Page 58 of The Forever After Bet

“He asked me if I had a date to the winter formal. After the game, he asked me to go with him.”

“That guy is a jerk. He has no respect for women. What did you say?”

“I said no thank you, walked away, and found Leah. When I glanced back at him, he nodded and winked at me like I said yes.” Hannah shivers. “That guy gives me the creeps.”

I tighten my hold around her. As the coaches all sit at the front of the bus and don’t even walk back here, I keep Hannah on my lap and hold her all the way back to Lake City. It’s the best two hours of my life.

I walk into the school tired, sore, and bleary-eyed. I’m on my second Red Bull, so I should perk up any time now. Mrs. Winters, Mr. Winters, Cameron, Jack, Ty, Leah, and Hannah are all here. We have some awesome friends. Hannah and Leah are wrapping lights around a couple of three-foot trees. Jack and Cameron are both on ladders stringing lights.

“Ford,” Mrs. Winters smiles at me. “Oh great, you’re here. Will you and Ty go to the truck and grab the snowmen?”

Hannah’s head pops up. She smiles and waves. I wink at her. “Sure, thing,” I say.

Ty’s quiet while we walk to the truck. “Everything okay there, Hansen?” I ask, bumping his shoulder.

He stops walking and pulls out his phone. “We have a problem.”

“What’s new,” I mutter.

He hands me his phone. On it is a picture from Instagram of Ryker and Hannah last night after the game. Ryker is playing with one of her pom-poms, and Hannah is biting her lip. Something she does when she’s nervous or uncomfortable. The caption under the picture reads. The prettiest girl at Lake City High said yes to being my date to the winter formal. I take a breath and hand Ty back his phone.

“Hannah told me he came up to her after the game last night and asked her to the dance. She said no and walked away. He creeps her out.”

Ty nods. “You can tell from the picture she doesn’t want to be talking to him, but you’d have to know her to realize that.”

“Did you see who’s credited with the picture?” Ty asks.

“Yep, our favorite peeping tom photographer, Mason Bergeson.”

“What are we going to do?” Ty asks.

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to Hannah about it later today and see what she thinks.”

Ty nods. “Sounds good.”

When Mrs. Winters said snowmen, I thought that meant two. There are five. It’s a whole snowman family, complete with a baby snowman. Between the two of us, we carry all of them in one trip.

“Oh my gosh, these are so cute.” Hannah takes one of the kid snowmen out of my hands, fawning over it. She seems happy this morning despite all the drama we had yesterday. She sets the snowman down and comes up to me. “Someone is still half asleep this morning.” She reaches up, giving me a quick little kiss. “Good morning, Handsome.”

“Good morning, Sweet Cheeks.” I slide my hand down her back, patting her bum. There are no high schoolers around, just vendors putting the finishing touches on their booths.

Mrs. Winters puts us to work, and we don’t talk again until after eight, when everything is done.

“This looks great,” I say, stepping back and looking at it. “It’s like a Christmas meadow.”

Hannah hugs Mrs. Winters and thanks her before she leaves. “Oh my gosh, I owe her so much.” Hannah sighs, looking everything over.

“This was her way of volunteering,” I say.

“Yeah, I guess it was. Still, she was a lifesaver.”

“That she was. What time is your shift today?”

She pulls a piece of paper out of her back pocket. “Bree changed it all around, but that didn’t work for anyone. I told everyone just to come when they originally signed up. The only person that messes up is you and Ty. So, you and Ty are volunteering from five to six and staying to help clean up.” Hannah glances up at me, her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Funny, I asked what time your shift was, not mine.”

“Oh, I’m volunteering from noon until two.”

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