Reviving Kendall

by Brandy Slaven

  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.

  I smile up to him, “Thanks.”

  The cold has turned his cheeks and nose a tad pink and it looks good on him. I’m beginning to think that there’s no bad look on any of the quad. His eyes go wide, and he jerks me to him. My face is buried inside his unzipped jacket as his face nuzzles the side of my neck. Less than a second later I feel impact from the snowball hitting my back. That, however, is the last thing on my mind. This is the first time I’ve been within true touching distance of Mav and dear all that is holy, he smells so fucking good. It takes him longer than I would have expected to pull away, and it leaves my heart hurting. He’s closer to my height than any of the other guys, but he still has to look down at me. The look that he shoots me could melt the snow around us. For half a second, the agreement between us doesn’t exist, and I lean into him. His hand comes so close to my face that I can feel the heat coming from it. Then, as fast as it came on, that mask drops back into place and he’s back to being the same old Maverick.

  He puts as much distance as he can between us by joining the other three in their impromptu war. My emotions are all over the place as I watch them. That one small moment with Mav has my heart hurting. Maybe I lied a little when I said all I wanted was new friends. I’m trying so damn hard, but it seems to get harder and harder every day. I just have to keep reminding myself that the sacrifices wouldn’t be worth it. Even as I watch Lucas and Mav lob snowballs at each other as Teagan and Goose wrestle on the ground trying to see who can stuff more snow in the other’s pants faster. I can’t think of anything that could possibly be any fucking sexier than the four of them.

  Taking advantage of the situation, I get some good shots of them acting goofy before Goose tries to pull me back into the war zone. I keep the camera in front of me as an excuse to not engage.

  Mav comes to the rescue again, “Guys, we need to stop messing around. We’ve still got to go back into town for food and shit.” When Teagan grumbles, he adds, “Plus, someone didn’t put on their gloves. Kendall is going to get frostbite on her fingers if we keep her out here too much longer.”

  Goose is still within arms distance. He reaches out and wraps my hands up in his before I can pull away. His warm breath goes a long way in thawing my fingers out when he blows on them.

  “You’ve got to remember to put your gloves on up here, babe,” he says quietly.

  He’s been using the pet name more and more lately, almost like he hopes that I’ll let him back in romantically. It makes me sick to my stomach to ignore it, but if Mav were to hear it, he’d probably go ballistic. Smiling at Goose, I make my way to the back of the Rover. When I reach to take my bag, Lucas snatches it right out from under me.

  “I can get my stuff,” I tell him.

  He winks, “I’ve already got it. You better go claim a room before Teagan beats you inside, otherwise you won’t get the best one.”

  “I heard that,” Teagan calls out from behind us.

  Goose comes from our left side as we make our way up the stairs, “Don’t let him fool you. It’s true.”

  “Oh, thank god,” Ryleigh says walking out of the kitchen. “I was beginning to think that you guys had gotten lost.”

  I shake my head, “Nope. Not lost. The boys just had a little too much fun in the snow.”

  She rolls her eyes, “No. Not them.”

  “Where’s Eddie?” I ask looking around.

  “Laying down in the day room,” she sighs. “I may be doing more babysitting than anything this weekend. Apparently, Eddie is sensitive to high altitudes.”

  “Oh, that sucks,” I tell her.

  Lucas puts his hand against my back, “We’ll be back in just a minute. We’re trying to beat Teagan to a room.”

  She walks away and talks over her shoulder, “I guess we’ve got dibs on the downstairs room. I’d hate to add to his sickness.”

  “Come on, Kendall,” he says, guiding me up the steps.

  The inside of the cabin is rustic and homey. I expected nothing less. There’s a runner leading down a long hallway on the second level. It’s a hunter green color that goes well with the hardwood floors and dark tan walls. There are five doors leading off the hallway.

  “You can look through each room if you want to, but this room back here is the best,” he says leading me to the door straight across from the stairs.

  “What makes this one better than the others?” I ask.

  He smiles, “You’ll see.”

  There’s nothing spectacular that I can see about the room. It looks like the basic inside of a cabin with brown wood walls and the same dark hardwood floor of the hallway. Black bears cover the rug, quilt and in the couple of pictures on the walls. My favorite thing is the lamp. It’s a small bear holding up the post part of it and the shade matches the quilt.

  Lucas grabs my hand and pulls me to the double doors across the room. He moves behind me and covers my eyes as he whispers in my ear, “This is the best part.”

  A blast of cold air hits me in the face as he crowds my space and moves us forward. He uncovers my eyes and my breath leaves me in a whoosh of a white smoke. Due to the downslope behind the house, I can see straight over the bare trees surrounding the cabin. For miles and miles all that’s visible is mountains and snow.

  When I feel that I can speak again, I turn around to tell him thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Only, he’s standing so much closer than I expect him to be. His lips slant down across mine and I’m too stunned to do anything other than kiss him back. Anything my imagination could have conjured up would never compare to the real thing. The feel of his hands on each side of my face makes it oh so much sweeter. Lucas acts as if we have all of the time in the world as he takes his time exploring every inch of me that he can. It’s a sobering thought to think that it’s just the opposite. I pull away with a sad smile and looking anywhere but him.

  He lifts my chin so that I have no choice but to lock eyes with him, “I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not going to work.” I try to shake my head, but he stops me, “You can’t deny it. I don’t know what’s changed in the past month, but you’re keeping us at a distance. I’m telling you right now that it’s not going to work.”

  My voice comes out in barely a whisper as I try to fight back the tightness in my chest, “I can’t.”

  Goose’s voice rings out from right outside my door, “Hey, you guys in here?”

  I step away from Lucas just as Goose opens the door. He meets us out on the balcony and throws his arm around my shoulder opposite Lucas, “So what do you think of the view, babe? Best room in the house or what?”

  When I glance up at Lucas he winks at me. Whatever. I don’t know what they’re up to, but I’ll play along for now, “It’s fucking perfect. Think Teagan’s going to be pissed?”

  “I would be if it was anyone but you,” Teagan says from behind us. I look over my shoulder just in time to see him looking away from Goose’s arm around me.

  I step out of reach of any of them
and lean my back against the rail, “Well, I feel special right now, so seriously. Thank you.”

  He smiles, and Goose reaches out to me, “Can I see the camera just a second?”

  My eyebrow lifts in question, but I hand it over.

  “Say cheese,” he tells me.

  I cross my eyes and stick out my tongue just as I hear the small clicking noise. The three of them look at the picture and crack up. It’s contagious and I can’t help the laugh that comes out of my mouth. Then the camera goes off again. Oh, sneaky bastard. He might have actually got that one.

  “Ok, give it back,” I demand.

  “Only if you promise not to delete those,” he says holding the camera up where I can’t snatch it from him.

  I sigh, “I don’t even know how to delete them.” There’s no way I’m playing with that button either. I don’t want to risk losing the ones I’ve already taken.

  “Give it back to her,” Mav says walking into the room. “I want to get into town and make it back as soon as we can. It’s supposed to start snowing again soon and I don’t want to get stuck in town.”

  The others may have missed the hard look that he throws me, but I feel it like a dagger straight through the heart.

  Silence Of The Night

  The quaint little town that we go to for food is just that. Quaint and little. There can’t be but a few shops that look like they’ve survived the last century at the base of the mountain. The grocery store is the most up to date out of all of them. It’s very modern, and has everything that we’d have back home.

  We make a quick run through as the guys grab everything that they think we’ll need. You’d think that we were staying the month with how much food they load up in the buggy. When I comment on it, they remind me that they are still growing. Which of course, makes me laugh, because if some of them get any bigger they’d be the size of a fucking house.

  By the time that we leave, the snow has started to fall. It comes down in tiny flakes at first and within a matter of minutes, they turn into fat blobs that don’t disappear when they land on you. Maverick rushes us back into the car, and this time, I’m grateful for the space heaters in the back. It feels like the temperature has dropped at least fifteen degrees. There are crazy amounts of salt on the road, but the snow is just coming down too fast. Even with Mav driving super slow, we still slide around a bit.

  My anxiety spikes and I have trouble breathing at one point, but Lucas and Teagan grab my hands to keep me grounded. Once we make it back to the cabin, I could literally puke in relief.

  “I thought you said you checked the weather,” Teagan accuses Goose.

  Goose automatically jumps on the defensive, “Hey, I did check it. This is some of that crazy mountain weather. They aren’t always right about that shit, you know.”

  We all grab some bags and haul ass inside. It’s even colder up here. Ryleigh comes out to eat dinner with us then goes back to nursing Eddie with an apology.

  “So, what’s there to do if we get snowed in?” I ask them as we settle in the living room. Mav and Goose sit on the couch with Teagan in a chair to my left and Lucas on the floor with me to my right. The fireplace blazes behind me and it feels fucking amazing.

  Goose winks at me, and I feel my face go red.

  Mav watching us says, “There’s a fuck ton of board games in the closet.”

  “I call Monopoly,” Lucas calls out to Mav as he moves to the closet.

  “No way man. You got to choose last time,” Teagan complains. “Get the cards out and let’s play some poker or rummy.”

  “Strip poker?” Goose suggests with a grin at me.

  Mav and Teagan are raiding the closet and aren’t close enough to hear, but Lucas is. “I second that.”

  I shake my head and laugh, “Not happening.”

  “What’s not happening?” Mav asks, coming to sit back down.

  I jump in quickly, “Nothing.” Lucas and Goose laugh.

  His eyes narrow like he doesn’t believe me, but he doesn’t say anything, “Your choice in what we play, Kendall.”

  I rub my hands together as I look over my options. There’s a bunch that I haven’t ever heard of, but I know Monopoly and how to play, “Can we do Monopoly and then play cards?” That way it keeps everyone happy.

  Mav looks at me like he knows what I’m doing, but says yes anyways. It’s an hour or so later when we’re neck deep in fake money with Teagan and Mav arguing that I hear the click of the camera. I look over to see Ry standing over by the huge Christmas tree with the camera in her hand. She winks at me.

  “Hey guys,” she calls out. She snaps another picture when they all look over. Their faces make me smile. That’s definitely going to make for a good one.

  A few hours later, as I’m lying alone in bed, I find that I’m having trouble falling asleep. Mav’s words from before are on repeat in my head, but I can’t seem to stop replaying what happened today between not only us, but Lucas as well. If I can just hold out until the end of the school year, they’ll all be off to some ridiculously expensive college and I’ll still be in Sleepy Pines. The thought makes my chest hurt, but it’s for the best.

  I toss and turn for the next hour or so until my phone reads one in the morning. No missed calls or anything from Robert or Gramps either, thankfully, but I’m never going to get any sleep like this. Sighing, I toss the covers back and go in search of something to drink in the kitchen. The house is eerily silent, with only the sound of the heater and fridge in the kitchen to break it. Grabbing a water, I make my way out into the day room. It’s a room of mostly windows from floor to ceiling. Since its pitch black, I can see all the way out to the tree line. The moon is so bright that it’s visible even through the clouds still spitting little puffs of snow. It’s so peaceful that I wish I could live in this one moment forever. Nothing else exists.

  “Can’t sleep?” a voice asks in a hush from behind me. He can try to be quiet all that he wants, but I’d recognize that deep tone anywhere. Maverick.

  I don’t bother turning around, “Not really. Just have a lot stuck in my head right now.”

  He doesn’t say anything for so long that I think that he’s left me to my weirdness. Then I hear the air stir behind me. His hand lifts the hair off my shoulder and his lips find that spot between my neck and shoulder. Sighing, I lean into him, taking a risk that it’ll make him pull away. He does the exact opposite by wrapping an arm around my middle. I feel his fingers playing with the hem of my shirt right before they slip underneath to rest palm flat on my stomach.

  He kisses that spot on my shoulder again and pulls me tight. When I turn my face to him, his lips come down on mine and he wastes no time in begging me to open for him. I’m not given the option. There’s so much dominance in his kiss that my skin feels like it’s on fire. Without breaking away from him, I turn my whole body in his arms and wrap my fingers into his hair as I pull him even closer to me. He, no joke, growls into my mouth, and I let out this pathetic whimper, almost like a submissive wolf to its alpha. This flips some kind of switch in him, because I’m lifted in his arms as he walks us across the room before I even know what’s happening.

  My back hits a soft material as he drops us onto a makeshift bed. This must be where he was sleeping tonight. I would apologize for waking him up if I knew I could do it and mean it. As it stands, I’m glad I did.

  His hands roam over every inch of skin that’s not covered by my clothes and since I’m in nothing other than a light off the shoulder sweater and a pair of boy shorts, there’s quite a bit. Not exactly fair with him in a t-shirt and sleep pants. Reaching down, I make a move to pull off his shirt and he freezes. He sits back on his heels and stares down at me. I’m scared to make any moves, because I know he could instantly turn back into his usual distant self, even if it would be hard to come back from this.

  Whatever is going on in his brain, he must decide, because his arms go behind him right before he yanks his shirt off and tosses it to the floor. Even in
the half light from the moon, there are no actual words to express how fucking sexy he looks. Mav may be a touch smaller in the muscle department, but he’s still just as defined and chiseled as the others.

  My hands roam all across his bare skin and his head falls back with a look of pure bliss. He’s got a few tattoos spattered across his chest, but they’re hard to make out from the angle we’re in. The scorpion right on his hip bone stands out more clearly than the others. When my fingers go to trace it, he jerks away. I’m pressed into the soft mattress as his body collides with mine.

  He starts with my mouth and leaves a burning trail behind as his lips make their way down my neck and collar bone. When his teeth graze my raised nipple through my shirt, my gasp is loud in the silence of the room.

  It isn’t until I feel his tongue on the bare skin of my stomach that I come to my senses. “Wait,” I whisper.

  Mav looks up at me. He’s ditched the glasses at some point and I’m rewarded with my first glimpse of his eyes without anything in the way. The dark blue is close to being lost in the dark. I almost forget why I stopped him. Using my fingers underneath his chin, I pull him up to level with me again. There are reasons that he’s been keeping his distance from me and it would destroy me more for anything to happen tonight then him pull away again. Doing the dumbest thing ever in my life, I place a soft kiss against his lips. He can tell right away that things aren’t going any further, because he isn’t overbearingly dominant the way that he was before.

  As he pulls away this time, he lies down on his side and positions us so my back is against his chest. I’ve never slept the night with anyone before, so this may turn out to be a more sleepless night than if I’d have stayed in my own room. Mav’s hand grips my stomach and hugs me tight. With the snow still falling in the silence of the night, I don’t even remember my last thought as I drift away.