My past gives me the skill to guard the flag. I was our best goalie after all.
Adam catches my eye over a snowbank, and his smile is predatory. He’s hunting me. It’s the same feeling I’ve had sinceI met him. He tosses a snowball high, and I slip back, but it catches me in the chest anyway.
“You missed the flag!”
“Did I?” He’s stalking toward it when my secret weapon dumps a snowball on the top of his head from her spot in the tree behind me.
My little six-year-old spitfire who’s spent the last ten minutes asking me questions about softball when she can finally move up from t-ball.
I knew she was perfect for this position.
“Good shot, Sylvie.”
Her giggles spread a smug smile across my face.
“Keep guard. Don’t let anyone touch that flag.”
Adam laughs, too, shaking the snow out of his hair. “Nice trick.”
I bow with some flair and march my way to the designated time out section with sweets and cocoa. Half the town is there, filtering in and out, laughing and having fun. It’s exactly what we’d planned for.
But when I linger with my cup of cocoa, the whispers start again.
I don’t hear the words exactly, but the tone carries and the glances make me more than aware that they’re talking about me.
I guess some things will never change.
I’m back in the game the second my thirty minutes are up, taking out a half dozen more players on my way back to my side’s flag.
Greyson flashes me a grin on my way as he pummels one of Adam’s team trailing me.
He sends me a wink, and I shake my head with a laugh as I jog by.
I’m still laughing when I turn—and nearly collide with a wall of fur-lined parkas and lip gloss glares.
“Guess sleeping your way onto a team works, huh?” one says, sweet as antifreeze.
My throat ices over.
“She would have made Adam’s team if that were true. Reaching pretty high above your station,” says another. Both girls were in my high school. A year younger than me, so they’re obviously privy to my previous scandal.
“And what is my station exactly?” Their smirks twist in an ugly fashion. “Wait, I’ll tell you whatever my station is, it’s above the three of you.”
Three perfectly timed snowballs hit them in their hair-sprayed curls in a quick succession, and my smile spreads wider as I back away.
“See ya.” The rest of my way back is easy, but as the day bleeds on it’s time to go on the offensive.
Mostly because I’m bored.
I make my move, having too much fun running and hiding and dodging snowballs before an arm snags around my waist and spins me around, pressing me into a tree as snowballs hit.
I’d recognize the sweet scent mixed with leather with my eyes closed, but I look up to Gabe’s pouty frown.
Tension rachets up in my middle as he meets my gaze.
He maintains the barrier between me and my attackers, and a wall of heat hits me as he presses into me.
The flash of longing and the memory of his body against mine the last time distracts me for two long seconds.
