Dashing Through the No (Summersweet Island 3)

Allie stops arguing with Millie long enough to tell me there’s still breakfast food left in the warming trays in the dining room if I want to help myself before she clears everything away and gets ready for lunch. I head through the archway, sipping my hot chocolate as I go, shaking my head and smiling when I glance out the windows to see Bodhi and Jason putting the finishing touches on their giant snowman that is taller than the two of them, before setting my Jack Skellington mug down on an empty table in the middle of the room.

The dining room is as overly decorated as the rest of the house I’ve seen so far, with several small round tables covered in red-and-green tablecloths and mini pine tree centerpieces set up to look like a small restaurant. I grab a plate from the stack at the end of the long table against the far wall and fill it with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, shredded hash browns, a pancake, and some fresh fruit before heading back to my table and digging in. I’m suddenly starving even though I ate almost an entire grocery store junk food aisle no more than a half hour ago.

By the time my plate is empty after one more trip to the breakfast buffet, and I’m happy I had the good sense to put on stretchy pants when I got out of the shower, Bodhi is coming in from his playtime in the snow. He jogs into the dining room as soon as he walks through the front door and sees me sitting in here.

With a ridiculous squeal that makes me glad we’re the only ones in this room as Bodhi nuzzles his freezing-cold nose into the side of my neck, I swat his cold face away until he moves back. He grabs my cheeks with his mitten-covered hands and pulls me in for a quick peck on the lips before flopping down into the chair next to me.

“What’d ya eat for breakfast?” Bodhi nods to my empty plate as I shake my head at his red shirt with a green pot leaf in the middle that says Merry Cannabis.

“The usual.”

“The souls of your enemies? Must be a new menu item Allie added after I ate.” He smiles.

“It was a special.” I shrug.

Bodhi’s smile grows wider, making my heart flutter like it always does when I can see his dimples, as he pulls his mittens off and tosses them onto the table before leaning closer to me to rest his elbows on his bent knees.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“You know I hate surprises,” I remind him, finishing off the glass of orange juice Allie brought out for me after I filled my plate the first time.

“I know. Ever since that one time a girl from your high school shit her pants in front of the entire school when her parents threw her a surprise birthday party.”

“She’s thirty years old, has three kids, and is the CEO of a major corporation, and everyone still calls her Poo-Poo Patty.” I shiver, remembering that cold, dark day our sophomore year.

“I let you torch the hippo pillow in the bathtub before bed last night, didn’t I? Work with me. I promise you’ll love it.”

Bodhi’s smile gets all lopsided and adorable, and I reach out and brush some of his shaggy hair off his forehead. When I notice the small red bump up by his hairline that Allie mentioned from the snowball fight, I lean forward and press my lips to the injury before I even realize what I’m doing.

The shock on Bodhi’s face when I pull back probably mirrors my own WTF expression, because this shit sure is a new freaking development in our relationship, me acting all comforting and… sweet. Gross.

“Did the doctor call yet to tell you I’m dying?” I quickly ask as I drop my hand from holding his hair off his forehead to bring both of us back down to earth and not in some alternate universe where I kiss booboos away.

Bodhi just chuckles and shakes his head at me.

“You’re not dying, and no, he hasn’t called yet. The only call I’ve received was one from Palmer that was just a good five minutes of him screaming at me for leaving him alone with Shepherd. There was a small scuffle last night that resulted in someone falling face-first into a box of glitter, and let’s just say Palmer is going to be very pretty tonight on that follow-up ESPN interview they’re filming of him and Shepherd for the holiday sports special.”

Bodhi grabs his mittens from the table and shoves them in the pockets of his shorts before pulling me up from my chair right as Allie joins us in the dining room, waiting by the doorway that leads into another part of the house.