Page 79 of Into the Mountains
An arm encircles my waist and he pulls me closer, stopping with only an inch left between us and before he has a chance to do what he was planning, I see his eyes flick over my head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I follow his gaze and land on four faces practically pressed against the glass of the sliding door. As soon as my head turns, the four guilty parties try to act like they were just about to fall through the glass.
I scamper away and put a few inches between us as Ethan grabs for the door handle to slide it open. He’s too busy wrangling the kittens to notice how close we were to one another.
“Hey Dad, I found this game in the closet that has something to do with trains. Have you ever played it?”
He looks at me before he glances at the large box Ethan is juggling in his hands while Erebor and Hobbles perch on his shoulder. Ticket to Ride is on the top of it in red bold letters with tracks wrapping around the sides of the box.
“As a matter of fact, I have.” He throws a wink my way. “And I’mreallygood at it.”
“Can we play?”
“I’m down as long as you know how much of a sore loser your old man can be,” I joke with a punch to Elias’s shoulder.
“If anyone’s a sore loser around here it’s Georgie,” Hudson’s voice joins the mix and George immediately protests.
“The last time we had a game night, I seem to remember, you’re the one who tripped,” he puts air quotes around the last word. “And ruined the board because you were dead last.”
Hudson waves him off. “It wasn’t my fault there were shoes that belonged to a certain kid over here.”
“Oh no, Uncle Hud, you aren’t blaming me for that one. You clearly saw my shoes when you sat downandyou moved them to that side. Which means, you tripped on purpose.”
“Traitor.”
Ethan puts one hand up in defense. “Hey, I’m just gathering the evidence.”
“Yeah, a regular Sherlock Holmes,” Hudson drawls.
“You really do sound like a sore loser right now,” I mock.
“Alright, fine. Let’s play whatever this game is. Better than the Wingspan game we played last time. Stupid birds.”
I nod my head in agreement with his last statement. Birds are horrible and any game with them in it, I’d rather stay miles away from.
“You know wingspan means something completely different in the book world,” Sky chimes in with a sly smile.
“One of you just had to say that word,” Jacob says with a groan filled with something that says this isn’t the first time he’s been desperate to not talk about what Sky is bringing up.
“Oh he’s going to act like he doesn’t want to talk about it, but then wants to hide the fact we discussed what we thought his wingspan would be in the faerie world.”
“What does wingspan mean?” asks George, sounding genuinely curious.
With the look on Sky’s face, I can tell it’s something that probably isn’t appropriate for ears younger than…well, young kids. So, before she has a chance to jump into whatever conversation she was about to and make George regret asking his question, I raise my voice slightly louder than I intended.
“Alright. Let’s go inside and play the game.” I start to usher people inside and mutter to Sky that she can explain what she meant to me later.
Everyone makes their way into the house with Elias and me being the last on the porch. I start to turn back to him to ask if he had an answer, but a small hand yanks me inside before I have the chance. “C’mon, Charlotte! Pick a color.”
I have no choice but to follow him in and sit at the long wooden table. Hudson and Avery are already seated with Jacob and Sky across from them and George is already pulling out the board and the pieces.
“So how should we do this? There’s only five players max,” I say.
“Couples?” Avery suggests.
“Nah, let’s make it guys against girls.”
“Mmm, you would make it that way, Elias,” I accuse.
