don't bother reading it, because you aren't going to find them here!
February Flirtations
By EvergreenDreamweaver and RokiaHDA
Chapter 1
Joe Hardy scowled out the window at the lowering gray clouds. "Bloody stupid, idiotic, hateful, nasty..." He ran out of adjectives he dared utter aloud here at home, where he might be overheard by his mother, but continued more profane versions inside his head. "Don't you dare snow!" he growled, and shook his fist at the clouds.
Joe had had all his plans laid out for today – a day which was supposed to be as perfect as a Saturday in early February could be: no classes, no football practice, no immediately upcoming term papers, and no work at Wayne's World. Convinced that he was going to meet his death by term paper, Joe was ecstatic to have a free weekend with just a little reading to do and a few notes to take on that reading. His plans had included major free time to play, without having to deal with or cope with anything more earthshaking than fun, Vanessa, fun, NBA and college basketball games on television, and – oh yes – fun.
Now it was looking as if their anticipated playtime was going to be ruined by an inconvenient snowstorm!
"If it snows we can play in it," a voice said behind him.
Joe turned, his irritation dissipating as he took in the sight of his cousin, Bella Scarpetti, who was visiting them for the weekend. At age 18, only slightly younger than Joe, petite, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Bella looked a little like her tall cousin – and a lot like his mother, Laura. That made sense, as Bella's deceased mother, Linda, had been Laura's twin sister. "Hi, Tinkerbelle. I know, but if it snows, it'll ruin the skating party! Can't skate if the pond's all covered up with new snow!"
"We could still play in it," she insisted, her eyes twinkling. "It would still be fun! Tony and I don't get to play much when it snows, in New York, unless we trek all the way over to Central Park."
"True," Joe sighed, then raised his head and sniffed exaggeratedly. "Hey, I smell...cookies! Chocolate chip cookies! Mom's baking! Race ya, Tink!
"Hey! Cheat!" Bella yelled an objection and took off after him, slowing her pace when Joe collided with the kitchen counter just in front of her.
Laura had just taken a baking sheet from the oven, and was carefully removing the cookies to a large wire cooling rack on the counter. She looked up, laughing, at her son's precipitous entry into the kitchen. "Careful," she warned automatically.
Bella squirmed under Joe's arm to eye the cookies. "My mom used to make cookies like that," she said wistfully; Joe immediately tightened his arm about her in a comforting hug. "Do you suppose it's the same recipe, Aunt Laura?"
"Yes, I'm sure it is," Laura said. "And it's the same one our mother used – your grandmother Isabelle." Looking furtive, she added in a whisper, "It's on the back of the chocolate chip package."
"Best cookies in the world," Joe said fervently.
"The chefs at Marco's don't usually make cookies," Bella went on. "Desserts, yes, sure – but not cookies, not often."
"Maybe you should suggest they add it to the menu," Joe suggested, and reached for one of the hot cookies. "These aren't for a club meeting or anything, are they, Mom?" he asked. "You aren't, like, taking them somewhere else? You wouldn't torture your favorite son – and your favorite niece—" he added, when Bella elbowed him, "like that, would you?"
Laura chuckled, but before she could answer she was interrupted by an indignant cry from the front hall, and Frank appeared in the doorway, running a comb through his dark brown hair.
"Whaddya mean, you're her favorite son? I have it on good authority that I hold that position, little brother." Frank pocketed the comb and eyed the cookies with great interest. "Those look really good, Mom!"
"Actually," Laura said blandly, her eyes twinkling, "my favorite son is named Eduardo, and he's living with his Spanish grandee father in Madrid."
"Wow, another boy cousin!?" Bella gurgled. "I wanna meet him!"
"Do tell." Frank reached to touch a cookie, testing the temperature. "So you...er...got it on...with some hot Spaniard, huh Mom?"
"Oh, sure," Laura agreed. "I used to play around quite a lot before I met your father...Now, if we're finished being silly, you could get yourselves some milk, and I might be persuaded to let you have some of the cookies while they're still hot."
"No older cousin?" Bella mourned, moving to the cupboard to get glasses.
"Sorry, sweetie, no older cousin," her aunt laughed. "But you can still have the cookies!"
"Yum!" Bella hastily set down the glasses, and Frank poured the milk for them all.
"Mmmm!" Frank took a bite and then hissed, fanning his mouth. "Hot!"
Laura raised an eloquent eyebrow but didn't say anything aloud about her sons' intelligence or lack thereof. She merely finished filling another baking sheet with dollops of cookie dough and slid it into the oven, before asking: "So, what are your plans for today?"
"If the weather holds, we're going to pick up Megan and Tony and go out to Vanessa's," Frank said, eyeing the window cautiously. "The ice is thick enough on that pond by her house to skate on now."
"If it snows we can play in the snow," Bella insisted, blowing on a cookie to cool it before biting into it. "We can build a snowman."
"Or have a snowball fight," Joe leered, waggling his eyebrows. "Ever had snow put down your neck, Tinkerbelle?"
She smacked his arm and continued to eat her cookie, ignoring the implied threat.
"Mom, Bella hit me!"
"She has a nice right hook, doesn't she?" Laura said, and winked at Bella, who beamed back contentedly.
"We probably ought to go pretty soon," Frank said, looking at his watch. "It gets dark so early, and it's already almost one o'clock." He got up. "It's going to be a tight fit to squeeze five people into the Saturn, especially if we're all bundled up."
"I can sit on Tony's lap!" Bella volunteered with a giggle, and jumped off her stool, dashing to her room to change into skating clothes.
Joe looked after her, shaking his head. "Sometimes I wonder if it was a good idea, introducing those two!" he said with a grin.
#####
"Brrr!" Megan Wright, Frank's red-haired almost-fiancée, shivered to emphasize the point as she sat on a convenient log to lace up her skates. She blew on her hands to warm them before starting the process. "It's soooo cold!"
"We'll warm up once we're out on the ice." Frank, seated next to her, reached to help her with the skates, having finished with his own. "I'll keep you warm, Baby," he added softly and brought one of her hands up to his lips for a quick kiss, blowing warm air on her fingers afterwards. "But put the gloves on, all the same," he went on in a louder tone. Ready at last, they stood and made their teetering way over the rough terrain at the pond's edge to reach the ice.
Vanessa and Joe were already circling the small pond, holding their hands criss-crossed in front of them and matching strokes, as Vanessa's legs nearly equaled Joe's in length.
"I'm so out of practice," Megan said woefully, clinging tightly to Frank's hand as she tried to force her feet to remember what they were supposed to do. "I think the last time I ice-skated was a year ago last January, when you fell and hit your head!"
"You'll be fine," Frank encouraged, and sure enough, after a wobbly round or two, Megan's confidence increased and they began to move with more assurance, although still sticking to sedate circles around the edge.
Bella, wearing pristine white figure skates, darted about like a dragonfly, leaving Tony to wind in and out among the other skaters and occasionally trying a spin or small jump.
"You can see the difference between growing up within close reach of skating rinks and not," Megan observed, watching the lithe little blonde twirl. "Both Bella and Vanessa are better than I am at this!"
"You're good enough for me," Frank whispered, and tugged her closer to his side. "I never had any aspirations to date an Olympic skating medalist anyway!"
"That's good," Megan said, and smiled and snuggled in. "'Cause you're not going to get to!"
"This is great!" Joe exulted, turning to skate backwards so he could converse with the others easily. "Nothing like unwinding from a very long week at college! How's school going at NYU, Tony?"
Tony, having caught up with Bella and tucked her under his arm, shrugged noncommittally. "It's okay," he said. "Between classes and studying and working part-time at Marco's, I'm pretty busy – and I do get tired," he admitted. "But I'm making money – and learning a lot about construction – and I like working at the restaurant. And I like being with Bella – il mio più caro," he added in a dulcet murmur to the little blonde.
"I like my business classes too," Bella put in, "and I'm learning lots about restaurant management from them and from Alexander. This summer, though," she went on with a regretful upward look at Tony, "I'm going to take a trip to Italy with Grandpa Antonio and Grandma Rosalie for three weeks. I'm looking forward to that! But I'll miss you, inamorato. I'll miss you a lot!"
"I would have had to come back to Bayport to work for my dad anyway," Tony said philosophically. "At least part-time. And it's just for three weeks. We'll survive."
They spent a happy afternoon on the pond, and the snowstorm which threatened obligingly held off. But the temperature steadily dropped, and the cold began to work itself into them. When Megan tripped and went flying headlong across the ice, Frank called a halt to the activities.
"I'm freezing to death," he complained. "I'm going to build a fire and drink cocoa; the rest of you can keep skating if you want, but I think I've had it for today."
The idea of a warm fire and hot cocoa appealed to all of them, and soon they had a respectable fire built in the little fire pit. They huddled about it, stretching their gloved hands to the flames.
"Your mom was super to make this, Van," Bella was gulping her cocoa rapidly and cradling the warm thermos cup in her hands to retain the warmth. "And..." she reached for her skate bag. "Aunt Laura just happened to send some cookies along with me!" She drew them out in triumph and then, shrieking, nearly disappeared under a wave of people trying to grab them. "TONY! HELP!"
"Hey! Off my girl, Hardy!" Tony, laughing so hard he could scarcely stand up, hauled Frank away from the pack, then did the same with Joe. "Bella mia, you still in there somewhere?"
"Yes," she bubbled, "but the cookies are going to be nothing but crumbs in a minute!"
This dire prediction made the cookie-nappers settle down and behave, and soon all six were munching contentedly.
"We're going to have to go soon," Tony sighed. "The snowstorm's not going to hold off much longer, guys."
"One more time around the ice," Joe proposed and pulled Vanessa up. "It'll warm us up!"
"My ankles are going to feel this tomorrow," the tall blonde groaned, but willingly accompanied Joe onto the pond.
After a last, quick skate, they put out the fire and packed up the thermoses of cocoa. A quick trip was made to Vanessa's house – with Bella perched, as she had wished, on Tony's lap – to drop her off, and then the other five returned to Bayport.
"Movie tonight, cara mia?" Tony asked Bella as he got out of the car at his home, and she nodded happily.
"Pick me up at 7:30; we can make an eight o'clock," she instructed.
"Will do. Bye, guys!" Tony waved as he went into the house.
"Here comes the snow," Megan noted when her home was reached and Frank had walked with her to the front door. Indeed, snowflakes were beginning to fall thick and fast.
Frank watched them settle on her eyelashes and cheeks and bent swiftly to kiss them away. "You look adorable when it snows on you," he murmured.
She dimpled at that, but still..."Go home," she insisted, "I don't want you driving around in a blizzard if you don't have to. Call me later." She tiptoed, set her hands on his shoulders and tilted her head back for his kiss.
Frank might have argued that he didn't want to leave just yet, but Joe suddenly began honking the car horn, which spoiled the mood completely. "Talk to you later, Baby," he said, with one final peck on her cheek, and dashed back to the Saturn through the deepening snow.
Dinner was nearly ready when they arrived at the Hardy home, and the three cousins hastily changed out of their skating clothes and hurried to the table. Over dinner they told Fenton and Laura about the afternoon at the pond, and Bella told of her plans for a trip to Italy with her grandparents, and their possible itinerary.
They had just risen from the table, and Bella had skipped towards the stairs to get ready for her date with Tony, when Frank's cell phone rang. He reached into his pocket and retrieved it, but didn't recognize the number which showed.
"Hello?"
"Frank? This is Jeremy Isaacs – remember me?"
"Sure, Jeremy!" Indeed, Frank remembered the young rookie police officer quite well.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but...Frank, I need your help!"