Page 40 of Abdominal Snowman

They sipped their drinks and pulled a few blocks out, but the silence became too much too fast.

“We could make the stakes a little more exciting. What do you say, Sunshine?” Soren peered around the tower of blocks, waggling his eyebrows.

“Great minds think alike,” she replied, relieved. It was going to be a long night if they just sat in silence and pulled blocks out.

But what could they do instead?

An image of Soren shirtless that afternoon danced through her mind.

So of course her next natural thought was Strip Jenga. Why was her brain like this?

Was that even a thing? Was she about to make it a thing?

She almost snorted. No way.That was too much. Poor Soren.

Right?

She blinked, the reasons for saying no slipping away the more she tried to hold onto them. Sage lifted her gaze to Soren. The abdominal snowman. AKA not human?

The longer she stared at Soren—no, the more time she spent with him—he seemed less and less monstrous. Pretty normal, even. You know, for a man living alone in the woods.

She might go so far to say that she… liked Soren definitely more than any man she’d met in the last… oh, two years? Her only comparisons were the assholes at her job, and the random people she’d meet chasing down stories.

At least with Soren she wouldn’t find taxidermy gators in his bedroom.

Now that she thought of it, she hadn’t found anything weird so far.

I mean, besides the whole monster thing.

Sage snorted but forgot to do it quietly, and earned an odd Stare from Soren.

“What is it?” he asked.

She waved her hand in the air. “Nothing, nothing, I just came up with an idea to make this more interesting.”

“Oh yeah? Me too. On three then?”

Sage’s smile faded as she read the challenge in Soren’s gaze. Thought he had her beat already, did he?

She’d show him.

Her competitive streak reared its head as she began the countdown for him. “One…”

Together they said, “Two…”

And after a breath, on the third count, they blurted—

“Shots!”

“Strip Jen…ga.”

Sage blinked at Soren, her voice trailing off in the instant silence. Heat rose to her cheeks, and she felt them grow hotter under the low lights in the cabin and the intensity of Soren’s wide stare. At first, it was filled with confusion, but then with a twitch of his lips, it morphed to humor.

“I was just kidding,” Sage offered, wondering if she’d just made a mistake.

Mischief lightened his gaze, and he nodded. “Sure, Sage.” He winked. “Alright then, how do we decide who goes?”

Sage was speechless. That was it? They were doing it? She hadn’t expected him to agree of all things. Oh shit. Her heart raced as she wondered what the hell she’d just done.