Chapter 5
The wind howled outside the walls of Nick’s space cabin like a hungry yeti demanding for its own hot chocolate. He dropped a peppermint stick into the thick silvery, insulated mug and stirred the powdered chocolate into the steaming milk. The delicious chocolaty-peppermint smell filled the cabin. He inhaled the steam deeply through his nose and smiled at Vibeke’s upside-down face hanging down out of the loft.
“See? Hot chocolate. I like using the peppermint sticks to stir the chocolate. It dissolves and makes it just about perfect.”
He picked up the mugs and rotated around so that he didn’t yank the helmet off the table. As he stepped toward her, Vibeke disappeared back up into the loft. Nick held back a grin and set both mugs down on the glass-top foldout table, each on its o
