Page 30 of You Make It Feel like Christmas

“We should follow them if we’re going to do that,” Maisie said, liking the spot where she was pressed into Nick’s chest a little too much to move away.

“Too easy. Plus, we have to hide ours. Where’s that competitive spirit I adore, Maze?”

She sucked in the icy cold air, her mouth open as she stared up at him.

Oh, sweet Santa on a drunk reindeer. I’m in so much trouble.

A low, husky growly sound left Nick’s throat. “You don’t stop looking at me like that I’m going to drag you back inside and let them think we’re just really good at hiding.”

Maisie bit her lip so she didn’t shout “yes please.” Then she kneeled and started making snowballs.

Once they each had a few, they snuck down the row, peeked around the corner of the line of trees, and saw nothing.

They hurried down the outer aisle, gazes scanning the edges of the trees for any glint or sparkle of ornaments.

“We’re down to two minutes. Let’s hide this one here,” Maisie said, starting to hang it on the tree.

Nick crowded in behind her, his hand coming over hers to take the ornament and put it up another six to ten inches.

“They said eye level,” she whispered, tipping her head back and to the side so she could see him.

He dropped his gaze, grinned at her. “That is eye level. For me. ” Then he closed the gap between them, pressed a very quick, very cold (and somehow still hot) kiss to her lips before tugging her arm farther down the aisle. “Let’s hide the other one in this row, too. They won’t think of that.”

The ten-minute alarm sounded on Nick’s phone and they shut it off as fast as they could. Maisie strained to hear where Colt’s alarm was coming from. Game on.

With Nick at her back, they crept between the rows, scanning for the ornament or the hiders, listening for footsteps.

They decided to split up and Maisie was just turning the corner when Colt scared the hell out of her, almost ramming directly into her body, pulling them both up short.

He bent to make a snowball but she already had some, so she pelted him right in the back and took off running.

“I’m hit,” Colt yelled, giving away her location to Jake.

Maisie ran down several aisles and then crouched down, listening while trying not to breathe too loudly.

Maisie squatted, hunched down at the edge of an aisle, listening.

“Psst.”

She turned and lost her balance just as her brother beaned her in the arm with a snowball.

“Jerk,” she yelled. “Nick!”

She heard heavy footfalls, then more. Counting to ten around her laughter, she stood up and went down the aisle to the other end.

The air smelled like crisp cold and pine.

Excitement kept her warm. She was coming around the edge again when she spotted one of Jacob and Colt’s ornaments.

Grabbing it, she tried to decide what to do.

Hang on to it until they had the other? Run?

If her heart was a camera, it was on burst mode.

Run. Go. Just as she took off, she stumbled over her own feet but two strong hands gripped her and kept her from falling flat on her face. Nick.

“You got one?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to take it back.”

A snowball whizzed past their shoulders. Nick bent, grabbed some snow, and started firing in the direction the projectile had come.

“Go,” he whispered, low and harsh.

Slipping and sliding over the snow, she hustled as fast as her waterlogged pants and heavy boots let her, clutching the ornament to her chest. When she reached the house, Kyle was putting the head on the snowman they’d built and Nat was carrying a couple of skinny branches toward it.

“Nice job,” Nat said.

“Watch out,” Kyle said pointing behind her.

Maisie dropped to the ground, the snowball going straight over her and hitting the snowman.

“Hey! Innocent victim,” Natalie said.

Maisie army crawled to the porch as Colt’s laughing “I’m sorry” retreated. Breathing heavily, she hurried back to the trees. Should she go find Nick? Go for the next one? She gathered some snow, made a few decent-size snowballs, and tiptoed, unnecessarily, through the path.

Hearing a noise, she whirled and got whacked in the chest with three snowballs in a row.

“Hey!” She dropped all but one snowball and sank to the ground.

Her brother laughed at her. “Sorry, not sorry.”

As he passed her, she used all her strength to hurtle the one snowball she had left right at his back. It gave a satisfying thwack that echoed in the air.

“That doesn’t count,” he called.

“Still felt good.”

When her ten seconds were up, she hurried back to her feet, gathered her ammo, and went in search of her partner or the final ornament.

“Score is one, one,” Kyle’s voice said from somewhere nearby.

Maisie went all the way to the end of the outlined zone and traveled along the last path. She heard someone getting pelted, a couple of oofs, and wondered if it was Nick, Colt, or Jake.

Just as she was about to give up on the search, she saw the telltale twinkle of an ornament. She’d grabbed it, pulled it down, and taken her first step when Colton hit her right in the back.

“Give it to me,” Nick said, suddenly right there at the exact same time he whipped a snowball at Colton.

“That’s cheating,” Colton yelled as he sank down.

Nick’s booming laugh echoed in the air as he hopped the fence and ran toward the house. “That wasn’t a rule.”

“Jake!” Colton yelled. “They’re winn—”

Maisie shut him up by tossing handfuls of snow at him. By the time they heard Nick’s whoop of excitement from way up by the porch, she and Colton were in a full-on snow fight, scooping it into the air in each other’s direction.

They laughed and slipped and finally, Maisie collapsed against him. He hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

“We won,” she said.

“Yeah, we did,” Colton laughed.

Leaving the fenced-in area, the three of them walked back, Jake and Colton hand in hand. Maisie wondered why it was so quiet when they approached the porch and why Natalie had turned the porch light on. That wasn’t stealth at all.

“Oops,” Jake muttered when they rounded the corner.

Natalie and Kyle stood by their snowman. Nick shuffled his feet at the foot of the stairs, chin ducked like he was trying not to get caught laughing. Maisie’s dad stood in a fleece robe, arms folded over his chest, slippers on his feet, staring at their approach.

“Busted,” Colt whispered.

“And what happens if you hooligans wake up Asher?” her dad asked.

They all muttered sorry at the same time then broke into giggles because of it.

Her dad chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t leave water on the floor when you come in.” He stared at them for a few more seconds, his eyes moving over each of them. “This might be one of my favorite moments ever. Merry Christmas, you filthy brats.”

“It’s filthy animals, Dad,” Jake called.

“I like mine better,” their dad called back.

They stood around trying to muffle their laughter while trash talking each other, and even though Maisie seemed to have extra senses attuned specifically to Nick, she couldn’t imagine not sharing this night with him, not creating this memory.

Nick squeezed her hand and when she looked at him, she knew the night wasn’t over.

Anticipation hummed under her skin. Their night was just about to begin.