Page 59 of Call My Bluff
Noah craned his neck and watched as she slid the note from beneath the water gun. She said nothing, but he knew what she was reading.
“Defend yourself. Good luck.”
She raised her head and looked around suspiciously. “Noah?” she called.
He laughed silently to himself. That hadn’t taken her long!
“Noah?” she shouted again. “Don’t you dare shoot me!”
But he didn’t listen. He rarely did. Instead, he raised the barrel of his gun and fired through the fork in the tree, purposely splattering her windshield with water. “What’s wrong, Warrior Princess?” he taunted. “Afraid to get wet?”
Olivia jumped back as his second shot rained down across her sneakers, and Noah was delighted to see a flash of determination streak across her face. He knew she wouldn’t let a challenge like that go unanswered. She snatched the water gun from her hood and then yanked her driver’s side door open and crouched behind it like a shield. “You’re gonna get it, Campbell!” she yelled. “This means war!”
He snickered again and fired a shot directly at the window of her door. It wouldn’t get her wet, but it would distract her long enough for him to change position. The water doused the glass, and he made a run for the next tree to the right, silently thanking whoever had landscaped the campus quad with so many convenient hiding places.
Sure enough, Olivia came up shooting, her stream of water aimed directly at the tree where he had been moments before. Noah held in another laugh as he ran in a crouch and slipped past a Jeep four spaces down from her car. He crept along the bumpers of three other vehicles before peeking around the last one. Olivia’s door was still standing open... but she wasn’t there.
“Gotcha!” a voice shouted, and a blast of lukewarm water drenched the right side of Noah’s face before pouring down the front of his shirt. He stood and fired blindly across her trunk in the direction the shot had come from.
“Too slow!” she taunted, and Noah wiped the water from his eyes with one hand.
“Where did you go?” he demanded, ducking down behind her car again, and musical laughter met his ears from somewhere near the hood.
“I can’t tell you that, now can I?” she teased, and Noah threw himself flat on his stomach. Sure enough, there was a pair of familiar blue tennis shoes near her front tire, and he fired beneath the vehicle in a sneak attack.
He was rewarded with a shriek of surprise, and the shoes jumped.
“You think you’re slick, don’t you?” she demanded, her voice filled with laughter, and Noah watched her feet move away over the grass. He pushed to his feet and ran along the line of vehicles before cutting up toward the sidewalk, intending to come around behind his original position. But again, he rounded the side of the tree line and found it empty. He peeked first around one large trunk and then into the space between two others. Then he scanned the parking lot again. Nothing.
Just as he was turning to double back, he heard a twig snap close by.
Too close.
Noah turned around, and another spray of water came down from above and soaked the front of his jeans. He looked up and saw Olivia wedged between two branches of a tree, the lowest of which was still above his head.
How did she get up there so fast?
He raised his weapon and fired, hitting his mark dead in the middle, and a wet spot bloomed across the center of Olivia’s gray T-shirt, turning the material black. He ducked her return fire before drenching her a second time.
“Okay, okay, I call a truce,” she spluttered, but Noah laughed.
“Only because you’ve cornered yourself!” he said. “That was a bad decision.” Another stream of water hurtled down from the branches, but he saw it coming and sidestepped it easily. “So was not going high enough,” he added, and he reached up to close a hand around her ankle. Then, he shook it.
“Stop that!” she shouted, though her voice wasn’t afraid. She tried to yank her foot back, but he held on tight. With the other hand, he fired his gun again and turned the leg of her jeans a dark blue. “Noah!” she shrieked. “That’s not fair!”
“Neither is turning into a squirrel, but here we are,” he replied with a grin. Then he shook her leg again, and her shoe came loose from the bark.
She caught hold of the branch above her but dropped her gun, which clattered to the ground at his feet. “Noah, you’re going to make me fall!”
Some of the water from her clothes dripped onto his face as he looked up at her perch, and suddenly he realized he hadmissed her. It had been a week since they’d gotten back from her parents’ house, and while they had texted back and forth since then, it wasn’t the same as actually being close to her.
He wanted her down from this tree.
Now.
“Come on, little squirrel,” he said, tugging on the foot he still held in his hand. “It’s time to jump.”
“No,” came her stubborn answer.
