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“A Yeti,” Knox yelled. “Yeti, you’re expelled.”

A heck of a sexy Yeti, if you asked me. I threw another at Grant, this time landing on his giant shoulder. He brushed it off like a Yeti would and then charged me, hauling me up over his shoulder as I squealed with laughter.

“What should Yeti do with fair maiden?” Grant asked in a monster voice as he headed toward the fire pit.

“Let me go, Yeti,” I shouted, upside down and wriggling.

“Not a chance. I’m going to take you back to my cave, young Luci,” Grant said, growling at the end.

I was still laughing as he tossed me onto a mound of soft snow, the momentum of which landed him right on top of me. But it was all right. We were playing. No one could say anything about it. Everyone else was doing the same thing.

“Get off me, Yeti,” I said.

“What if I don’t want to?” Grant asked quietly, his eyes burrowing right into the center of my soul.

“I’ll take a raincheck,” I whispered back.

“Fine.” He jumped to his feet and offered his hand.

“Another foul on Yeti,” Knox called. “Flirting with the enemy.”

My stomach dropped. I looked around to see if Jack or anyone else was paying attention. My gaze ran right into Ivy’s. She smiled at me, though, and seemed to think nothing of it. Jack was in the process of making a pile of snowballs and didn’t even look up from his work. So I shrugged it off, made a snowball, and lobbed it at Knox.

He ducked at the right moment. My missile sailed right past him.

“I’m injured,” Knox called out to me. “And you’re not supposed to hit the ref. Don’t matter how pretty you are. Now you have a yellow card.”

Grant answered by shooting another one his way, and this time it hit him square in the face.

“What comes after a red card?” Knox asked, wiping his cheeks with the sleeve of his jacket. “Because Yeti’s getting one.”

“I declare war against my own teammate,” Jack yelled, pelting Grant right in the chest.

What followed was an all out war between Jack and Grant. Jack went for it. So did Grant. Back and forth, the snowballs flew. I got a few in but mostly got hit by my brother. Rhett and Holly seemed to have forgotten they were on opposing teams and turned on Jack. Beck and Blake quietly wandered out of the fight and over to the fire pit. Ivy continued to aim at Jack but mostly missed. By the time Jack’s pile of snowballs was gone, we were all exhausted.

“Uncle,” Jack called out, hands in the air.

“Yeti for the win,” Grant shouted.

Laughing and talking smack, we gathered around the fire pit, warming our hands with mugs of hot cider one of the staff brought out to us. I made sure to sit on the opposite side from Grant, which gave me a great view of him. He looked so good, cheeks flushed, knit cap low over his forehead.

“This place is heaven,” Holly said. “I never want to leave.”

“The month’s going too fast,” Blake said. “I’m with you. I could stay here forever.”

“Unfortunately, we’re all adults and contributing members of society,” Rhett said.

“Are we though?” Ivy asked, laughing. “We seem really good at goofing off.”

“Who knew we would be so great at it?” Jack asked.

“It’s the first bit of time off any of us have taken for years,” Rhett said. “You don’t realize how fast the hamster wheel’s turning until you jump off for a bit.”

“That’s the truth,” Holly said.

Talk turned to what waited for us in January. Jack and the band were off the road for a few months to record the new album. Holly explained that her latest fundraising project was to raise money to replace the Boys & Girls Club in Stonehaven.

“They had to tear the old building down,” Holly said. “Structural issues.”