The laughter died in my throat. “Shit. Piper, you okay?” I started toward her.
She looked up at me with wide, innocent eyes as I approached. “I think so. Just help me up?”
I bent down, reaching for her hand. That’s when she grabbedmy wrist and yanked, throwing her weight backward. I went down like a felled tree, landing in the snow beside her with a loudoof. Before I could recover, she started scrambling away while she giggled like a kid.
I grabbed for her. Piper lost her balance again, her weight falling back toward me.
Somehow, we ended up with her sprawled on top of me, both of us breathing hard as we lay on the ground.
Piper’s hands were braced to either side of my shoulders, while I had my hands on her waist. Her hair had come partway loose from its braid. Blond strands trailed down and brushed my face.
Her cheeks were flushed, plush lips parted as she caught her breath. Her pale-green eyes were brighter than usual.
Fuck.
Then she reached down, scooped up a handful of snow from beside us, and smushed it against the side of my face.
The shock of cold against my overheated skin made me gasp, and she rolled away, laughing. “Truce,” she said, sitting up and holding her hands in the air. “I surrender.”
“You surrender after a cheap shot?” I sat up too, brushing snow from my face and hair. My heart was still pounding, but the cold had done its job. Cooled me down.
Which was for the best, even if every part of my body was raring to heat things up even more.
I got to my feet, then reached down to help her up for real this time.
Piper let go of me as soon as she was standing, patting at her hair to tuck away the loose strands. “So. Um. What are you doing here?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m the one who texted about the rental.”
She blinked. “That was you?”
“I saw the notice at Silver Linings this morning. If it’s still available.” I glanced at the building behind her.
“Yes,” she said, though she didn’t sound certain. “I just didn’t expect it to be you. Or to have an impromptu snowball fight.” She laughed nervously. “That was fun, though.”
I picked up the knit cap I’d dropped, brushing off the snow. “It was.”
“I guess you want to see inside.”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Right. That’s why you came.” She started toward the back door, then paused and looked over her shoulder at me. Snow still clung to her hair, melting on her eyelashes. I wondered if she was going to say something else.
But instead, she led the way into the house.
TEN
Piper
“The place needs some work,”I warned him.
Grayden followed me through the back door and onto the sunporch. “That’s okay. I don’t mind work.”
I shrugged out of my coat. I’d turned on the heat earlier, but the air inside still held a chill. It had never gotten warm enough to be toasty in the winter. Just tolerable.
But my pulse was still racing from our snowball fight, heating me through. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so exhilarated.
I’d had plenty of snowball fights with Ollie, sure, but those were silly and fun. Mother-and-son bonding time. What just happened with Grayden had my blood pumping and my stomach fluttering like I was sixteen again and had just been noticed by a sexy bad boy.
