Josh

JOSH

I come to slowly inside the cozy cocoon I’ve fashioned for myself out of the covers. The room itself is cool, but I’m nice and toasty. I stretch and yawn before I pry my eyes open.

The room is empty. I grab my phone and check the time. My eyes widen when I see it’s already well past ten a.m. Cool. Gabriel probably has a comment or two in store for me about sleeping in, so you know… looking forward to that.

But then I figure, fuck it. I don’t care. Let him say whatever it is he wants to say. It doesn’t matter.

I make myself climb out of bed. I stretch once more before I grab my clothes and head to the bathroom. I brush my teeth, and I absently cross one arm over my chest while I do it. I pause. It really is a lot of muscle. Hard muscle that feels like it’s been carved out of stone under my palm.

I’m not in charge of my hand anymore. I stand in front of the mirror and watch myself slide my palm over my chest. Gabriel’s chest. It’s not mine. I absolutely should not be doing this. My hand keeps moving. Over the chest and down Gabriel’s abs until the waistband of the sleep pants stops me and jerks me out of the moment.

When I look up from Gabriel’s chest, I meet his wide eyes.

I yank the hand away.

What the fuck?

This is so beyond not okay that it’s not even funny.

I’m pretty sure I leave a third of my teeth unbrushed because I’m in such a hurry to get dressed and get away from being alone with Gabriel’s body. I push the bathroom door open and barrel straight into Gabriel.

He lets out a loud, “Oof!” and then we’re unceremoniously going down and landing in a heap, where the back of my head smacks against the floor with a thud that reverberates through my skull.

“Ow,” I say once we’re both sprawled on the floor.

“This is fantastic,” Gabriel says. “Kill me, why don’t you?”

“Oh.” I let out a loud gasp. “Oh, I can see the light. It’s beautiful. And beckoning me. I can’t resist. I’m gonna walk right into it. No second guessing.”

Gabriel pushes himself into a sitting position. “Why the hell were you storming out of the bathroom like that? Saw another ghost?”

“Yes. It was your great-uncle Gabriel, who wanted me to pass on a message to you. He wanted me to tell you all Gabriels of this family will go bald by the time they’re thirty-five, so enjoy the hair while you still got it.”

Gabriel throws me a look. “Unless he also came with instructions on how to undo this little switcheroo, this seems more like your problem than mine.”

“Oh, good. Being you just became even more intolerable.”

He reaches out and ruffles my hair. “Enjoy the hair while you still can,” he says with a smirk before he gets up, grabs my hand, and pulls me to my feet, too.

“I was coming to check on you. People were getting really surprised because apparently Gabriel never sleeps in,” he says. “Breakfast is ready.”

“Awesome. I’m starving.”

“Seems like a regular thing with you.”

“I’m a growing boy.”

“You sure about that?”

I ignore him and breathe in deeply. “Something smells really good.”

“Mom made cinnamon rolls.”

I perk up. “Really?”

“Figures you’d get excited about that.”

“You didn’t?”

“I’m not ten anymore, unless you haven’t noticed.”

Oh, I’ve noticed.

My eyes involuntarily move down to my chest—Gabriel’s chest—which I tucked out of sight with the help of a Henley he packed for me. Hand to God, I’ve never noticed just how tight his clothes are. I can see the outline of his abs when I look down. Why is that necessary?

I’ll tell you why. It’s not. And I really think we, as a society, could use some more… propriety. Because this is a family setting. Nobody needs your abs here, Gabriel!

Even if they are very, very well-defined abs.

With so many ridges that if Gabriel had been a settler, he could’ve very well volunteered as the village’s washboard. People could’ve taken him to the river, and then… those abs would’ve been all wet. And droplets of water would’ve clung to him and… run down his chest.

And… I mean, somebody surely has to take care of that.

Maybe by licking him.

I almost fall the moment I come to my senses and realize what I’m doing. Did I actually just catch myself writing some kind of erotic short story about Gabriel in my head?

Oh, hell no. No, no, no.

My throat feels way too dry.

You did check him out just a few minutes ago.

My throat goes even drier.

My brain still isn’t done with me.

And you liked what you saw.

I drop heavily into one of the chairs.

No. Not going there. I’m just not. We’re already stuck in an impossible situation. All I really need is to develop the hots for the body I’m currently inhabiting. I mean, that wouldn’t be weirdly creepy at all.

Convenient though, right? my brain unhelpfully remarks. Easy access.

Oh my God! I’m going to have to run headfirst into a wall until I give myself amnesia just to forget all about this morning and the line of thinking it resulted in. This body switching adventure is turning me into a creep.

“?”

I jerk my eyes back to Gabriel at the sound of his voice.

“Yeah?” I croak before I clear my throat and try again. “Yes?”

He sends me a funny look. “You want a sandwich?”

A sandwich? What the hell for? “Why? I don’t want to ruin my appetite.”

“That’s not how this works. You ruin your appetite with sugar, not vice versa.”

“I’ve done extensive testing. Believe me, it goes both ways. Eating a sandwich right now equals two less cinnamon rolls I can fit in my stomach.”

“What a scary thought.”

“I’m glad you understand and support.” I pat my stomach. “Come on. Bring on the sugar. I’m ready.”

He plates a few rolls up for me and slides the plate in front of me. A glass of milk follows. I gulp some down the moment the glass is in reach, then almost choke because Gabriel’s fingers go into my hair. Or, ’s fingers go into Gabriel’s hair. But he’s standing behind me, so I don’t specifically see that it’s my hand, and my brain seems to think that’s good enough to just go the fuck off the rails.

Gabriel starts to prod gently at the back of my head.

“What are you doing?” I squeak.

The fingers still for a moment before they start moving again.

“Checking you didn’t give me a concussion.”

My fork is hovering somewhere over the plate.

“That’s not how you do that. Shouldn’t you be asking me what day it is and how many fingers you’re holding up or something?”

“Okay. What day is it?” His tone is kind of teasing and weirdly light for Gabriel.

“Umm.” I draw a blank. Not even just a blank. A complete blank of the most blank blankness there is.

Gabriel’s fingers still again, and I squeeze the fork tighter until the edges dig painfully into my palm.

“I’m trying to figure out if you’re trying to make a joke or not.”

“Sunday,” I somehow manage to say.

He holds up his thumb in front of my face.

“And how many fingers am I holding up?” Still with that same light, teasing tone.

I raise my middle finger. “This many.”

His fingers leave my hair. “I’d say you’re okay.”

I look down at my plate and try to gather my wits. “It’s just my luck you have such an incredibly thick skull.”

“Yeah. I was hoping we could knock you out and get me back inside, but I guess that plan’s out of the window.”

“And that’s the sophisticated solution of a person who wants to do face-swap surgery on me.”

Gabriel takes a seat opposite me, leans back in his chair, and smirks. “And here I thought it’s always good to exhaust all other possibilities before bringing out the scalpel.”

Well, now that he’s sitting right in front of me, at least the part of my brain that’s trying to sabotage me calms down a bit.

I concentrate on my breakfast again and polish off the cinnamon roll before I mimic Gabriel’s pose in my own chair.

“What’s the plan now?” I ask.

“Occupy the couch, grab the remote before anybody else gets a chance, and wait for spring.”

“But… but snow.” I motion toward the window.

“Exactly,” he says grimly.

“You don’t like snow?”

“I like it fine. I like it even more when I get to look at it from a window while I’m inside a house.”

“Inside the house,” I scoff. “You’ll miss a hundred percent of the fun that way.”

He crosses his fingers and squeezes his eyes shut. “Let’s hope you’re right.”

“Spoilsport.”

“Or a grown-up. Depends on how you look at it, I suppose.”

“That’s a stupid excuse. I’m a grown-up, too. Won’t stop me from enjoying myself out there.”

“You being a grown-up is somewhat debatable.”

“We have to go outside. It’s snow. Clean snow! How often do you see that in New York?” I can’t stop myself from bouncing in my seat.

He looks out the window and then at me before he lets out a resigned sigh.

“Come on.”

Upstairs, I open my suitcase. I didn’t pack anything myself, so I don’t know what to expect, but it turns out Gabriel packed my snow pants and pretty much all my cold weather gear, including a pair of gloves and a hat.

We both get dressed and head outside. The snow has stopped falling for now, only a few flakes here and there are floating in the air. All the trees are covered, branches sinking toward the ground.

I look around with a wide smile.

“It looks magical.”

Gabriel mumbles something unintelligible and starts to make his way toward the building on our right. I take a deep breath of the cold winter air and follow him.

“Where is everybody?” I ask.

“Ash and Leo are still sleeping, I think. Jax and Erin had some errands to run, and Mom and Dad went to pick up Ari, Devon, and the kids at the airport. Turns out Jen changed her mind about coming again and decided to head out on a cruise instead. She gave them plane tickets as an early Christmas present.”

Gabriel pushes open the door of the building and goes inside. I go after him. It’s some kind of shed or something, even though shed seems like a bit of an understatement. The inside is a bit of a chaotic maze of all sorts of tools, from power drills to spades and rakes. There are also shelves and shelves of gardening equipment. Once we’ve cleared the rows of tools and shelves, we reach a garage where there’s an ATV parked next to a small tractor.

Gabriel goes to the back of the room and starts to rummage around. A few moments later, he emerges with two snow shovels. He hands one to me as he passes, and then we go back outside.

“We usually clear the driveway with the ATV, but Jax hit something last week, and the push frame is broken, so I guess we’ll be doing it by hand for now.”

“Okay.”

“You look way too enthusiastic for somebody who’s going to spend the next few hours shoveling snow.”

I weigh the shovel in my palm. “Afraid you won’t be able to keep up?”

He scoffs. “Have you ever, even once in your life, shoveled snow before?”

I mean, technically no, but I’m not going to advertise that. Instead, I wave him off. “Only all the time.”

“Sure,” he drawls.

“I wouldn’t sound so skeptical if I were you.”

“Sure,” he says again. There’s that familiar, ever-so-annoying smirk on his lips that appears every time he thinks he’s better than me at something.

“We had twenty inches of snow overnight. It’s going to be hard work,” Gabriel says. To the unsuspecting ear, he sounds casual. I know better.

“I’m looking forward to it.” My tone is equally casual. “I bet it’s a nice, light workout.”

“If you get tired, just take a break. I won’t hold it against you.”

“Nice of you. If you run out of snow to shovel, it’s because I’ve already finished the job.”

The challenge itself is wordless. Gabriel sends me a smirk and goes back into the shed. He comes out with a measuring tape. It doesn’t take me any time at all to catch on to what he’s about to do. It’s the Gabriel effect in full swing.

The driveway is not so much a driveway in the García family, it’s more of a parking lot. There’s easily space for at least ten cars in front of their house. In another fifteen minutes, we have it measured and Gabriel has drawn lines in the snow with the tip of a rake handle.

We both take our starting spots, shovels ready.

He quirks his brow at me.

I smirk at him.

And we’re off.

We both have our own technique. He throws the snow to the side of the driveway, while I choose to use the shovel as a sort of human-powered plow and push the snow into a pile. That’s about as much attention as I have time to give Gabriel, because if I intend to win this, I have to make every move count, so I can’t check on Gabriel’s progress or inspect the size of his snow pile.

I don’t have time.

There’s so. Much. Snow.

By the time I’m about halfway done with my part of the driveway, sweat is running down my back. First I discard my hat, then after a little while my winter jacket too.

“Ready to take a break?” Gabriel calls out. I look up just in time to see him peel off his own jacket.

“You’re already tired? But we only just got started.”

He waggles his brows, and we get back to it.

By the time we’re almost finished, I’ve changed my mind. This is no light workout. It’s backbreaking work. Although it’s kind of enjoyable still—the fresh winter air and the nice kind of exhaustion in my muscles. It’s good.

It gets even better because when I push the last shovelful of snow out of the way and turn around, I do it just in time to see Gabriel lift his last shovelful up.

I let out a loud whoop and drop the shovel.

I hold my arms out wide and send him a gleeful look. “I won! Yes! I’m the king of the world!”

Gabriel turns around and leans heavily on the handle of his shovel, lips in a sour line for a second before he rolls his eyes.

“They give these titles out to anybody these days.”

“Bow to your master,” I command grandly.

He flips me off.

“That’s an unfortunate reaction. Now I’ll have to fit a beheading into my schedule,” I say.

He opens his mouth to reply, but just then, the door opens, and Leo walks out, a coffee cup in his hand. He raises his brows at the clean driveway and takes a sip.

“You two do know there’s a snowplow coming over in a few hours? So, like… this”—he gestures at the driveway—“was a whole lot of unnecessary effort.”

Gabriel stares at Leo. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Yeah, Mom and Dad hired Mitch to do their driveway, too. The kid’s trying to save up money for college, so they figured two birds, one stone, you know?

“Watching you two work was nice and relaxing, though,” Leo continues.

“You didn’t think to mention anything about this whole thing being unnecessary?” I ask.

“I did consider it for a moment.” He grins. “But then I figured… nah.”

Gabriel and I exchange a quick glance. As if on cue, we move at the same time. Both of us take a shovelful of snow and start approaching Leo.

It takes a moment for him to catch on to what’s about to happen, and once he does, his eyes widen, but by then we’re already too close.

“You wouldn’t,” he says, eyes on me. “Not your own brother.”

“Let me consider it,” I say.

“Now hold on.” Leo takes a step back, clearly intending to go for the door. “I’m sure we can negotiate this.”

I glance at Gabriel. He lifts his chin imperceptibly and tilts his head to the right for a quick second.

“Make us an offer,” I say. “Preferably one we can’t refuse.”

Gabriel inches to the side.

“I’m sure we?—”

That’s all he gets out before Gabriel and I charge. Leo whirls around, heading for the door, but Gabriel’s already there.

“Hi,” he says.

Leo turns back around.

I throw the snow.

Leo lets out a shout, which only results in some of the snow getting into his mouth, so the shout turns into a splutter. While he’s trying to wipe the snow off his face, Gabriel pulls the neck of Leo’s sweater wider and dumps snow inside.

Leo lets out a shrill scream that makes Gabriel and me double over with laughter. Once he’s done squealing, Leo shakes the snow out of his sweater, aims a murderous look our way, and puts his coffee cup down on the porch.

“This means war, little brother. You realize that, right?”

Gabriel and I exchange a glance, and then we’re off. We run behind the snow pile Gabriel shoveled together and hunker down.

“Ash!” Leo shouts into the house. “Get your ass out here. We’ve got a mission.”

“Did you take your shovel?” Gabriel asks.

“Dropped it on the porch,” I say.

“There’s a third one in the shed. We’re now on a mission to get them both.”

He stands up from his crouching position, and the moment he looks up, he earns himself a snowball in the face.

I suppress a snort.

Gabriel ducks back down to the sound of Ash and Leo whooping, laughing, and congratulating each other.

“This just got personal,” Gabriel announces while he’s wiping the snow off his face.

“It wasn’t before?”

“Fuck no. It was all fun and games before. Now we want their heads.”

“That’s the brotherly love people keep talking about everywhere?”

“If we don’t teach them a lesson the natural balance goes all out of whack. Can’t have that. No. They have to pay. Preferably in blood,” he says grimly. “Or at the very least in tears.”

“Well that’s not elaborately intense at all. For a snowball.”

“Wars have been waged over less.”

“Are we sure about that?”

He sends me an impatient look from where he’s kneeling and making snowballs. “Are you in or not?”

“In,” I say immediately. “Just figured I’d give reason and peace a chance. But you know, fuck that. Heads will roll. What’s the plan?”

“To kick ass. Keep up, will you? Make as many snowballs as you can carry. We need to attack before they do.”

I’ve never seen this side of Gabriel before. When we clash it’s always very civil. And serious. Winning between the two of us is about pride, so there’s no room for humor or taking things lightly. Our history has dictated the terms of our rivalry.

This Gabriel right here? He’s still determined, but this is clearly for fun. His eyes are shining and his cheeks are flushed. My eyes and my cheeks. But I guess I’ve loaned those to him for now, and it’s kind of nice to see that he’s taking good care of them.

“Ready?” he asks.

“We ride at dawn,” I say solemnly.

Gabriel grins at me. “Is it dawn already, by any chance?”

“Well past.”

He gets up, arms filled with snowballs. “In that case, we better hurry or we’ll miss all the fun.”

He charges out from behind the snow pile. Just for a second, I’m stumped, but then I rush after him. Somebody lets out a war cry, and I honestly have no idea who it is, but suddenly the air is filled with snowballs.

I laugh so hard it’s difficult to run, especially when Gabriel tackles Leo, and they both go down in a mess of limbs and snow.

They’re still trying to shove snow into each other’s faces when a minivan approaches. It parks on the side of the road, and a door slides open. Two kids rush out, followed by Jax.

“Gloves!” Ari calls after them, and the kids run back and grab the gloves Ari is holding out. They both pull their gloves on while running and dive into the fight with no hesitation and no questions asked.

Jax and Erin follow them.

The two against two war swiftly descends into complete chaos and mayhem. There are no sides anymore. It’s every man for himself. The air is thick with snowballs flying all around us.

I send one ball flying just as Gabriel turns his head, and it hits him straight in the forehead. He narrows his eyes, grabs snow in both hands and charges.

I’d run, but I’m laughing too hard, so it doesn’t require a lot of effort for him to take me down. I land on my back with him on top of me, snowball in hand.

“Say you’re sorry,” he says.

I shake my head, still laughing so hard I’m wheezing.

“Last chance,” he says, still holding the snow above my face.

“You’re doing this to yourself.” The snow’s already cold against my bare back where my sweater has ridden up while we’ve been wrestling on the ground.

He doesn’t bother with a reply, just very deliberately rubs the snow in my face. I still can’t seem to stop laughing.

“Fucker,” I say.

He rolls off me, jumps up, and starts to run. I chase after him.

Still laughing.