Local Hero

He leaned against the doorjamb, ignoring the snow that fell at his feet.
    “I built a fort. Please come out and see. I already started a snow warrior, but Mitch said we should check in so you wouldn’t worry.”
    His consideration forced her to look up. “I appreciate that.”
    He was watching her thoughtfully—too thoughtfully, Hester decided. “Rad says you build a pretty good snow warrior yourself.”
    “Please, Mom. What if we got a freak heat wave and the snow was all gone tomorrow? It’s like the greenhouse effect, you know. I read all about it.”
    She was trapped and knew it. “All right, I’ll change. Why don’t you fix Mitch some hot chocolate and warm up?”
    “All right!” Radley dropped down on the floor just inside the door. “You have to take off your boots,” he told Mitch. “She gets mad if you track up the carpet.”
    Mitch unbuttoned his coat as Hester walked away. “We wouldn’t want to make her mad.”
    Within fifteen minutes, Hester had changed into corduroys, a bulky sweater and old boots. In place of her red coat was a blue parka that showed some wear. Mitch kept one hand on Taz’s leash and the other in his pocket as they walked across to the park. He couldn’t say why he enjoyed seeing her dressed casually with Radley’s hand joined tight with hers. He couldn’t say for certain why he’d wanted to spend this time with her, but it had been he who’d planted the idea of another outing in Radley’s head, and he who’d suggested that they go up together to persuade her to come outside.
    He liked the winter. Mitch took a deep gulp of cold air as they walked through the soft, deep snow of Central Park. Snow and stinging air had always appealed to him, particularly when the trees were draped in white and there were snow castles to be built.
    When he’d been a boy, his family had often wintered in the Caribbean, away from what his mother had termed the “mess and inconvenience.” He’d picked up an affection for scuba and white sand, but had never felt that a palm tree replaced a pine at Christmas.
    The winters he’d liked best had been spent in his uncle’s country home in New Hampshire, where there’d been woods to walk in and hills to sled. Oddly enough, he’d been thinking of going back there for a few weeks—until the Wallaces popped up two floors above, that is. He hadn’t realized until today that he’d shuffled those plans to the back of his mind as soon as he’d seen Hester and her son.
    Now she was embarrassed, annoyed and uncomfortable. Mitch turned to study her profile. Her cheeks were already rosy with cold, and she’d made certain that Radley walked between them. He wondered if she realized how obvious her strategies were. She didn’t use the boy, not in the way some parents used their offspring for their own ambitions or purposes. He respected her for that more than he could have explained. But she had, by putting Radley in the center, relegated Mitch to the level of her son’s friend.
    And so he was, Mitch thought with a smile. But he’d be damned if he was going to let it stop there.
    “There’s the fort. See?” Radley tugged on Hester’s hand, then let it go to run, too impatient to wait any longer.
    “Pretty impressive, huh?” Before she could avoid it, Mitch draped a casual arm over her shoulder. “He’s really got a knack.”
    Hester tried to ignore the warmth and pressure of his arm as she looked at her son’s handiwork. The walls of the fort were about two feet high, smooth as stone, with one end sloping nearly a foot higher in the shape of a round tower. They’d made an arched doorway high enough for Radley to crawl through. When Hester reached the fort, she saw him pass through on his hands and knees and pop up inside, his arms held high.
    “It’s terrific, Rad. I imagine you had a great deal to do with it,” she said quietly to Mitch.
    “Here and there.” Then he smiled, as though he was laughing at himself. “Rad’s a better architect than I’ll ever be.”
    “I’m going to finish my snow warrior.” Belly down, Rad crawled through the opening again. “Build one, Mom, on the other side of the fort. They’ll be the sentries.” Rad began to pack and smooth snow on his already half-formed figure. “You help her, Mitch, ’cause I’ve got a head start.”
    “Fair’s fair.” Mitch scooped up a handful of snow. “Any objections to teamwork?”
    “No, of course not.” Still avoiding giving him a straight