Maisie army crawled to the porch as Colt’s laughing “I’m sorry” retreated. Breathing heavily, she hurried back to the trees. Should she go find Nick? Go for the next one? She gathered some snow, made a few decent-size snowballs, and tiptoed, unnecessarily, through the path.
Hearing a noise, she whirled and got whacked in the chest with three snowballs in a row.
“Hey!” She dropped all but one snowball and sank to the ground.
Her brother laughed at her. “Sorry, not sorry.”
As he passed her, she used all her strength to hurtle the one snowball she had left right at his back. It gave a satisfyingthwackthat echoed in the air.
“That doesn’t count,” he called.
“Still felt good.”
When her ten seconds were up, she hurried back to her feet, gathered her ammo, and went in search of her partner or the final ornament.
“Score is one, one,” Kyle’s voice said from somewhere nearby.
Maisie went all the way to the end of the outlined zone and traveled along the last path. She heard someone getting pelted, a couple of oofs, and wondered if it was Nick, Colt, or Jake.
Just as she was about to give up on the search, she saw the telltale twinkle of an ornament. She’d grabbed it, pulled it down, and taken her first step when Colton hit her right in the back.
“Give it to me,” Nick said, suddenly right there at the exact same time he whipped a snowball at Colton.
“That’s cheating,” Colton yelled as he sank down.
Nick’s booming laugh echoed in the air as he hopped the fence and ran toward the house. “That wasn’t a rule.”
“Jake!” Colton yelled. “They’re winn—”
Maisie shut him up by tossing handfuls of snow at him. By the time they heard Nick’s whoop of excitement from way up by the porch, she and Colton were in a full-on snow fight, scooping it into the air in each other’s direction.
They laughed and slipped and finally, Maisie collapsed against him. He hugged her and kissed the top of her head.
“We won,” she said.
“Yeah, we did,” Colton laughed.
Leaving the fenced-in area, the three of them walked back, Jake and Colton hand in hand. Maisie wondered why it was so quiet when they approached the porch and why Natalie had turned the porch light on. That wasn’t stealth at all.
“Oops,” Jake muttered when they rounded the corner.
Natalie and Kyle stood by their snowman. Nick shuffled his feet at the foot of the stairs, chin ducked like he was trying not to get caught laughing. Maisie’s dad stood in a fleece robe, arms folded over his chest, slippers on his feet, staring at their approach.
“Busted,” Colt whispered.
“And what happens if you hooligans wake up Asher?” her dad asked.
They all mutteredsorryat the same time then broke into giggles because of it.
Her dad chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t leave water on the floor when you come in.” He stared at them for a few more seconds, his eyes moving over each of them. “This might be one of my favorite moments ever. Merry Christmas, you filthy brats.”
“It’s filthy animals, Dad,” Jake called.
“I like mine better,” their dad called back.
They stood around trying to muffle their laughter while trashtalking each other, and even though Maisie seemed to have extra senses attuned specifically to Nick, she couldn’t imagine not sharing this night with him, not creating this memory. Nick squeezed her hand and when she looked at him, she knew the night wasn’t over. Anticipation hummed under her skin.Theirnight was just about to begin.
Chapter Eighteen
