Page 39 of Reviving Kendall

The guys already have my stuff loaded up, but Maverick is standing at the back, “Have anything else that needs to go in?”

“Nope, good to go,” I assure him.

He reaches into a corner and pulls out a heavy looking black bag. Unzipping the top part, he pulls out an expensive camera, “Goose said something happened to yours and I never use this one anymore.” When I start to tell him that there’s no way in hell that I’m taking that camera he says, “It’s a loaner for now. You can’t tell me that you won’t take it if I’m not giving it to you and simply asking you to take the pictures for me.”

Leaving no room for argument, he hands the camera over to me. “I’ve never had one this nice. I don’t know how to use it,” I tell him honestly.

“Goose can give you a run down on the way up there,” he says shutting the back, “but for now. Spin this little knob right here to turn it on and press that button to take one. You’ll hear the shutter and if you did it right, it’ll pop up on the screen.”

I do as he says, and the ready symbol shows up in the top corner. Backing up a little, I aim it at Mav. He’s a good sport, and even smiles for me. When it snaps, I know that I’m going to have trouble taking a new favorite this weekend.

With the trip to the cabin set to take several hours of driving, the guys give me the choice of riding in the middle in the back between two of them, or riding with Ryleigh and Eddie. That’s not even a true choice. Even if it wasn’t for the fact that I would love nothing more than to be stuck in a car with the quad, I don’t want to be a third wheel and crash Ry’s alone time with Eddie.

The only thing I didn’t account for is how hot it would get squished between two huge males. Handing the camera up to Goose for a second, I strip off the thick jacket that they forced me to buy on the shopping trip managing to elbow Lucas in the side and smack Teagan in the face with the sleeve in the process, “I am so freaking sorry.” And I am, but my insides are complete mush at being so close to all of them and it’s given me the giggles.

I start laughing and Goose turns around to snap a picture of us with a smile on his face. Meeting Mav’s eyes in the mirror, I can tell that he’s smiling too.

Teagan stuffs my jacket over the seat, and when everything settles back down, I’m surprised to realize just how much room that thing was taking up. We’re still brushing arms, but the guys aren’t squished against the doors anymore. It makes me giggle again thinking about them being too nice to say anything.

Lucas smiles at me, “Someone’s in a good mood today.”

I shrug, “This is the first time that I’ve ever really been on a trip like this, and Gramps is feeling better. Plus, I’m pretty sure you guys mentioned snow.”

“Lots and lots of snow,” Teagan whispers in my ear giving me chill bumps on my arms. “Good for building snowmen, snowboarding and snowball fights.”

My eyebrow goes up on the last one and Lucas, who couldn’t have helped but to overhear, laughs, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you if war breaks out.”

“Thanks,” I tell him as I pull the sleeves of my shirt up to match his. “It’s so hot back here between you guys.”

“Hey,” Teagan complains, “We’re not the only ones generating body heat.”

“Yeah,” I argue, “but I’m not my own personal space heater like you two either.”

The four of them laugh and Goose adjusts the heater.

“Are Ryleigh and Eddie meeting us up there?” I ask.

Teagan nods and pulls out his phone. He hits a few buttons and after a minute or so it beeps at him, “She says they left a few minutes after we did to come get you, so they’ll probably beat us up there.”

With the temperature at a normal level, and the motion of the car, I find myself trying to fall asleep. I nudge Teagan with my arm, “Don’t let me fall asleep. I don’t want to miss anything.”

He smiles down at me as he takes my hand and kisses the back of it, “I won’t.”

After I return his smile, I look back to the front to see both Lucas and Goose watching us. Neither says a word, but they don’t look pissed. It’s the same kind of expression Lucas wore when he saw us kiss before.

It’s at least three hours before we even start to see snow, and another two before we’re at the cabin. The first thing that comes to mind as I step out of the car and someone wraps my jacket around my shoulders is how absolutely fucking beautiful it is. It’s a little after midday, and the sun shining off the white of snow is almost blinding. There are tiny ice crystals dripping down from the barren trees that surround the cabin. I snap a picture of a tiny bird on one of the branches. It takes off mid click, so I’m not sure if that one will turn out to be any good.

I go to take another, and something smacks into my side. With the wet sound that it makes against my jacket, I’m pretty sure that I know what it was. Sure enough, when I look to my right, Goose is bending down to gather more snow for his second assault.

Shaking my head at him, I warn, “You better not. You’ll get the camera wet.”

He laughs and launches it anyways. I turn sideways hoping to catch it in the back, but it turns out that I don’t even need to. Lucas takes the hit straight in the chest that was aimed for me. We look over our shoulders at each other.

“You’re my hero,” I whisper.

The smile he throws me is just as blinding as the snow, and my heart skips a beat, “Run behind the Rover on my word. I’ll lay down cover.”

When he shouts to run, I take off, laughing the whole way. Maverick is thankfully still standing at the back waiting on us to get our bags out. I slip on a small patch of ice, and would have hit my ass if he hadn’t reached out and caught me by the arm.

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