Page 13 of Catch Yourself a Snowmance
Tori hears him, though and she looks between the two of us with a big smile on her face.
I subtly shake my headnoin her direction. We’re just friendly. Carson’s gorgeous and fun. But we’re not going to be more than friends who share a love for Noelle and Liam.
Carson leans around me and addresses Tori. “We’re winning this.”
“Okay,” she agrees in her usual amiable tone.
I shake my head in amusement. He’s so competitive. Why is that attractive right now? Is this even the same man who had Dorito dust down his shirt when I first met him? He seems miles ahead of that guy. I’m questioning my capacity to judgecharacter at this point—something I’ve always prided myself in being excellent at discerning.
The teams are established: Carson, Tori and me, then Stephanie, Noelle and Mitch, and finally Gage, Liam and Jennifer.
Noelle produces a board game I didn’t even know we brought. It comes with a timer and cards in different categories. We go around, each of us acting out the word on the card while our teammates try to beat the timer guessing what we’re acting out.
“A goose!” Carson shouts at me.
I shake my head no.A goose? Seriously?What am I doing that saysgoose?
I decide to go all in. I’m gyrating my hips, holding an invisible microphone and leaning backward.
“Seizure!” Tori shouts.
I crack up.
“Come on. Thirty seconds.” Carson says.
I start strumming an air guitar, moving my arm in an exaggerated circle before I land on the imaginary strings to strum.
“Guitar!” Tori shouts at the same time as Carson shouts, “Musician!”
I point at him and nod furiously.
“Musician … Musician … Musician …” he muses.
I go back to gyrating and holding the mic. I’ve got nothing else.
Then I run my hand through my imaginary slick hair, and Carson shouts, “Elvis!”
I jump up and down and point at him, forgetting I can talk now that he guessed.
“Oh yeah, baby! That’s Elvis!” Carson jumps up, grabs me and spins me around while he announces to our friends. “We’re so good at this!”
He sets me down and gives me a high five.
I’m dizzy from either the gyrating or from the way it felt to be held by Carson.
“Oh, yeah.” Liam says. “You’re awesome. Goose. Seizure. That’s what I call amazing.”
“We got the answer.” Carson trash talks back to Liam. “Let’s see you beat us now.”
He playfully bumps my hip with his. I tuck a strand of loose hair behind my ear and take a seat next to Tori on the floor.
We play the game for over an hour, laughing and smack talking back and forth. In the end, we win by two words. Carson is ridiculous and extremely over the top in his gloating.
“I want a trophy,” he announces.
“How about the winning team cooks dinner?” Gage asks.
“Deal,” Tori says.
