Page 104 of Saving Sparrow
My own fear spiked from his incredulous tone, but I decided to take my own advice. “You’re scared to get on the raft.”
“I’m not afraid,” he growled. “I’m just not interested in your childish idea of adventure.”
I calculated where the raft would need to be before possibly making the worst decision of my life. I fixed it in place, then circled Sparrow, knowing he’d follow my path to keep me in his sights. Now that his back was to the raft, I shoved his chest. He let out anoomphbefore falling into the raft. I hurried behind him—using his shock to my advantage—and pushed. I watched him spin down the hill, fingers clutching the handles, face etched with rage. I was insomuch trouble.
I hopped into my raft and pushed off, figuring it would be worse if he made it to the bottom alone. The cold bit into my face as I barreled down.
Sparrow’s raft tilted on its side, dumping him into the snow. He climbed to his knees, sputtering snow from his mouth, cursing my name.
“It’s okay,” I promised, helping to clear the snow from his coat and face. He shoved me away, sending me sprawling on my back.Fuck, he was strong.
“You… You…idiot,” he gritted out. Sparrow was so enraged, he didn’t know what to do with himself. Snarling in clear frustration, he gathered two handfuls of snow and lobbed them at me.
I coughed, rolling to my side and spitting out the mouthful I’d caught. Sparrow’s chest heaved, still on his knees, glaring at me.
In a moment of madness, I scrambled to my knees too, then tossed snow right back at him. It hit him in the chin and chest area, and he gaped at me.
“You—” he sneered, but the rest was cut off when I flung more snow at him—and then even more as if burying him in it would be better than waiting to see if he’d kill me.
Sparrow roared, volleying snow right back at me until we were both gasping, exhausted, and nearly frostbitten. We’d run out of steam, covered in white from head to toe.
“On a scale of one to ten, how pissed off are you?” I asked nervously.
His breathing slowed as he looked down at himself, arms spread wide. I thought I saw the beginnings of a smile, but it was gone before it fully materialized.
I grabbed my raft and jogged to the top of the hill. Sparrow grabbed his and followed. We jumped on, pushing ourselves as we plummeted back downhill.
“I win,” I said, getting up and racing to the top again. Sparrow beat me up there this time, starting a cycle of him winning every time.
I pulled the plug on his raft after about the tenth round, giving him an evil grin when the air hissed out.
“Son of a bitch,” he swore, ripping his gloves off with his teeth to insert the stopper again. It was too late, though, as I’d won and declared myself the ultimate winner.
“I won more times than you.”
“You’re breaking the no-complaining rule, and it doesn’t matter since that was the last round.”
“Says who?”
“Says the rules,” I replied smugly, lying my butt off.
I stood, wiping myself down, when the sound of rumbling laughter stalled me. Slowly, I turned to him, watching him laugh with his face lifted to the colorful sky. His laughter continued until I thought I might faint from the beauty of it.
It was different from Elliott’s bashful giggles. It was dark, almost malevolent, and deeply masculine. I dropped to my knees again, crawling closer to him for a better look. The sound faded when he noticed my expression. As though he hadn’t realized what he’d done, he brought his trembling hands to his lips.
Sparrow sighed, looking upward again. I wanted in on his thoughts; I wanted to do a monkey dance, to cartwheel down the damn hill… anything to hear his happiness again.
“He likes the snow,” he whispered, sounding tired and resigned.
“Who?” Did he mean Elliott?
“Keep him safe.”
“Keep who safe?” My mind was a million miles away, my heart still hung up on his amusement from a few minutes ago. Sparrow went from gazing at me to gazing through me.
“Sparrow?” I breathed. His eyes fluttered shut, and he lowered his head. When he looked up again,hewas no longer there.
“Snow!” Joshua shouted. “You kept your promise, Miguel. You brought me to play in the snow!”
