“Good, let’s start,” Stella said. She made a show of covering her eyes and announced, “Robbers have until the count of sixty to get out of here, starting now. One, two, three…”
Oliver and JJ both darted into the night, and that was my cue to leave as well.
“Come on, let’s go,” Asha said, ushering me down the stone steps.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I stared longingly at the warm light cast around the patio and the four people who stood there. We’d been divided into two teams: JJ, Oliver, Asha, and myself versus Xander, Alec, Boomer, and Stella. I felt bad when JJ picked me second after Oliver, claiming I “looked like a runner,” since my athletic skills were dismal at best.
“Keep up, ladies,” Oliver called from somewhere ahead of us.
And from behind “…eight, nine, ten…”
I hurried after Asha as she sped across the slick grass, not wanting to lose her. The backyard floodlight only illuminated a small part of the expansive lawn, and the farther we got from the house, the thicker the darkness around us grew. Finally we hit the tree line, and according to Oliver, there was a fence about twenty yards in that served as our boundary for the game. He and JJ were crouched at the base of a huge ash tree, talking game logistics.
“I think it’s strategically best if we stick to the trees,” JJ was saying.
We went over and joined them.
“We should also split up,” Oliver said. “Make it harder for them to find us.”
Jeez.They were taking themselves way too seriously.
“Are you fast?” JJ asked us.
“Asha is,” I said, proudly jabbing a finger in her direction. “Me? Not so much.”
“Dang,” Oliver said. “Maybe you can find somewhere to hide.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, even though the last,absolute lastthing I wanted to do was wait around by myself in the dark for someone—or something—to find me. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.
“Are you cold?” JJ asked.
Whoa.Was that actual concern I detected in his voice?
“I’ll be fine,” I said, ignoring the goose bumps climbing my bare arms. “I’m just not a big fan of running. Or creepy, dark forests.”
“Here, take this.”
He unzipped his hoodie and yanked it off. When he held it out to me, my brain took a good second to process what was happening.JJwas actually being amicable instead of cracking some smart-ass joke.
“Um, thanks,” I said and tugged it on. It was way too big for me, and the sleeves hung well past my fingertips, but it was soft on the inside and smelled of citrus from his cologne. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a shrug.
I half expected him to make a pervy joke about how obvious it was that I was freezing, or maybe something about him not needing an extra layer because he was hot-blooded, but he turned back to Oliver, his attention already refocused on the game at hand.
“So, Felicity,” Oliver said. “Are you by any chance good at climbing trees?”
***
“You’re kidding, right?” I looked up at the gnarled oak that towered over us. Oliver followed my gaze but didn’t seem concerned about the branches twisting in the wind. Which was probably because he wasn’t the one who would be risking his life. No, he was offering up mine instead. “You can’t actually expect me to climb this thing.”
“I was kind of hoping you would,” he said. “I’m not big on losing.”
This was getting ridiculous. If I’d known Alec’s friends would get this competitive over a game of tag, I’d have stayed in the basement drinking vodka and watching James Bond.
“Yeah, well, I’m not big on broken bones.”
“Come on,” he said. “It’s not that high. I’ll give you a boost.” And there was that Oliver Perry smile again—one part charm, one part magic, and a whole lot of confidence.
