Page 6 of Falling Like Snow

My friend Preeti shrugs. “She said she’d be here.”

“Okay, well, let’s just get started,” I say. “Knowing her, she’ll be at least thirty minutes late.”

“What? Hannah gets a pass, but I have to be here?” Slug complains, his ash-brown hair falling over his eyes.

“Hey, I didn’t force you to come,” I tell him.

“Jake dragged him here,” Ellis’s boyfriend, Cooper, says.

Slug crosses his beefy arms over his chest and frowns. “Literally.”

“If I’d expected you to be here, you would have been part of the group chat,” I say.

“Wait. There’s a group chat?” Slug asks. “I’m offended.”

I huff. “You’ve never once volunteered for a single Bramble Falls event—not even when your football coach made it mandatory.”

“Not the point,” he argues. “I’d still like an invitation so I can not-so-regretfully decline to participate.”

Ellis drops her pen on the table and buries her hands in her thick brown hair. “I have a feeling we aren’t going to get anything done at this meeting.”

“No,” Asher says firmly. “We’re going to be productive. Because all of you are going to shut up and let Sloane talk.” He levels a look at Slug, who probably has fifty pounds on him, but Slug lifts his hands in surrender anyway.

I shoot Asher the best grateful look I can muster.

After placing our orders, we get down to business. I explain the situation even though, like Jake said, they already know because there are no secrets in a town as small as Bramble Falls. To my surprise, not only does everyone seem excited, but they also came prepared with ideas.

Just as we’re about to start jotting down our thoughts, Hannah bursts through the door with no coat, a gray hat over her flowy brown hair, and tight jeans hugging her curvy thighs. She darts across the black-and-white checkered floor.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, panting. “My car wouldn’t start.”

“Girl, your car never starts,” I say. “Maybe it’s time for a new one?”

“I’m broke,” she says, claiming the empty chair. She steals Preeti’s strawberry milkshake and takes a sip. “But enough about me. Where are we?”

Ellis taps her pen on her notebook. “Ideas for winter events.”

“Wait,” Jake says, causing everyone to groan. “Jeez. I was just wondering if we were getting Fern in on this meeting.”

“Why would we do that?” Ellis asks.

When Fern visited for the Falling Leaves Festival earlier this month, Jake was positively captivated by her. They spent a few days flirting before she left, and ever since, Jake’s been searching for any excuse to text her.

“Because she’s the reason this is happening? Because she might have good ideas?” Jake relaxes in his chair, trying to act laid-back about it. But we all know better.

“Actually, my mom did ask if we could get her involved, so—”

Jake springs forward and whips out his phone before I can even finish my sentence. “I’ll video-call her.”

He waggles his eyebrows and Cooper laughs as the phone rings. The two guys are best friends, and although things got complicated between them last month when they were both chasing after Ellis, they seem to be back to normal now.

Thankfully, because I am not good with tension, rifts, and confrontation.

“Um, hello…?” Fern says, clearly surprised to see Jake calling her. “What’s going on?”

Jake beams too brightly to pull off being casual. “Figured you missed seeing my pretty face.”

Fern laughs. “You were right. I was sitting here staring at my phone, hoping you’d call.”