Page 122 of 10 Things I Hate About Mistletoe

“Who came up with this idiocy?” Sam asked. A snowball caught him on the side of the head and he frowned at Ryler. “Did you just nail me with snowball, girl I don’t know?”

“Why would I hit a stranger with a snowball? That would be really odd.”

“Go Nick!” Delilah yelled.

Erica returned with a corn dog in one hand and a churro in the other, all smiles until Sam tried to take a bite.

“Hey now, get your own! You ain’t pretty enough to share my food with.”

Delilah was ready to scream at all of them to shut up as she watched Nick ski down the road, stopping every ten feet or so and picking something up. Someone in an orange parka was gaining on him.

“You can see them?” Erica asked.

“Barely,” Delilah said, pointing. “I’m watching between a couple trees.”

“Go, go, go!” Holly cheered, her voice fading as she squinted. “Wait, is that Anthony in an inflatable reindeer costume?”

“That had to be Pike’s idea,” Delilah said.

“I think it’s genius,” Ryler said, making Delilah grin. Ryler and Pike had been spending a lot of time together, always bickering and one upping each other. Maybe all that tension was turning into something more.

Delilah whooped when she saw Nick ski around the corner and hop up onto the lawn toward Anthony. Once Nick was within arm’s reach, Anthony grabbed the bag and took off running toward the pile of snow just before the finish line in the inflatable suit that was several inches too short on him. Another reindeer was bouncing up and down like a frog behind him and when they hit the snow-covered lawn of the park, they were neck and floppy neck. Anthony was close enough that she could see the flush of his cheeks as he rolled each ball of his snowman into position and started removing items from bags. The inflatable suit looked awkward, and by the sound of his curses it was making the situation more difficult.

Delilah recognized the second reindeer as Brodie when he skidded across the snow-covered ground. He started picking up the snowballs to set them one on top of the other, but they kept rolling off. Finally, he looked over at Anthony and seemed to realize he needed to pack snow around each section to keep them in place, because he followed Anthony’s lead. Brodie started gaining ground on Anthony and Delilah found herself jumping up and down anxiously.

“Come on, Anthony,” she whispered, right before he stood up with his hands in the air and yelled, “Finished.”

The last man hadn’t even made it to the snowman section yet when he heard Anthony, and he waddled off in a huff.

Delilah could hear Brodie bitching and hollering about how Anthony must have practiced the course and had an unfair advantage since he created it. Anthony said something about Brodie being a sore loser and Brodie stood up and stomped away, yelling over his shoulder, “I’ll see you on the ice.”

“I know! I set up the match!” Anthony called after him.

“Anthony!” Delilah called, and the rest of the people around her, even Sam who wasn’t exactly an enthusiastic guy, started cheering and hollering. Anthony spun their way in the blow-up costume and spotted them, waving back with a grin.

“I wonder how he pulled the short straw,” Sam asked.

Anthony jogged over to them, the material of the reindeer suit creating a high-pitched noise, and Delilah giggled when he wrapped his arm around her, burying her in the material until she felt Anthony underneath.

He released her and fiddled around with something inside the suit until the low hum of the fan stopped. The material deflated around him, creating a brown, wrinkled mess, and he turned around, giving her his back. “Could you get me out of this thing before Sam and Declan start slinging zingers my way?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, buddy,” Declan said, coughing to cover a laugh.

Delilah pulled down the zipper and held it open while he stepped out. He was wearing a blue thermal shirt and jeans, his hair damp and plastered in every direction. He looked like an adorable mess, and she reached up, waving him down so she could fix his dark hair.

Anthony obliged her, their noses nearly touching as she ran her fingers through his hair and tried to create some semblance of style.

“I’m going to be playing hockey in an hour, love. No sense in wasting your time when I’m going to just mess it up again.”

Delilah gave up with a sigh. “Fine, but the mussed hair is supposed to be for my eyes only when you first wake up.”

“This is different hair,” he said, pointing at his crown. “This is ‘I just got done running in an inflatable reindeer suit’ hair versus ‘waking up next to my beautiful woman’ hair.”

“My God, are they always like this?” Sam asked.

“Worse,” Holly joked.

“Gross,” he said, walking away from them without another word.