Chapter 15

CHAPTER15

Maybe she should wait? Cayley wondered as she stood there, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to come up with something, anything, to get out of doing this and-

She had to stick to the plan, Cayley reminded herself, determined to wipe that smug smile off Sean’s face. Well, that, and she really didn’t want to spend another day watching Christmas movies alone. Yesterday had been more than enough. Although it went a long way to prove the big jerk wrong, she honestly couldn’t handle sitting home alone all day with absolutely nothing to do again.

God, she’d never been more bored than she had yesterday. Several times, she found herself looking longingly at her phone, debating calling Sean to see if he wanted to do something, only to realize what she was doing and forced herself to focus back on the task at hand, spending the day home alone watching Christmas movies. She’d ended up taking a nap, ordering pizza, and calling it an early night, but it still counted and allowed her to check one more item off her list.

Reminding herself that she only had twenty-six more days to go, Cayley debated between her mittens and gloves, only to stuff them both in her coat pocket just in case. That led to her tearing through the boxes in her bedroom for her scarf and realizing that Sean stole her new knitted reindeer hat. After another search through her boxes for her knitted Santa hat, she double-checked the city’s website to make that she had the date and time right before buttoning up her coat and headed for the door, determined to have the best day ever.

That, of course, led to her wondering why Bryce was standing outside her door and-

“Ready?” he asked, not bothering to wait for an answer as he headed towards the door.

“Yes?” Cayley said, not quite sure how to answer that.

Admittedly confused, Cayley made her way to the door and murmured, “Thank you,” when Bryce held it open for her and kept going, wondering what that was all about. That was quickly followed by wondering why he was walking with her as she made her way towards the Winter Festival being held at the park.

When several minutes went by and he didn’t say anything, Cayley cleared her throat and asked, “Can I help you?”

“Probably not,” Bryce said, looking resigned to whatever he was doing.

Shrugging it off, Cayley pulled out her phone and went over the itinerary that she’d made for today, noting all the things that she needed to do in order to check this off her list and once again found herself wondering why Bryce was following her to the park a minute later when she took the path that would lead to the old playground.

“What are you doing?” Cayley asked as she slipped her phone back into her pocket.

“Accepting your invitation,” Bryce said, sighing heavily as he reached over and steadied her when her foot caught on a patch of black ice.

“Thank you,” Cayley said before adding, “I don’t remember inviting you.”

“You did. It was deeply moving and left me fighting back tears,” he said dryly, making her lips twitch as they navigated the path that would take them past the old baseball fields.

“I’m sure it was,” she murmured in agreement. “There’s only one problem with that.”

“What’s that?” Bryce asked, glancing down at her.

“That would negate the whole point of doing this alone,” Cayley told him when she spotted the Winter Festival set up on the far side of the old fields that were covered in snow.

“And why is that?” Bryce asked as they approached the table set up at the entrance.

“Because your brother is a big jerk face,” Cayley said, nodding solemnly as she pulled her money out of her pocket and approached the woman, who looked bored out of her mind and bought her ticket.

“Fair enough,” Bryce said, shrugging it off as he paid for his ticket.

As soon as he had his ticket, Bryce was making his way inside and throwing, “Have fun,” over his shoulder and leaving her standing there, wondering why he was suddenly acting weird. Knowing that she would probably never find out, Cayley forced herself to focus as she glanced down at her watch and realized that she had some time to kill before the snowball fight.

For a moment, Cayley debated her options as she took in all the venders lined up on either side of the field, the gingerbread table, the Christmas carolers singing Jingle Bells by the back corner. After a moment, she decided to treat herself to a hot cocoa and go see what the venders had to offer, making mental notes of all the adorable things that she was going to have to come back for before she left and slowly made her way to the field sectioned off for the snowball fight.

Determined to kick some ass, Cayley waited in line to find out which team she was on and once she found out that she was on Team Rudolph, she was determined to kick Team Frosty’s ass. Switching out her gloves for her good mittens, she found a spot in the long line bordering one side of the field, absently noting that Bryce was on her team before she looked up and took in Team Frosty standing on the other side of the field and saw who was standing directly across from her.

“Oh, God, no…” Cayley mumbled weakly as she spotted the last person that she wanted to see with a snowball in his hand.

Sean.

Swallowing hard, Cayley moved to step back, deciding that perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all when Sean met her panicked gaze and winked, and God help her, but she saw her life flash before her eyes as panic took over and she remembered all those times when they were kids and-

She couldn’t do this.

She really couldn’t.

“I-I changed my mind,” Cayley whispered to nobody in particular as she moved to flee, only to have someone blow a whistle. Before she could blink, the first snowball hit her, slamming into her shoulder and making her grunt, which was quickly followed by another one as Sean slowly made his way across the field, his determined gaze, which she found deeply disturbing, focused solely only her.

“Maybe we could talk about this?” Cayley asked even as she dropped to her knees and-

“Damn it.”

-was hit with another snowball as she scrambled to make a snowball, knowing that it was her only hope and-

“Oh, come on!” Cayley snapped when the jerk hit the snowball that she was making out of her hand with another snowball.

God, she hated him, Cayley thought, licking her lips nervously as she rushed to make another snowball while she watched as Sean leaned down with a bored sigh, scooped up snow in his hands and made a snowball as he walked towards her with a smile on his face that told her that this wasn’t going to end well. Granted, she figured that out for herself when she spotted him a few minutes ago, but now, she knew that she wasn’t leaving this park the same.

Cayley opened her mouth, but no sound came out as she watched in terror as Sean locked his eyes on her as he raised his hand and-

“Shit!”

-was slammed in the chest with a snowball the same time that a large man stepped in front of her. It took her a moment to realize who it was, but as soon as he held his hand back in silent demand, Cayley moved her ass. She quickly made a snowball and placed it in Bryce’s hand. Seconds later, she heard a pained grunt and quickly made another one when his hand returned for more.

For several minutes, Cayley knelt on the ground making snowballs to take down her best friend and just as quickly handed them to the man that she’d spent most of her life avoiding. As she did her best to keep up with the demand, she peeked around Bryce’s legs just as the screams for mercy started.

“Stop!”

“What the hell is your problem? I’m your brother, damn it!”

“Why are you being so mean to me?”

And finally…

“I’m telling!” Sean snapped as Cayley placed the last snowball in Bryce’s hand as she found herself really glad that she wore her good mittens today.

* * *

“I’m telling!”Sean snapped as he got to his feet while Bryce shifted his attention to Cayley, hoping that she’d finally had enough for one day only to feel his lips twitch when she pulled her arm back and sent a snowball flying, hitting Sean between his shoulders and-

“We should probably go get a cup of hot cocoa,” Cayley said, licking her lips nervously as she blindly reached over and took his hand in hers, her panicked gaze never leaving his brother as she dragged him back towards the venders set up on the other side of the park.

“Or we could go home?” Bryce murmured absently, unable to help but notice how perfectly her hand fit in his.

“I still need to make a snowman,” Cayley said, but she looked torn, really fucking torn, which, of course, worked for him.

“You could always do that later after you’ve warmed up,” Bryce suggested, watching the way that she worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought it over and-

“No, I have to see this through,” Cayley said, and with that, she let go of his hand and walked ahead, looking more determined with every step while he stood there, wondering why he never realized just how selfish the little brat was until now.

It was barely thirty degrees out and she just pulled her hand away without a second thought for his safety, taking away a much-needed source of warmth and left him standing there, helpless against hypothermia. That was the reason why he was pissed, Bryce told himself as he followed after her and not because he liked holding her hand.

He didn’t.

Not one fucking bit, Bryce thought as he shoved his hands in his coat pockets and went after her, deciding that he’d had enough for one day. He caught up to her just as she found her way to the boxes filled with snowman accessories. He opened his mouth to tell her that he was going home when two little girls sporting matching braids stepped in front of him, blocking him from getting to Cayley.

“You’re too old to do this,” the little blonde girl said with a look of disgust that had his eyes narrowing.

“Yeah, like, you’re really old,” the little brunette said, backing up her friend as they folded their arms over their chests and glared up at him.

“Besides, your snowman will probably suck anyway,” the little blonde demon said with a snort as Bryce stood there, glaring down at the little bullies.

“Right? That’s what I was gonna say,” the little brunette said, sending him another look of disgust. “I bet he doesn’t even know how to build a snowman.”

“Besides, you’re just wasting your time anyway. We win every year,” the little blonde girl said with a pitying look that had him grinding his jaw.

“Every. Year,” the brunette said with a glare that dared him to get in her way.

“Not this year,” Bryce bit out, more determined than ever to build a fucking snowman.

* * *

“Maybe we should-”Cayley started to suggest, only to quickly close her mouth when the man that had clearly lost his damn mind leveled another glare on her that had her swallowing hard even as she discreetly took a step back to get out of the crazed man’s way.

Bryce glared at her for another minute before he nodded to himself, something that he’d been doing a lot over the past hour, and started pushing the insanely large snowball towards the snowman that had once been hers. Without a word, he nodded to Sean, who looked just as determined as he was to win this thing, and the two of them picked up the huge snowball that had to weigh more than she did and placed it on the first ball, only to follow that with the large snowball that Sean made for the head.

That was followed by both brothers glaring at the two adorable little girls wearing matching snowsuits. Cayley still wasn’t sure what happened, one minute, she was debating between a blue scarf and a black scarf, and the next…

“You call this a carrot?” Sean demanded, snorting in disgust as he rummaged through the accessories she’d picked out for her snowman.

“Well, I-”

“Must I do everything myself?” Sean demanded, shaking his head in disgust as he tossed her carrot aside and made his way back to the boxes of carrots someone donated, leaving her standing there, deciding that she’d definitely had enough for one day.

Decision made, Cayley moved to turn around when she suddenly found her scarf pulled free. “This will work,” Bryce murmured absently with a firm nod as he turned around and made his way back to the freakishly large snowman.

That was followed by Sean plucking the pieces of coal that she’d picked out for the eyes out of her pocket, tossing them aside with another snort of disgust, and gesturing for her to get out of his way. More than happy to do just that, Cayley turned around and-

Cringed when she heard it.

“Oooops!”came the taunting voice of a little girl that had her slowly, ever so slowly, turning around and-

“Oh, no.”

-realized that this wasn’t going to end well.