Page 5 of Wild Card 13

“You were losing a fight with flurries.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiling became impossible to stop.

That was the thing about Ty. Being around him felt dangerously easy. Like stepping too far onto a frozen lake and only realizing afterward how thin the ice beneath you might actually be.

The lake housesat farther outside town surrounded by snow-covered pines and trucks lined haphazardly along the driveway. Music drifted faintly through the cold. Bonfire smoke curled into the dark sky.

Ty climbed out first, jogging around the truck before I could open my own door.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said as he helped me down onto the icy ground.

“My mother would kill me if I didn’t.”

“Your mother likes me?”

“She loves you.”

I blinked.

Ty shrugged casually like he hadn’t just completely destabilized my nervous system. “She says you make me less annoying.”

“That seems impossible.”

“Oh, it is. But she appreciates the effort.”

Voices echoed somewhere near the lake. A hockey stick flew through the air unexpectedly. Someone shouted, “Buzz brought the librarian!”

“Oh my God,” I muttered.

Ty grinned beside me. “Too late to run now.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

The bonfire sat near the shoreline surrounded by folding chairs, hockey bags, coolers, and half the Northbend varsity roster wearing winter jackets over hoodies. Music blasted from portable speakers somewhere buried in the snow. A few people skated farther out across the frozen lake beneath strings of temporary lights someone had rigged between poles near the dock.

The whole scene glowed gold and blue beneath falling snow. It looked like something out of a movie.

Simon Keller spotted us first. “Holy shit,” he announced dramatically, throwing both arms into the air. “Buzz finally got a girl to willingly spend time with him.”

“She’s here voluntarily?” Mason, Simon’s younger brother, added suspiciously.

“Blink twice if you need help,” another of Ty’s teammates called from beside the fire.

Ty sighed. “You people are embarrassing.”

“Librarian!” Mason pointed at me. “Did he kidnap you?”

“I’m considering pressing charges,” I shot back with a smirk.

“That’s fair.” Simon immediately shoved a cup of hot chocolate into my hands like we were already friends. “Welcome to hockey nonsense.”

I liked him instantly.

The night unfolded slowly after that. Someone nearly fell through a folding chair. Simon accidentally launched a marshmallow directly into the fire and screamed like he’d lost a child. Ty spent ten straight minutes arguing with Mason about whether Bruce Springsteen qualified as road-trip music.

I laughed harder than I had in weeks. Maybe months.