Page 4 of Reeve
“Reeve!” my sister shrieks from behind me. “Come back here!”
But I’m a deer, a forest wolf, an Arctic fox—I’m fleet of foot and fast in my boots…
Until I’m not.
A patch of black ice under an unshoveled dusting of new snow proves my undoing, and I faceplant into a snowbank on the corner of Eighth and Broadway.
“Oh, shoot! Reeve! Are you okay?”
Joe Raven’s voice looms above me. I lift my head, spitting out a mouthful of gritty, roadside snow.
He speaks to someone else. “Help her up, would you?”
Strong hands hook under my shoulders and lift me upright. My back is against someone’s chest as I find my footing. My brother-in-law stands frowning in front of me. My sister runs up beside him, hands on her hips as she pants from exertion.
“She stole…my phone!”
“Did she have a good reason?” asks Joe, grinning down at her.
Wait a second.If Harper and Joe are standing in front of me, then who—I look over my shoulder to find Aaron Adams’s stupid face. I flail like crazy, furious to find out it’shimholding me firmly against his chest.
“L-Let go of m-me!” I sputter, still wiping dirty snow from my lips.
He lets me go a little too abruptly, and I slip again…right back into the same snowbank.
Smooth, Reeve. Real smooth.
This time no one helps me up, so I push up on my own, careful to keep my mouth closed against more dirty snow and gravel. When my boots land on a non-icy patch of sidewalk, Istraighten up with as much dignity as I can muster, brushing snow and dirt off my parka.
“Are you finished?” asks Harper.
I reach beneath my sweater and turtleneck to retrieve Harper’s phone.
“Leave. Him. Alone,” I tell her, holding the phone out of reach until she nods in agreement.
“You are such a pain in the ass,” she tells me, shoving the phone in her pocket.
“Are you two going to tell me what all of this was about?” asks Joe.
I stare at Harper, daring her to betray Sawyer’s confidence. It’s a test, and she knows it. She narrows her eyes at me for a second, then shakes her head.
“No,” she says. “It’s a sister secret.”
“Then can we go see the windows and get some dinner?” he asks. “I’m starving.”
“I’m gonna head home, boss,” says Aaron, who’s still standing behind me.
My sister glances at Aaron, then at me, then back at Aaron, offering him her prettiest smile. “No way, Aaron! We’dlovefor you to join us, wouldn’t we, Reeve?”
Well played, Harper, I think, narrowing my eyes at her. She knows I don’t like Aaron Adams, and she’s getting some petty revenge for me sidelining her from Sawyer’s love life. Well, fine. I can take it. I won’t give her the satisfaction of acting bothered.
“Sure,” I say, dusting off my jeans with mittened hands. “The more the merrier.”
Harper and I exchange the fakest of fake smiles, and then she takes Joe’s hand and turns down Broadway, leaving me and Aaron to follow behind.
Tall and buff, with caramel-colored skin and a bald head covered by a Skagway PD baseball hat, Aaron is objectively goodlooking. In fact, there was a time when I thought he was the hottest guy in town. But Aaron made it clear that he wasn’t interested in me, which turned my own interest into humiliation and scorn.
“I’m surprised you said yes.” His voice, a deep, smooth baritone, is familiar to me, but I stopped being wowed by it a while ago. “I mean to me tagging along.”