Holiday decorations line the street my parents live on. Everything from classic lights to a waving Frosty, and an inflatable Santa with a reindeer set haphazardly on a roof. People here don’t spare any expense when it comes to bringing holiday cheer.

Pulling into my parents’ driveway, my truck’s pelted with snowballs immediately. I try to look for the culprit, but only see multiple shadows. Whoever is outside, they’re leaving me no choice, but to sneak out of my truck. As stealthily as possible, I slide out, quickly realizing I’m not as young as I used to be. As luck would have it, my father plowed his driveway, leaving me without any ammunition to face my attackers. Thankfully, I’m a trained police officer and while I don’t participate in tactical training, I did learn a few things at the academy.

The edge of the garage is only a few feet away; I hightail it as fast as I can, without slipping, until I’m safely behind the wall. The pile of snow, left over from the plow makes for the perfect barricade. I situate myself behind the bank, and start assembling my arsenal of snowballs. My enemy heckles me from across the yard. The only problem I can see is my truck being in the way. Had I known I was going to be ambushed, I would’ve parked on the street.

“We know you’re out there,” the voice of my dad yells out, followed by the tiniest of giggles. Of course, my daughter is on his side.

“You can’t hide forever, Daddy—”

“No, don’t call him that.”

“I mean, yeti.” Holly laughs again.

“Yeti?” I yell back. “How am I a yeti?” I ask, even though one look at me clearly proves I’m heading in the direction of full on yetiness with the amount of snow covering my legs right now.

Without any provocation from me, a snowball flies toward my direction. It only misses by a few inches, but the eminent danger I fear causes me to launch a counterattack. I throw three snow bombs back-to-back blindly into the night, hoping to hit either one of my targets. A round of giggles leads me to believe I completely missed Holly and my father.

“Incoming,” my father yells. I make the mistake of looking up, only to be pelted with a hard packed ball to my face. My body falls to the ground, my back slamming against the cold, hard snow. The padding my jacket does nothing to soften my fall.

“Ugh,” I say, wiping away the water remnants. I have no doubt there’ll be a goose egg knot on my forehead within the next few minutes. Now that they know my location, I’m left with no choice but to forge ahead with an attack. I may not come out as victor, but I won’t go down without a fight.

Making sure to cup my arm, I pile a mound of snowballs in there. As quietly as I can, I sneak over to the other side of my truck and start throwing snow bombs into the bushes. The sound of my dad grunting changes my aim. I toss everything I have until I’m empty.

I move into the middle of the yard, knee deep in the snow and start my victory dance. My dad never shows his face, but his aim is on point when multiple balls head my way. More laughter rings out from behind the bushes, mostly little girl giggles.

“I give up,” I say. “Mercy.”

“Daddy, you can’t quit.”

“I’m out of ammo. I surrender.”

Holly stands up, covered head to toe in snow. Only the lights strung above her and in the trees light the path toward her. I snatch her up and hug her tightly. When she pulls away, her cheeks are bright red and her nose is running. “Are you cold?”

“No, I’m having fun with grandma and grandpa.”

“I see that.” I set her down and turn toward the shrubs. “You can come out now, coward.” My mouth drops open when I see my mother stand first, followed slowly by my father. “My whole family?”

“Meredith stayed inside.”

“Well, it’s nice to see my sister cares about me.”

My mom shakes her head. “She didn’t want to be cold,” she says, shrugging.

I shake my head and look down at Holly. “This was your doing, right?”

Holly shrugs and makes the sweetest face possible. I’m tempted to push her into the snow bank, but instead I scoop her up and carry her into the garage so she can take off her snowsuit.

“Was that fun?” I ask her.

“The best. Grandpa and I made snowballs after school.”

“Maybe next time you’ll give your old man a warning.”

“You’re not old, Daddy.”

I smile and kiss her on the nose before directing her inside. Holly and I go over to the woodstove to try to warm up. “Smells good,” I holler toward the kitchen.

“Thanks.” The voice is from someone familiar, but I can’t picture who it is until Shelby comes around the corner. She rests against the small piece of wall separating the kitchen from the living room.

“Shelby,” I say her name more out of shock than anything. I didn’t see another car out there when I pulled in, not that I was looking for one, and can honestly say I wasn’t expecting to see her at my parents’. She comes over to me, her stocking feet sliding across the hardwood floors. With both hands on my shoulders, she leans forward and kisses me on my cheek, lingering there for a minute. Holly reaches for my hand, tugging me away.

I smile softly at both of them, but have never been so thankful for Holly to want my attention. “I didn’t know you were joining us for dinner.”

“Meredith offered, said your parents wouldn’t mind.”

Unfortunately, Shelby’s right, my parents won’t mind even though they really can’t afford to feed many more mouths. Both my parents work their fingers to their bones and Meredith shouldn’t invite her friends to dinner.

“How was work?” she asks. Shelby motions for me to follow her to the sofa. I do so, not wanting to be rude. Holly comes with me and climbs up onto my lap.

“Work was… well, most of it was spent getting people out of ditches.”

“We never learn, do we?”

“Learn what?” I ask.

“To slow down. To take corners easily. To just stop and pay attention to your surroundings.”

Shelby’s right. I chuckle. “You sound like a public service announcement.”

She laughs, throws her head back and in the process her hand lands near my thigh. My legs still might be numb from the cold weather, but I can definitely feel her fingers press against my jeans. Her flirting isn’t so subtle.

“Public service is what I do best,” she says, moving closer. “If you want, I can find you something to do for the winter festival. I’m working hand-in-hand with the mayor to make it the best one yet.”

My parents walk into the living room with a tray of mugs. Holly bolts from my lap to go retrieve her cup of what I’m assuming is hot cocoa.

“Shelby, would you like some?” my mother asks.

“Yes please, Mrs. Fisher. Meredith has raved about your homemade cocoa. I’ve been dying to try it.” She takes a cup from my mother and instead of keeping it for herself, she hands it to me and reaches for another one. Holly follows my mom back to the kitchen, where the banging of pots and pans becomes a bit louder.

“Thanks,” I say, giving her a half smile. “Where’s Shawna?” I ask after noticing she’s not here.

“She’s with her father. He’s in town for the night and asked to see her.” Shelby breaks eye contact with me and looks down at her mug.

Ever since Meredith started talking about Shelby, I’ve never considered where her ex-husband is or was. Nor have I asked because I didn’t think it was my business. I’m sure if I listen hard enough around town, the gossipmongers will no doubt fill me in about Shelby. Thing is, I’m interested… sort of. I’m not sure I’m ready to date or maybe I’m not positive she’s the one I want to date. Yes, it’d be nice because our daughters are the same age. Yes, Shelby is beautiful. However, I feel like there should be a spark. I haven’t felt that… yet. “For the night?”

Her thumb moves up and down the side of her cup. I tear my eyes away from there to focus on her, giving her my undivided attention. “We divorced last year. Shawna and I moved here to start over and he stayed in the city.”

“New York?” I ask.

She nods. “His job requires him to travel. I used to go with him until Shawna started school. We thought it would be better that I stay home so her schedule wasn’t interrupted and she wasn’t raised by the nanny. As with any cliché, he started having… well, he just wasn’t a very good husband to me and that led to a lot of fighting. We tried counseling, bought a house here with the intent he’d quit his job and we’d live here, but someone else was more important to him.”

“But he’s a good dad?”

Shelby shakes her head. “I wish. I can deal with him letting me down, but not Shawna. She really doesn’t understand why he’s never around. He tells her it’s because of work, but he brought his new girlfriend to Vermont to ski. I guess he thought he’d introduce Shawna to her. I didn’t really ask him when he called this morning to let me know he wanted to see her.” She shrugs. “I can’t really tell him no because the court order allows for visitation and he pays his child support. Nor does he listen when I tell him how much he’s hurting her when he doesn’t come to visit or call. He thinks he’s doing the right thing by staying gone all the time, says daughters need their mothers while growing up.”

I thought I had it bad. I don’t know how I would react if Heather had decided the life we were sharing wasn’t what she wanted and only came around sporadically to see Holly. Maybe in a sense abandonment would be better than death, but then again, maybe not. I also can’t imagine not being a part of Holly’s life, and I’m not sure how any parent ever comes to the conclusion their child is better off without them.

“I’m sorry, Shelby.”

She smiles back in kind. “It’s not easy being a single parent.”

I half scoff half laugh. “No, it’s definitely not.” I’ve had my doubts about my ability to parent since Heather passed away. I often lie in bed at night, wondering what I’m doing and how many ways I am messing up Holly’s life, but then I look at her and see the way she needs me and my hectic crazy life seems to make sense for the most part. As easy as it would be to walk away from my life, it’d be the hardest decision to make.

“You know Meredith has offered to babysit if you and I wanted to grab dinner some night.”

Nothing like being caught off guard. I take a drink of my hot cocoa and try to form an answer. I haven’t wanted to date at all, and I’m still not sure I do, but maybe I have to get back out there.

“We’ll have to take her up on her offer some day.” This apparently is the right thing to say because Shelby smiles brightly.

“I’d like that, Aiden.”

Shelby starts to move closer just as my mom lets us know dinner is ready. I move so fast, I’m sure Shelby probably toppled over. That thought alone brings a grin to my lips, even though it’s far from funny.

At the table, she chooses to sit next to me. Her thigh rests against mine and while I’m tempted to ask her to give me some space, I don’t. However, I do knock my sister’s water over, soaking her lap. I’ve told her before, I’m not interested in dating, yet my words haven’t sunk in. I may have agreed to go on a date with Shelby, but I feel like she’s being stuffed down my throat, and that’s because my sister is a meddler.