Page 43 of The Game

Dev’s got his arms crossed over his massive chest, leaning against the far wall to observe the interaction. Grant lounges onthe couch, one leg slung over the arm while he tosses popcorn in the air, catching it in his mouth as if he’s enjoying the spectacle.

“See what I mean?” I turn to Jazz, leaning back to whisper in her ear. “Sure you don’t want to nope out of the situation right now? I wouldn’t blame you.”

Her magenta lips are pressed together, shoulders shaking with mirth. “I’m good. Maybe Grant will share his popcorn. Looks like a good show.”

I blow a breath out, cutting through the nonsense to drop her food bin off in the kitchen. After that’s settled on the counter, I take the other one back into the living room. Jazz has made her way over to Grant, and she’s got her hand in his bag of popcorn. An uncomfortable heat swells in my chest at the sight of her laughing with him. Not real. Gotta remember that. And Grant has a girlfriend. I need to chill the fuck out.

“Where do you want this one, Jazz?” I lift the bin.

She purses her lips. “Right there is fine.” Her hand waves at the wall beside our half empty bookcase, then she claps her hands together and marches over to where Beau is still glaring at JJ. At least his feet are on the ground again, but Beau’s still got his fist clenched around his collar.

“Alright, boys. Enough with the shenanigans. The party starts in five hours. No time to waste. I’m going to need you all on board to help get set up.” Her hand looks small when she places it on Beau’s shoulder. “Beau, you need to let go of JJ. He’s not going to touch your sister, and I need both of you to help me out.”

His hands slowly release their grip on his teammate, and he turns around, running a hand through his blond hair to straighten it out. “I’m sorry, Jazz. You shouldn’t have seen that. What do you need from us?”

The rest of the boys stand up, pull themselves together and step forward as if they’re drawn to her. It’s impressive really that the chaos of hockey players is listening to the girl they’re towering over.

“What can we do?” Grant asks.

“First of all. You can clean up all the popcorn that missed your mouth.” Beau’s mouth twists in disgust when he glances over at the couch scattered with white puffs.

“Will do,” he says, ducking his head down.

“Who is the best in the kitchen?”

We all point to Dev, who continues to stand by the far wall, glowering under his brow. I don’t think he’s a huge fan of Halloween, but he stepped up and assembled a throwback Dwayne Johnson costume complete with fanny pack and gold chain. The contrast of his crossed arms and frown with the ridiculous get-up is too much. Not what I was expecting to see.

“Perfect. Can you unpack the food bins? Put away anything that needs to go in the fridge and lay the rest of the stuff out on the counter. I’ll get it all organized closer to the start.”

“Who wants to be in charge of music?”

“I will.” JJ jumps up, completely recovered from the incident with our team captain.

“Okay. I need you to put together a killer playlist. Halloween songs, and spooky vibes. Enough songs to last us all night. Can you handle that?”

He nods.

“Excellent. Beau, Grant, Cole, you can help me unpack the decorations and we can get the place ready to go.”

I step right up, opening the bin, and pulling stuff carefully out. It’s like some kind of clown car. Granted, it is a huge bin, but it’s packed with stuff. Skeletal hands, pictures with regular people that look horrifying when you look at them from the right angle. There’s a fuzzy rat, caution tape, gel-like blood splatter, and disembodied body parts packaged up like meat at the grocery store. Gross.

Jazz doesn’t touch a thing. She strides around the room, telling us all what to do and where to put everything. I like this side of her. It’s hot watching her boss the guys around, and I find I don’t mind it when she directs it at me either.

“No, no, no. You can’t hang that ghost there. People will bang into it on the way to the kitchen. Hang it over the coffee table.”

I nod, fixing the mistake as she directs JJ on the perfect placement of the blood drops on the big front window.

Her hips wiggling around in that tight white skirt are too tempting to resist any more, so I sneak up behind her, closing my hands around them. She glances over her shoulder at me with a smile, so I squeeze her in a tight grip, pulling her back against me.

I lean into her ear. “You’re good at this.”

She spins around in my hold, dropping her arms casually onto my shoulders. “I told you Halloween is my favorite holiday.”

“I meant more the organizing and decorating. Directing the guys, transforming this place.”

I look around. The decor of the place is upscale and neutral, so it doesn’t really have much of a personality. Which is usually fine. A house full of college hockey players has plenty of personality without adding loud decor to match the loud mouths. But she’s turned it into a fantastically creepy space. Eerie orange lighting in all the right places. Unexpected scary surprises in every corner.

“I enjoy this kind of thing. My family is big and loud and there’s always some party or celebration going on, but I never get to do the organizing. That’s all on my older sisters and mom. That’s one of the things I love about being away at school. I get to be in charge. Make the decisions. I don’t get to do it often enough, though. My apartment isn’t exactly big enough to host parties. And honestly, I don’t have that many friends.”

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