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“It’s a home from home. I divide my time between here and being down with the pack,” he said.
“Down with the … where are we?” Zoe asked.
“You managed to walk up the mountain through the woods in an easterly direction that took you away from pack land,” he informed her. “If you’d gone the other way, you might have ended up where Kristen lives.”
Zoe sighed. “My sense of direction and the Christmas curse fails me again,” she grumbled.
“Christmas curse?”
“I’m cursed at Christmas, ergo, Christmas curse, every year something goes horribly wrong,” she said.
“Then why are you here?”
“Christmas curse,” she said.
“No, I mean, why did you even get out of bed and come all this way at Christmas – shouldn’t you wrap yourself in a duvet until New Year's Eve or something?”
“Makes sense,” Zoe said. “But, the four of us lead such different lives that we never see each much, so we block a couple of weeks and this year…” She looked around. “I screwed up, big time.” She chuckled.
“Yes, you did,” Billy replied, smiling. “And now I have to feed you.”
“Do you, at least, have a tv?” she asked.
“I have a TV, but it’s hooked up for DVDs only, and I don’t think you’d like what my brother and I watch,” he said. “But I have a pack of cards and a dart board.”
“Darts,” her interest piqued. “I love darts.”
“Eat your food and game on,” he said.
“I’m not that good, but I like throwing sharp objects at things,” she said.
“I’ll remember to stand behind you,” he said.
“Probably a good idea,” Zoe said.
~
“See, I did say it was a good idea to stand behind me,” Zoe said, wincing with guilt at seeing the dart sticking out of his socked foot.
Billy rolled his eyes as he lifted his leg and yanked the dart out of his flesh. “I forgot.”
Zoe covered her mouth and pressed her lips together to save her from laughing. It wasn’t that the man had been hopping on one foot with a dart in the other, but his eyebrows were exceptionally expressive, and words weren’t necessary.
“This is funny to you?” Billy asked. She could try to keep the smile at bay as much as she liked, but her eyes were alive with amusement.
Zoe mentally cleared her throat and told herself off. She dropped her hand and somehow kept the smile at bay. “Nope, but you’re already healing, right?” she asked.
Billy narrowed his eyes. “I am, but remind me to sterilise the darts if we should play again. It saves my body working overtime healing blood poisoning before it starts.”
Zoe snorted; it was half-chuckle and half-pig, and when he snapped a look at her and twisted his head just a little, his eyebrows creased and turned down towards his nose and up at the other end, and she snorted another chuckle that started a tidal wave of laughter that she couldn’t hold back.
Billy watched her with fascination. The way she laughed, a full-on chuckle, was infectious and bewitching, and he found himself smiling and then chuckling along with her before he knew it. “I’m not sure you didn’t stab me on purpose,” he said.
“I would never,” she said and snorted another belly chuckle.
“Yeah, that denial fills me with so much trust,” he said, walking up to her to take the rest of the darts. “We should try something less dangerous.”
“I’ve always wanted to try axe throwing,” Zoe said, and the look of snap horror on his face made her splutter more chuckles at his expense. “Your face,” she chuckled.
