Love Storm (6 page)

Ryan looked up, trying not to smile.
 
“Didn’t what?”

She wasn’t buying his innocent act for a second.
 
“You - are - so - dead,” Brooklyn said
slowly, enunciating each word as she looked into Ryan’s laughing green
eyes.
 

“Who me?” he asked ingenuously, but couldn’t keep a straight
face for more than a second before he broke into a wide grin.
 
In the next instant he found himself ducking
for cover, amazed at how fast she’d managed to drop her helmet and snatch up
the large mound of snow that sailed by just an inch above his lowered head.

For the next several minutes, he and Brooklyn engaged in a
full-on snowball fight that had them laughing, yelping and gasping for breath
as they ran across the snowy ground.
 
They darted behind bushes and trees, pelting each other with one snowball
after another, until finally, Brooklyn, stumbling backward, tripped over a
fallen tree limb and landed on her backside in a tall heap of snow.

“I surrender, I surrender,” Brooklyn squealed as Ryan
advanced toward her with another handful of snow, his expression menacing.

“Do you acknowledge that I am the ultimate snowball fight
champion of the world?”
 
He asked,
towering above her with a wicked grin.

“Yes, yes, you’re the champion!”

“Well alright then.”
 
His
expression was both cocky and victorious as he let the snow fall from his
gloved hand and then reached out to help her up.

Grasping his outstretched hand, Brooklyn gave a hearty tug
as she rolled to her side, and just as she’d hoped, Ryan tumbled face first
into the powdery snow bank.

“That’s what I get for trying to be a gentleman,” he
groaned, rolling onto his back and spitting out snow, as Brooklyn jumped
agilely to her feet.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” she laughed, watching in
amusement as he struggled to extricate himself from the deep snow bank in
Wade’s bulky snowsuit.

“A little help,” he asked, eyeing her pleadingly as he
flopped back onto the snow.
 
“I’ll be
good, I promise,” he said, when she cocked her head, eyeing him dubiously.

Stepping toward him, she cautiously reached out her
hand.
 
A split-second later she was lying
sprawled on top of him in the snow.

“Geez, have you always been so gullible?” he laughed.

Pushing herself up onto her forearms with an unladylike
huff, she was about to give him a pert reply, but then she noticed how close
her face was to his.
 
With only a few
inches separating her from those glorious green eyes and those oh-so-tempting
lips, all conscious thought seemed to fly right out of her head.
 

Ryan too, was knocked slightly off kilter, as Brooklyn’s
beautiful face hovered mere inches above his own, and for one long moment he
could only stare in silent wonder as a dozen different emotions suddenly warred
within him.

As Ryan gazed up at her in silence, Brooklyn tried to decipher
the look on his face, realizing just how easy it would be to lower her head
just the tiniest bit and press her lips softly against his, if he gave her even
the slightest sign of encouragement.
 
However, the notion was so compelling, that if it weren’t for the sudden
and unmistakable sound of motorized vehicles approaching from the distance, she
might have been tempted to give in to the overwhelming urge even without any
encouragement from Ryan, despite what she’d told herself the night before, that
if anything was going to happen between them, he was going to have to be the
one to make the first move.
 
Fortunately
though, the advancing motorists shattered the moment and saved her from
potentially making a fool of herself once again.

A few seconds later, four snowmobiles cut through the trees,
slowed and then came to a stop as Ryan and Brooklyn extricated themselves from
the snow bank and scrambled to their feet.

“You folks doing okay,” the first in the group of four
riders shouted over the roar of the engines, as he lifted the visor of his
helmet.

“Yeah, we’re fine thanks,” Ryan shouted back, smiling
good-naturedly at the two adults and two children as he gained his feet.
 
“Just taking a little
break.”
 
The man squinted at him
then, looking with a little more interest as Ryan rose to his full height,
probably wondering if he was who he thought he was.
 
Being recognized, even in an out of the way
place like this, just came with the territory.

The guy studied him for another couple of seconds, and then,
either not recognizing him or perhaps simply not wanting to bother him, he
merely nodded politely and raised his hand in a gesture of farewell.
 
“Alright then, enjoy your ride.”

“You too,” Ryan and Brooklyn answered back, waving as the
small group revved their engines and then continued on down the trail.

After they’d brushed themselves off and gotten back onto
their sleds, the moment in the snow going deliberately unmentioned, they rode
for another hour before the chill started to seep through their heavy clothing,
and they decided that it was time to head back to the house.

“Man that was fun,” Ryan said as he pulled off his helmet in
the cabin’s wide, snow-covered driveway, the earlier tracks from their sleds
barely visible now as the large white flakes continued to fall gently around
them.
 
“You were an excellent tour guide
Miss Foster,” he continued, grinning at Brooklyn as she tugged off her own
silver and black helmet.

“Why thank you Mr. Landry,” she said smiling back.
 
“I’m glad you thought so.”

Unbelievable, Ryan thought.
 
She was as cute as ever, even with her rosy cheeks and red-tipped
nose.
 
Although he wasn’t arrogant enough
to believe that a woman like Brooklyn still harbored the same schoolgirl crush
she’d had on him years ago, for a moment he couldn’t help wishing that she did,
and wondering what might have happened between them earlier if they hadn’t been
interrupted.
 
However, though he hated to
admit it, it was probably for the best.
 
Getting involved with Brooklyn wasn’t a good idea, for more reasons than
one.
 
Ah
hell
, perhaps it had been fate sending him a message.
 
“Let’s get these things back into the garage
and then we can go inside and start a nice warm fire,” he said, attempting to
push the aggravating notion from his mind.

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Brooklyn readily
agreed.
 
Despite her heavy gloves and
boots, her toes and fingers had begun to feel the cold, and the thought of a
warm, toasty fire held tremendous appeal.
 
A steamy mug of hot chocolate didn’t sound too bad either.

Once they’d gotten everything put away, they quickly headed
into the warm house, stopping to check their respective cell phones for
messages as they entered the kitchen.

Ryan listened to several voicemails, one of which was from
Wade.
 
Though he didn’t come right out
and say it, the warning to keep his hands off of Brooklyn was definitely
implied.
 
Another sign, this one
infinitely more recognizable, for him to keep his distance from the
oh-so-desirable Brooklyn Foster, he wondered?
 
Sighing in irritation, he quickly read through his text messages, and
then without responding to any of them, he tossed the phone onto the kitchen
table, leaving the ringer on vibrate so that he wouldn’t be disturbed, and then
headed for the family room.
 

Brooklyn had four new text messages, one from her mother,
one from Julia and the others from a couple of her and
Julia’s
other girlfriends.
 
After firing off
quick responses to her mom and friends, she slipped the phone back into her
pocket.
 
A few minutes later, having fixed
each of them a cup of cocoa topped with small white marshmallows, she followed
Ryan into the family room, setting the warm mugs onto the coffee table.

“I’ll get some more wood from the back deck,” she said, as
she noticed Ryan working to start the existing logs burning in the room’s huge
stone fireplace.
 
Slipping on the
rubber-soled slippers she’d left in a corner of the family room, she opened the
back door, stepped out onto the covered wooden deck and reached toward the tall
stack of firewood propped against the side of the house.
 
Grabbing four thick logs she quickly piled
them into her arms and turned back toward the door.
 
However, as she spun around, her gaze fell
upon the covered hot tub sitting to her left, and she paused mid-step.
 
Looking in through the glass panes of the
tall French doors, she saw that Ryan was still focused on the fire.
 
Oh,
what could it hurt?
 
Setting the logs
down onto the deck, she stepped over to the hot tub and lifted the cover.
 
As she’d hoped, it was full of lukewarm
water.
 
Putting the cover back into
place, she located the thermostat and turned it up to the higher setting.

Picking up the discarded logs, she reentered the house,
pulling the door closed softly behind her.
 
“Here you go,” she said, placing the wood into the hinged metal box that
sat at the end of the hearth, as Ryan used the fireplace poker to rearrange the
logs that now burned atop the large metal grate.
 

“Thanks,” he said as Brooklyn dropped the extra logs into
the box.
 
“That should last us a while.”
 
Standing up he leaned the poker against the
mantle.
 
“Do you mind if I turn on the
game?”

“No, not at all.”
 
She
wasn’t sure which games were on, but she knew that he and Wade’s teams weren’t
playing, as Denver wasn’t playing again until Thursday night, and the Vipers
were scheduled to play the Indianapolis Colts tomorrow on Monday night
football.

Moving to the sofa, Ryan sat down, grabbed the remote and
switched on the television, flipping through the channels until he landed on
the Bears-Raiders game.

As Ryan settled in to watch the game, Brooklyn stood warming
herself by the now blazing fire.

“Uh oh.
 
Raiders are
up twenty-one to seven,” Ryan said as the score popped up on the screen.

“It must be frustrating, having to sit out for the next few
weeks.”

“Yeah, it sucks, Ryan admitted.
 
“One little bump on the head and I’m
sidelined for over a month.
 
But at least
I’m not out for the entire season.”

“Any headaches today?”

“Nope, I feel pretty good actually,” he replied truthfully
as he reclined his seat and kicked up his feet.

“I’m glad.
 
I was
afraid some of those rougher trails might have rattled your brain a little,”
she teased.

“Nah, I think I’m okay,” he said with a grin, wobbling his
head from side to side as if to double check.
 
“Yep, everything seems to be intact.”

“Good.”

“Oh come on, Jackson,” he groaned as the action on the
television drew his attention.
 
“I could
have caught that in my sleep.”

Brooklyn had watched more than enough football games with
her brother-in-law to know that she might as well be invisible for the next
several hours.
 
Whether they were playing
or not, at game time, intensely competitive guys like Wade and Ryan were only
focused on one thing,
the game
.
 
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
 
“I could make us some sandwiches for lunch.”
 

“Sure, that would be great.
 
There are a bunch of cold cuts in the fridge, and some bags of chips in
the pantry.”

“Okay.
 
Would you like
anything in particular on your sandwich?”

“Nah, whatever you fix will be fine.
 
Thanks.”

After she’d put together their sandwiches, Brooklyn loaded
their plates onto a large serving tray along with two big bowls of chips, a
smaller bowl of mixed nuts and a couple bottles of water, and then carried it
into the family room.
 
Setting it down
onto the coffee table, she handed Ryan his sandwich.

“Umm, looks delicious,” he said, taking the plate.
 
“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, as she sat down on the other end
of the sofa.
 

“The hot chocolate was delicious by the way,” he said,
motioning to his empty mug.

She picked hers up and took a sip.
 
“Are the Raiders still ahead?”

“Yeah, but the Bears just scored on a forty yard run.”
 
His expression was pleased.

She nodded, took another sip of cocoa and then set it down,
reaching for her plate.
 
Taking a bite of
her sandwich, she settled in for what she expected to be a long Sunday
afternoon in front of the television.

As the afternoon slowly turned to evening, Brooklyn’s
thoughts once again turned to the hot tub out on the back deck.
 
Although she’d spent the majority of the
afternoon on the couch with Ryan, she
had
meandered off a few times.
 
On one of
those occasions, she’d snuck into the master bedroom and expeditiously picked
through the closetful of clothes her sister kept at the cabin, looking for one
specific item in particular.
 
Grabbing a
couple of Kate’s cuter tops, she tossed them over her arm, and then turned to
the closet’s built-in dresser drawers.
 
Pulling out the second from the top, she quickly pawed through Kate’s
collection of swimwear until she found what she was looking for, a little red
bikini with tiny white hearts embroidered onto the fabric.
 
Perfect!