A/N: I have another hockey tournament this weekend, so I thought I'd be nice and post another chapter before I left...and a long one at that. So enjoy!

It was starting to snow lightly...I just hoped that it wouldn't snow too much to last until Friday or flying was going to be hell. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, it's just not good flying weather at all.

While I was staring out the window, Rich came up behind me (pressing up against my back), and slid his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. I leaned my head against his momentarily, then turned it to kiss his temple.

"Did it just start snowing?" he asked, keeping his gaze out the window.

"Maybe. I don't know. I just noticed, too," I replied.

"I hope it doesn't stay around 'til Friday," he commented, echoing my thoughts. He then took his arms from around my waist, and ran his hands up and down my bare arms.

"I was thinking the exact same thing."

Rich turned his head and smirked at me. Picking his head up off my shoulder, he kissed me briefly, then backed away from me.

"Thank you for finishing the dishes," I said, turning to face him.

"You're welcome," he grinned.

I returned his grin, then headed towards the hall. "Oh, where did you put your wet shirt? I'll put it in the dryer with James' clothes," I asked, turning back.

"On top of the dryer," he answered.

Nodding, I went back up to the bathroom, grabbed James' clothes, went back downstairs, and into the short hall, next to the kitchen, where the washer and dryer live; the door to the backyard was at the end of the hall...very convenient.

I found Rich's sweater where he said he put it, so I tossed it in the dryer along with James' wet clothes, then started the machine. When it began, I went into the sitting room, and found my hoodie. Rich must have picked it up and slung it on the back of the couch. Putting my hoodie back on, I sat on the couch in front of the fire, and put my feet on the coffee table...which Rich moved back to its normal spot.

Rich came into the room and sat on the couch next to me. Without speaking, he put an arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder with a sigh. He kissed the top of my head and we sat there in front of the fire until James woke up.

When James sleepily walked into the room a few hours later, dragging Zeke behind him, he asked for something to eat.

Getting off the couch, and out of Rich's grasp, I took my son's hand and we went into the kitchen to get a snack. After he finished eating, I told him it was snowing, and looking out of the window, I saw there was a light dusting of the powder on the ground and it was still coming down. James came over to me to look, so I picked him up so he could look out of the window himself. A wide smile appeared on his face as he saw the snow...he loves snow just as much as I do.

James tried to wiggle out of my arms, so I set him back on the floor and he went running into the hall leading to the backyard. Following him, I saw he was sitting on the floor, attempting to put on his snowsuit.

"And what do you think you're doing?" I asked him, standing at the end of the hall, arms crossed over my chest, watching him with a smile on my face.

"I'm going out in the snow," he answered simply.

"There's not enough snow out there to play in yet, sweetie," I said.

He paused in getting his suit on, looking up at me, sadly.

"But when there's more snow, we'll go out and make lots of snowballs to throw at daddy, okay?" I said, reassuring him.

"I heard that!" Rich called from the other room.

"No you didn't!" I called back.

"Promise?" James asked, looking up at me.

I got down to his level, smiling at him. "I promise."

He smiled again, then took off the snowsuit. After getting off the floor, he ran into the sitting room with Rich.

Once again, I followed him to see him sitting on Rich's lap on the couch where we left him.

"What are you and mummy planning?" Rich asked him.

James looked at me before answering. "Nothing," he said innocently.

"Is that so?"

James nodded.

"I see," Rich said, then tickled James' sides, making him laugh and fall on his back onto the couch; I stood behind the couch, watching them.

After a few moments, I told Rich to let James up. He did so, and James sat up, then stood on the couch.

"Hey, sit down. What did we tell you about standing on the couch?" I asked him.

"Don't do it," he answered, flopping on his bottom back onto the couch.

He bounced in his seat for a moment, then stopped.

"Can we play a game?" he asked, looking from Rich to me.

"Of course," Rich replied, grinning at James, who ran off to his room to get a game.

For the remainder of the afternoon, we all played games next to the fire for warmth. When dinner time rolled around, Rich and James cleaned up the last game we were playing, while I made something to eat. As soon as they walked into the kitchen, after taking the game back up to James' room and washing up, I had dinner ready.

We sat at the table and ate, then after the dishes were put in the sink (for me to clean later), we moved into the family room since James wanted to watch a movie before he went to bed. Something I had no problem with since he normally falls asleep a little more than half-way through the movie.

While Rich put one of James' movies in the DVD player, James and I curled up and got comfortable on the couch. Once Rich had everything set up, he turned off the light, and took a seat next to me, leaning where the back of the couch meets the arm. I leaned back against him, as James laid against me.

As predicted, half-way through the movie, James fell asleep.

"Rich," I whispered to him, tilting my head up. "James is asleep."

"So take him up to his room," he whispered back.

"He's laying on my leg, and I can't get up."

"Well, you're laying on me."

Once he said that, I leaned forward slowly, so I wouldn't wake up James, and let Rich slid out from behind me. He got up from the couch and scooped James up in his arms, then took him upstairs.

While he was out of the room, I took James' movie out of the player, and put a more adult movie in for Rich and I...no, not that kind of adult movie. Just something in the 'R' rating instead of 'G'.

When Rich came back downstairs and into the room, he flopped down on the couch, while I was in the kitchen...getting some hot chocolate. Coming back into the room, I grinned into my mug, then stood next to the couch waiting for him to move so I could sit down. He moved a leg out, indicating I should lay in between his legs. So I set my mug on the floor, right in front of us, then crawled on the couch where he gave me room, resting most of my torso on his chest and my head under his chin. Rich then picked up the remote and played our movie...every once in a while, one of us would reach for the mug of chocolate.

After our movie was over, I took my mug out into the kitchen, while Rich took care of the television and DVD player.

Since I was cleaning my mug, I decided to clean the rest of the dishes from dinner. While I was scrubbing a plate, I leaned over the sink more to look out the window to see how much snow had fallen. Quite suddenly, Rich was behind me, and grabbed my hips to pull me into him. He surprised me, making me gasp and drop the scrub brush in the sink, but, thankfully, I held onto the plate.

"God, Rich. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I asked him, setting the plate back in the sink.

"No, not a heart attack," he replied huskily, in my ear, then proceeded to kiss my neck. "It is a chilly night," he said in between kisses.

"Can I at least finish the dishes?" I asked, closing my eyes.

"They can wait," he said, still husky, then put an arm behind my shoulders and knees, picking me up and taking me up to our room.

That night, Rich used a different way to keep both of us warm.

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The next morning, I woke up before Rich, so I got out of bed stealthily, then got dressed. I walked down the hall to James' room to check on him. In his room, I pulled the curtain to his window back and looked to see how much snow had fallen since I was unable to tell the previous night. There was about six inches of snow, so I woke up James telling him so. He jumped out of bed almost immediately, changed (with my help), and ran downstairs to put on his snowsuit.

"Wait, sweetie, wait. We have to eat before we go out to play," I said, just as he reached for the suit.

"But you promised," he complained.

"I know, and we will go, but you have to have a full belly so you can play longer," I said, lightly poking him in his stomach.

"Okay," he gave in.

We went into the kitchen, and since James wanted to play in the snow so much, we just had some cereal. As soon as James was done eating, he ran back to the hall and started pulling on the snowsuit. He needed my help pulling it over his shoulders and zipping it up, but he was ready to go, and I was slowing him down. He was practically jumping up and down at the back door, while I grabbed my coat. I put on the coat, then my hat and boots. I made James stand still long enough so I could put his hat on his head and his mittens on his hands, then tie up his boots. Putting my own gloves on, I opened the door, making James practically run out the door, and almost fall face first into the snow.

We were running around the backyard for a while making snowballs and snowmen, when I heard the door open and close. Looking up, I saw Rich bend down and pick up some snow. Grinning, I made a quick snowball and threw it at him before he had the chance to throw it at us. I hit his shoulder with the ball, then he threw his snowball at me, grinning also. I ducked out of the way just in time and jumped behind the snowman James and I made.

I called James over and hid him behind the snowman with me, where our pile of snowballs sat. James started laughing as he attempted to throw a snowball at Rich. It only went a few feet in front of him, but Rich reacted as if it hit him square in the chest. I laughed at Rich's over-dramatic acting as he fell on his back into the snow.

I whispered to James to run over and jump on Rich. He did so with a wide smile, but before he was able to pounce, Rich sat up and lightly hit him with a snowball. James screeched, then came running back to me behind the snowman, latching onto my leg.

When James let go of me, he handed snowballs to me as I threw them at Rich. One ball actually hit him in the face, making him bring a hand up to his cheek, and almost double over, so I rushed over to him to see if he was all right. That was a mistake on my part. He grabbed my arms and playfully threw me down in the snow, smirking, then trapped me there by placing his body over mine and kissing me.

James came running over to us, laughing, and jumped on Rich's back, demanding that he let me up. Rich pulled James off his back and set him in the snow next to me.

"Looks like I won," he said, grinning at us.

"This time," I answered, since James was still giggling.

Rich let us up, helping me to my feet first with a kiss, then picked James up, lifting him above his head before he hugged his son.

"Let's get inside and warm up," Rich said.

I nodded, and Rich carried James into the house. Rich and I took off our gloves, boots, and my hat, before I took off James' boots, hat, mittens, and snowsuit, while Rich held him still. Anything that was wet from the snow was hung near the washer and dryer to dry. The three of us then moved into the sitting room to sit by the fire and warm up.

Since Rich wasn't outside as long as James and I, he didn't sit by the fire long. He decided to go upstairs to check his e-mail to see if we got a response from Dave and Bridgette.

"Rich," I said, stopping him before he got too far away from us. "Since you're checking e-mail anyway, could you send an e-mail to my brother? Let him know we're going to be in New York...and see if he can send us some Oreos?"

"You and those cookies..." he muttered. "Yes, I'll e-mail him."

I smirked and turned my attention back to James, who was sitting on the floor in front of me (he's not allowed to sit on the ledge yet), playing with a toy car.

About ten minutes later, Rich came back downstairs to see James in my arms, laughing, and us dancing around the room. I saw him as we spun towards the stairs, then stopped.

"Mind if I cut in and dance with mummy?" he asked James.

"You want to dance with mommy?" James asked, looking at Rich with confusion.

Rich nodded.

"I don't think mommy can hold you," James replied with a perfectly straight face.

I burst out laughing, holding tighter onto James so I didn't drop him; Rich started chuckling.

"You're right. Mummy can't hold me...but I can hold her," he said to James.

Comprehension dawned on James' face, and I set him on the floor. He went over to the couch and crawled on it.

Once James was on the safety of the couch, Rich put his arms behind my shoulders and knees, and picked me up off the floor. My arms wrapped around his neck as he spun us in a few circles before setting me back on my feet. I heard James giggle as Rich put his left arm around my waist and took a hold of my left hand with his right; my right hand rested on his muscular, left bicep. We danced around the room, including around the couch, as James watched us and continued to laugh, until Rich and I both got slightly dizzy. We then sat on the couch on either side of James and rested.

"Dave and Bridgette say they will be more than happy to house us while we're there. They'll even pick us up at the airport," Rich said, as James slumped against him.

"That's good. Saves us money on rental car and hotel," I said softly, stroking James' cheek.

"I sent them the details of our flight and that good stuff...and I sent an e-mail to your brother."

After a short rest, the remainder of the day was spent doing things around the house: James and Rich cleaned up little messes in every room, while I took care of the dishes from the previous night and the morning.

A/N: Well, there you go.

Maybe I'll have another one out next week...to celebrate the end of my finals and end of the (college) semester. :D