Page 2 of Running Winter

She had a genuine smile for Chase, though, as did Kendra.

My cousin was the only guy that got as much attention as me from the women of Winterburg, but he flat out couldn't give a shit.

The only girl he bothered with was Rayna, a girl he refused to let me anywhere near because she was his 'best friend’.

I wasn’t interested anyway—she was the quiet, nerdy type who wouldn't give it up even if you paid her Harvard tuition fees. I had a sneaking suspicion that Chase liked her more than a friend, but he would never admit that to me.

I didn’t mind, though—it's less competition for the hotties.

I had a roving eye—and even as we spoke to those two girls, I wasn’t paying attention, still searching for the girlfriend of the lucky bastard I'd seen earlier. She’d looked like a college girl, and that didn’t bother me.

Older girls, younger girls—whatever, if I wanted them, I made it clear.

I wasn’t saying I was incredible or anything—but my parents both were.

My mom was this platinum blonde that had my dad wrapped around her little finger, which was virtually impossible to do. My dad was Italian originally, with all dark hair and green eyes. He was also the boss of Deacon Enterprises, which means we weren't short of money, and he was a mob boss—something I can't help but be proud to descend from. But he wasn’t as loving as other Dads—he never came to my games and was usually too busy to join us on family holidays.

It meant my parents had a volatile marriage—one that was threatened with divorce most weeks, in fact—but I was yet to see Mom do anything about it.

Love had fucked her up.

"Rafe? Are you going to Lacey's party?" Kendra repeated with exasperation, blowing her blonde hair out of her wide blue eyes. Blue eyes that I recalled staring up at me as she—

"I dunno." I shrugged nonchalantly, my eyes narrowing as Jared Herrod walked into my eye line.

Herrod was the bane of my life, and he irritated the fuck out of me. He was the opposing quarterback for the school on the other side of town, but he was a fucking good one at that.

The problem was, he knew it.

"What's he doing here?" I muttered as Chase followed my eyes.

"Well, I would hazard a guess that he’s going for the fluffy unicorn, but who knows at this point," Chase drawled with disinterest, watching as Jared lined up a rifle to hit the tins before him.

The fucker had girls all around him when he won, and he auctioned off the unicorn like some sort of charity worker.

"Wow, Jared has skills," murmured Kendra, and Nina nodded in agreement.

"Where's your school spirit?" I demanded as Kendra blinked, wide-eyed. "You don't check out the guys on the other team, Kendra. You should know better."

"Oh, like that has stopped you fucking half of their cheerleading squad, Rafe," Nina said haughtily.

I shrugged then, knowing my argument was null and void.

Chase came to my rescue, though, and I couldn't help but smirk at his response.

"In fairness, though, you didn't know which school she was from until you saw her at the game, right?" Chase chuckled.

I hooked my arm around him, grinning at the girls who were glaring at me with disbelief.

"Which girl?" demanded Kendra, as Nina elbowed her sharply.

I pretended I couldn't hear her as I jogged after Chase.

“Thanks, bro, Kendra is a fucking piranha," I exhaled, watching as Chase paid for us to have a rifle each at the game Jared had just stood at like a fucking celebrity.

Yet, we were the actual celebrities around these parts—no one can compete with a Fallon and a Deacon.

Especially with rifles.

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