A roaring engine sounded, but she was too focused on the race.
“What are you doing?” the lady ground out. “Stop following me!”
“I thought we were racing,” Birdie panted out.
“Why would we be racing? I was trying to get away from you.”
“Oh.” Birdie frowned and made her legs stop moving. “That’s way less fun than I thought this was.”
Honk!
Birdie startled as the last two…campers, she would call them in her mind…passed her by.
“Were you just racing that angry lady?” came a familiar voice. And sure enough, when she turned to the parking area, to Birdie’s utter mortification, Lance was hanging out the window of his truck with an annoying smile on his much-too-handsome face.
“No,” she lied, and then scoffed. “Why would I be doing that? That’s weird.” Her cheeks were on fire.
“Super weird,” he agreed, and rolled his window up.
She stood there awkwardly as he turned off his truck and got out. “Okay, bye. Have a good night at work.”
“Okay,” he said, still smiling. “Bye.”
Eyes trained on the snowy trail of footprints ahead of her, she walked stiffly toward the lodge, but Lance fell into step with her.
She walked faster.
So did he.
So did she.
So did he.
She picked up to a lazy jog, and so did he.
“Are you racing me?” she demanded.
“No, I’m winning.” He took off running.
“Oh, fart,” she said as she kicked her legs into motion. She hated losing races.
“Did you just say fart?” Lance called behind him.
She zoomed past him and pushed him over into the snow as she did.
His cackling laugh echoed through the Woodpecker Inn. Out of breath because she was honestly in mediocre shape, she straightened the wrinkles out of her skin-tight jeans and blew out a steadying breath, preparing her thoughts to meet Ava.
A pair of strong hands pushed her into a snowbank.
Birdie yelped as the world was shrouded in white.
She sat up and wiped snow from her face just in time to see Lance open the door to the lodge and let himself in. “I win,” he said as the door swung closed behind him.
“What a buffoon,” she uttered, appalled.
Now she was covered in snow for her first meeting with Ava. And yeah, Ava didn’t know she was here to meet her, but she didn’t want to be coming in late to the dinner soaking wet.
What a jerk.
