No Way Out

Emily arrived home from the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert to a deluge of snow and cancelled class.

Ian had been sequestered in the house for the better part of three days with a stir-crazy five year old who wanted nothing more than to play in the snow, so he was understandably going a little crazy and was hiding in his study when she arrived home.

(She didn't understand why he didn't just take Declan outside and when she asked later, he said it was because he couldn't find the boy's snow pants. When she pointed out that he could have just texted her and asked, he blinked blankly at her for a few moments like the thought hadn't occurred to him. "You're useless," she scoffed. "How you survived without me for so long, I'll never know." He just smiled and shook his head. She may have been right, but he wasn't about to admit that to her.)

The first words out of Declan's mouth after he'd climbed her like a monkey to wrap his little arms around her neck in greeting were, "I'm boooooooored!"

She settled the boy against her hip and affixed him with a raised brow. "Bored? You have a million and one toys to play with!"

"But I want to play outside," he whined, going limp like a rag doll, nearly causing her to lose her grip on him.

"Outside?" she said with mock incredulity. "You don't want to play outside, you want to do math homework."

"No!" he squealed in protest. "Outside!"

She pretended to think about it, screwing up her face in mock concentration. "How about eat broccoli?"

He stuck his tongue out. "Yuck!"

"Hmm... How about bake cookies?" she suggested.

Declan instantly perked up. "Really?" he asked suspiciously.

She laughed and tickled his sides. "No – you remember what happened last time..."

"Kaboom!" he exclaimed, miming a dramatic explosion.

Ian poked his head out of his study. "Hey!" he said, pretending to be stern. "There'll be no baking cookies in my kitchen. I don't fancy another visit from the fire department."

Emily rolled her eyes. "There was no fire and no explosion."

"Regardless..." Ian said, "I think we're probably all safer the further you are from the oven."

"Outside?" Declan suggested yet again.

"That's the best idea I've heard all day," Ian said, clapping him on the back.

"You two have fun," Emily said, passing Declan to his father.

"Mommy," the boy whined, "You have to come too!" Then he batted his eyes sweetly at her.

She pinched his cheek. "Stop being so cute," she said with a conceding sigh.

"He can't help it – gets it from me," Ian said with a wink. Emily just rolled her eyes and smiled because this was the family she'd chosen.

The first winter they'd spent in DC had been a miserable one, especially for Declan who had spent most of his life in the Tuscan countryside where the temperatures rarely dipped below freezing.

Keeping the then four year old entertained for an entire winter had been no easy feat after the first week or two once he'd exhausted his supply of books and movies and become bored with all his toys. She'd taken to telling him stories from her travels – about summer in Russia with a foot of snow on the ground, about Christmas in Saudi Arabia with not a flake of snow to be seen.

The stories enchanted him endlessly and he vowed that one day he would travel the world like she had. Emily had smiled indulgently and promised to take him anywhere he wanted to go, but first he had to go to bed.

Mostly, he just wanted to go outside.

"Can we go inside now?" Emily whined, wrapping her arms around herself to keep from shivering, in spite of her layers. "I'm cold!"

"Mooooommy," Declan hollered across the yard from where he was attempting to build an igloo. "You're not playing..."

"Sure, I am," she insisted, clumping snow together in a rather half-assed attempt to build a snowman. "See?"

He rolled his eyes dramatically at her in a way he'd definitely learned from her. "Mommy, that's the worst snowman ever."

"Hey!" She pouted. "I worked hard on that!"

"No, you didn't!" he insisted and she couldn't really argue with that.

"The boy's right," Ian piped up. "That's a terrible snowman, Love."

Emily affixed him with an 'are you serious?' stare. "Let's see yours, then."

He gestured weakly at his own very similar clump of snow.

"It looks just like mine!" she exclaimed, bewildered that he'd had the nerve to insult hers.

"Yes, but I actually tried."

She scowled, then stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

Declan put his hands on his hips and gave an exasperated sigh. "Guys... I wanna play!"

With a cheeky grin, Emily lobbed a weak snowball at the boy, hitting him square in the side of the head. "Like that?"

Declan let out a gleeful squeal, finally satisfied, then attempted to throw one back, though it fell several feet short.

"Don't worry, son, I've got her," Ian said, tackling Emily into a snowdrift and pinning her to the ground so Declan could hit her with a snowball. He ran over and pounced on Emily like a cat, mashing a snowball into her chest.

"You win!" Emily cried. "I give up!"

"What do you say, Declan?" Ian asked with a wink. Declan shook his head, smiling mischeivously as he prepared another snowball. "You heard the boy..." Ian said with a shrug as if it were out of his hands.

"Please? I'm cold and wet..." she begged. "I'll give you a kiss?"

Unable to resist, Ian leaned down to kiss her, quickly letting it get heated as was wont to happen when he had her pinned. Then, without warning, she stuffed a handful of snow down the back of his neck. She wriggled out from under him, laughing triumphantly, as she ran inside and shut and locked the door behind her.