Page 19 of Frozen Play

When things were good between us.

I couldn’t remember when I last played a board game. I liked cards and was pretty good at poker, but that was as close as I got. Seeing Quin’s writing on the box, I was curious about what might be left from when it was our cottage and the Duvalls were next door and summer was fun.

Skye sneezed as she opened the flaps. “I don’t think anyone has been in this for a while.”

Probably not.

First she dragged out a battered copy of Operation. When she lifted the lid, there was rust on the poor patient’s body and the batteries were dead. Pictionary had paper scraps with strange scribbles on them, but no pens or pencils.

Skye picked up one. “I think I remember this. It was something about a face, so you drew a puck and two hockey sticks.”

“Face-off!” Obviously.

She rolled her eyes. “Why not just draw, you know, a face?”

“I was better at drawing hockey pucks and sticks?”

A grin teased the corner of her mouth. “I’m glad I wasn’t on your team.”

“Well, Pictionary isn’t going to work. What else is in there? Any cards?”

“I see Monopoly, but I’m pretty sure Oscar wrecked that one to make sure we didn’t play it anymore.”

On rainy summer days, when we couldn’t swim or kayak or fish, we played games. I remembered how much Oscar hated Monopoly. “Quin liked playing that one.”

“Apparently he had a thing for money even back then.”

He did. And Skye had known him well. “He didn’t keep in touch with you?”

She raised her brows. “He blocked my number. A couple of years ago when we got a CAA call to change a tire on one of the guest vehicles here, he turned his back and walked away as soon as he saw me. So, no.”

What had happened to my brother? I’d been upset about Dad remarrying, but Quin had loved it when Lina started buying him things. That division between us still existed.

“Oh, here’s a deck of cards. It’s probably missing something.”

I took it from her to check it out. It was short an ace but had a couple of jokers. “We can work with this.”

Skye set the game box aside and shoved the coffee table between us. She crossed her legs as she faced me across the table. “So, what will it be? Go Fish? Gin rummy? War?”

I stopped shuffling. “You do know that War is entirely a game of chance, right? And Go Fish is almost that.”

She shrugged. “It’s a way to pass the time.”

I split the cards in half and flipped them back together, quick and smooth thanks to alotof practice. “Know how to play poker?’

Her eyes narrowed. “No, but I’m guessing you do.”

“We play when we’re traveling. I can teach you.”

“We’re not playing for money.”

Smart girl.

Chapter 9

Santa’s naughty list

Skye

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