Best Shot (Madison Howlers Book 2) Read online

  Was it fair? No. Was it true? Definitely.

  Looking thoughtful, Thea nodded. “That’s a very balanced way to look at it,” she said. “I guess that’s what makes you seem so different. The rich guys I’ve met, they’ve been either all one thing or all the other, you know?” Blake didn’t . Thea could clearly tell because she carried on.

  “Some of them are all ‘woe is me, girls only want me because I’m rich’, and refuse to see that they’ve also had a lot of advantages. The others think money is great, and all they care about is making more of it. Neither attitude is very appealing.”

  Blake nodded. Actually, he had met the sort of guys Thea was talking about. “Well, I definitely don’t think that woe is me,” he assured Thea. “I know I’m really lucky. And,” there he paused to give Thea a grin, “we get to ski for Christmas.” They had talked about how Thea liked skiing, so Blake was confident she’d find that an exciting statement.

  “When are we going skiing?” Ashley asked, surprising Blake. He hadn’t even realized she’d come into the living room, so distracted had he been by Thea.

  “Once I finish this tea?” Blake asked. “There should be snow clothes in everyone’s closets. Once everybody’s ready, we can go out.”

  That earned him a nod from Ashley who went off, presumably to tell everyone where to find the clothes so they could wrap up warm and go explore the outside. “Guess we better drink this fast,” Blake said with a laugh, handing Thea her cup.

  As it turned out, not many of them knew how to ski. Connor had taken great pleasure in teaching Ashley how to snowboard. Remy had done his best to learn on his own. He had, in the end, given up. Both him and Ashley had hired an instructor. Connor had pouted like he was truly offended that Ashley didn’t want him to teach him. Doe had given skiing her best go, but still at the end announced that she wasn’t sure if it was for her.

  It was just Ricky - apart from Thea and Blake - who had actually both tried and liked skiing. It very quickly became apparent that Thea and Blake were the only ones who had any formal experience in skiing. Blake had tried to hang back a bit for the others. Competing with Thea had been a lot more enjoyable than watching Connor repeatedly fall into piles of snow (that had been a great highlight of Blake’s day).

  By the time they had all made it back, everyone was keen for something to warm them up. Luckily, Ashley was very good at giving them all jobs to do to, as she had put it, ‘maximize the efficiency’.

  Blake had been tasked with starting the fire. Doe located blankets for all of them and Remy made mulled wine. Whatever Thea, Connor and Ricky had been told to do, somehow snacks appeared on the coffee table, Netflix was set up on the TV and finally, they were all ready to settle down.

  “Now this is cozy!” Ricky announced with a wide smile as he plopped himself down on the couch between Thea and Remy.

  Doe was sat on Thea’s other side. Blake felt guilty about how he was a little relieved by that. He and Doe had been taking things slow. Forced public displays of affection weren’t Blake’s thing.

  “So is this where we play Truth or Dare?” Ashley asked. She was grinning in a way that implied she didn’t mean it.

  “I’m more Charades sort of a girl?” Doe offered with a shrug. It made Blake smile at her. That was quite sweet. Blake wasn’t sure he’d played Charades since he was a kid.

  Next to her, Thea shifted like she was trying to get comfortable, then shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve never played Charades,” she admitted. “I don’t know what all the different signs mean.” She looked oddly vulnerable, far more so than Blake was used to seeing her. He wondered how much it took to admit to not knowing something almost everyone managed to pick up in childhood.

  Before Blake could say anything, Ricky had already jumped on it. “T, if you can learn all the enemy attack patterns in Dark Souls , you can definitely learn to play charades. We can teach you in like ten minutes.” He stared around the rest of the group, obviously urging them to back him up.

  Blake smiled at that. Ricky was such a genuine person. If Blake hadn’t already known he had a lot of younger siblings then from that encouragement alone he could’ve guessed. He gave a nod of agreement. “We can definitely teach you,” he confirmed. No one questioned how Thea had managed not to ever play charades, which was also nice.

  “It’s pretty simple,” Doe promised, giving Thea’s side a small nudge. “Book, Film, TV,” she listed, making the signs for them. “If you can’t recall them you can just say that’s what it is, I don’t think anyone will mind.” That was met by a lot of nods.

  “I think I saw a box of Charades in the cupboard,” Ashley announced, getting up to find it. She quickly returned with the box in hand, setting it down on the coffee table. “Thea can go last so she can see how the game’s played. Who wants to go first?”

  “I will!” Connor answered, basically bouncing out of his seat to grab one of the cards. “We’re doing it in teams, right? Whoever is first to twenty points wins.”

  For simplicity’s sake, they divided into teams along the line of the room - one side versus the other. Thea being new was considered enough of a handicap to make up for their side having one more player.

  Turning to Ashley and Blake, Connor proceeded to crack everybody up in his attempts to get them to guess the final word of Sleepless in Seattle . He kept pointing to his eyes, and then his ass. It was a matter of seconds between Blake and Ashley figuring out what the hell he was trying to do.

  “I feel like your team has the advantage,” Thea complained. “You all know how one another’s minds work.” She was grinning, so Blake didn’t think it was a very serious complaint.

  “You and Doe are best friends, I’m sure that will count for something,” Blake assured. “That and you just saw how terrible Connor is at this, that’s hardly an advantage,” he added much more teasingly, making Connor flip him off. In turn, that just made Blake laugh more.

  “I’m going to go next, so we’ll see how helpful that is,” Ricky decided, reaching for one of the cards.

  Blake had no idea whether it was some secret psychic connection between Ricky and Remy or if Ricky was just a very good charade-r and Remy was a very good guesser. It took him almost no time at all to guess Shape of You by Ed Sheeran.

  “I call bullshit,” Ashley proclaimed. “Did you practice this?” she asked with a frown that made Ricky stick his tongue out at her.

  “Yes, Remy and I have been taking time off from training so we could get our Charades skills up just in case .”

  Remy laughed, clapping Ricky on the shoulder as he came to sit back down.

  “It comes of having a lot of younger siblings,” Remy explained to Ashley. “I had to get very good at guessing, just because of how upset they’d get if they couldn’t get their point across.”

  “Are you calling me a baby?” Ricky asked, giving Remy a shove. It made Blake smile to see them clearly becoming comfortable with each other. He’d hoped inviting Remy skiing would help. So far, it seemed to be working even better than he’d hoped.

  “It’s your turn, Blake,” Connor decided, breaking up what threatened to be a minor scuffle. “Go on, show us what you can do!”

  Reaching for another card, Blake looked at his options. Deciding to just go with the film title, he gave a nod. Miming Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon proved to be a lot harder than Blake had expected. In the end, Ashley did guess it. Not in any part thanks to Connor who had kept guessing things like The Cat in the Hat and The Jungle Book .

  “I don’t think our bond is as strong as you imply,” Blake sighed dramatically, giving Thea a grin. “So far it’s really just Remy and Ricky who seem to have a telepathic bond,” he added. Ricky gave a delighted ‘hell yeah’. Remy’s fistbump back was a lot less energetic but there was a smile playing on his lips.

  “My turn?” Doe asked reaching for the card.

  Ricky and Remy did their best to help Thea out, but their shouting explanations over one another was more confusing
than instructive. Thea did her best, taking whatever information she could grasp and trying to fit it into appropriate titles. She leaned forward, as if by getting closer she had a better chance of reading Doe’s mind. It reminded Blake of the times he’d watched her playing video games. Her face wore that same intent expression.

  “ The Body of Water ?” she suggested, in response to Doe making a figure in the air with her two hands. Doe shook her head, this time bringing her arms around in a circle.

  It took Thea a moment before she gave a little bounce on her chair. “Oh! The Shape of Water ,” she corrected in an excited shout. “Is that it? Am I right?”

  “Yes!” Doe exclaimed before giving a laugh that brightened her whole face up. It caught Blake by surprise because she looked so happy. When that smile was equally returned by Thea, Blake had to glance away briefly. It felt like a stab in the stomach, how nice it felt to see her smile. See both of them smile. Except Blake couldn’t help the thoughts about Thea taking the forefront in his head.

  Thankfully, Thea and Doe (and Ricky) cheering about Thea’s success and Remy’s grin at their joy distracted Blake. Ashley reached to take another card then, giving both Connor and Blake a serious look.

  “I expect you not to suck,” she informed them seriously.

  Connor slouched closer to Blake on the couch, elbowing him none-too-subtly in the ribs. “We got this,” he assured. “We can’t let Ricky and Remy win!”

  Across the room, Ricky flipped them both off simultaneously. Rising above it all, Ashely very seriously made the motions to indicate they only had to guess one word and a song title.

  If Blake had thought one word would be any easier, he was wrong. Ashley crouching down and holding a hand out had, at first, only made Connor shout out ‘short’ and ‘small’ and ‘little’, seemingly on a loop.

  Ricky was grinning, and Blake saw him lean close to Thea, whispering something in her ear.

  It sent such a strong bolt of jealousy through him that Blake forgot he had to guess at all until Connor poked him in the side again. “Right, right,” Blake nodded looking at Ashley and frowning. Her crouching and holding her hand out mostly looked like begging and Blake couldn’t instantly think of any songs with one-word titles that included begging.

  “Praying?” he asked only to be met by Ashley rolling her eyes. “Hey, if you’re going to be telepathically linked to anyone, it’ll be Connor,” he defended himself.

  Connor laughed. “I don’t think soulmarks work that way,” he pointed out. Blake was glad Connor could joke openly about his soulmark now. That definitely hadn’t been the case when it’d first been revealed to the press. Ashley had been good for Connor, not only in making him happy but also in giving him a more relaxed attitude about the whole ‘destined to be together’ thing.

  “Low?” Connor guessed, drawing Blake’s attention away from his thoughts. Ashley gave a very energetic nod, gesturing that low was part of the word. Telepathic connection or not, something must’ve clicked. “ Shallow !” Connor excitedly proclaimed. “From that Lady Gaga film, right?”

  “How do you even know that?” Ricky shouted accusingly.

  “It’s because he went to see it like six times,” Blake informed him, earning a ‘hey!’ from Connor. Ashley, being the true bro, gave a nod.

  “He even cried,” she informed them, making the whole room erupt in laughter.

  “Good on you, Connor,” Blake said giving his friend half a hug. “It’s important to be open with your emotions.” That he did mean, too. Blake knew he wasn’t the best with emotions. Connor wasn’t too dissimilar from him.

  Connor didn’t really do a great job at pushing Blake away, which made him grin. It was Remy’s turn to mime something out to his team, and Ricky guessed it suspiciously quickly.

  “I know you mockingly said you had practiced, but it kind of feels like you did,” Ashley hummed before nudging Connor to get up and mime something again.

  The way he groaned upon reading the card did not bode well. “Can I pick a different one?” Connor whined. “I haven’t even heard of these!”

  He didn’t actually wait for an answer. Throwing himself down on the floor, he crawled around with much waggling of his arms. Blake looked helplessly at Ashley, who was struggling not to laugh as Connor continued to writhe around.

  “Quick, someone catch this on video,” Ricky said, between laughing and trying to gasp for breath.

  Connor didn’t stop, even when Ricky held his phone up to record whatever the hell Connor was trying to mime. If anything, he seemed to thrash his arms harder, like if he continued doing what he was doing they’d magically just know what he was trying to represent.

  “Times up!” Thea announced, not sounding apologetic at all. “Were you being a snake?”

  Connor glared - first at Thea, then at Ashley and Blake. “I was being a spider ! I can’t believe you didn’t get that.”

  “Have you ever seen a spider?!” Ashley asked before finally bursting out in giggles that seemed to catch all across the room. By the time they had finally stopped laughing, Blake’s stomach almost hurt. This was, he felt, a lot more fun than Truth or Dare would’ve been.

  “Alright, alright,” Blake said, shaking his head. “It’s Thea’s turn now. You think you’re ready?” Most of the game had been a pretty good illustration. It was only Connor’s ridiculous spider they had failed to guess so far.

  “I’m always ready,” Thea said, making Ricky cheer behind her. She didn’t look nervous as she stood up in the middle of the room. She did study her card pretty intently. After a few moments, she squared her shoulders, shooting Doe a hopeful smile.

  She was quickly able to convey that it was a film and that they were looking for three words. After that, it got a lot more confused. Thea’s signs for both the first and third words seemed to be to hold both hands pointing up over her head. Ricky guessed ‘up’ and ‘north’. It wasn’t until Thea held her hand up like she was looking at her watch that Doe correctly guessed twelve, and from there progressed to ‘Midnight’.

  The last word proved a lot harder, with Thea flapping her arms and then repeating the same arms-pointed-up gesture with expressions of frustration.

  When Connor had to call time, Thea gave a frustrated sigh. “ Paris ,” she explained. “I was trying to be the Eiffel tower.”

  “Oh!” Doe genuinely looked a little crestfallen at not having guessed Thea’s first attempt at charades. “I’m sorry, they were great mimes, we just...”

  “Have never seen Paris,” Ricky supplied, giving Thea a wink.

  It made her laugh, which in turn made Blake smile. He had to look away not to make it too obvious. Ashley carefully marked down their score, before pushing the pile of cards towards Blake.

  “Okay, but only one more round and then we watch a film?” He suggested to much agreement.

  “If it’s the last round, can we all guess?” Thea suggested. “Then whoever gets it, their team can win the game.”

  “Yes!” Connor agreed instantly. “I like this plan. We can’t finish without knowing who won.” Doe’s and Ashley’s faces looked as though they probably could have finished without an official winner, but Thea nodded eagerly.

  “Exactly,” she agreed. “A man after my own heart.” She settled back on the couch, raising a challenging eyebrow at Blake as if she were daring him to mime something she couldn’t guess.

  He shook his head with a laugh, reaching for the card. “Alright, well, good luck,” he wished. All of Thea’s best efforts would still struggle to guess Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban .

  In the end, it was Doe who got it. By the time Thea’s round had rolled around again, it was pretty clear that her team would be winning this. Neither Ashley nor Blake minded that much, but Connor did try to convince them to play on for ‘the victory’. They managed to convince him that on this occasion it was good they lost since Thea winning her first game ever was a nice thing.

  Still pouting, Connor agreed. E
veryone huddled together to watch the film Remy had selected. Blake hadn’t expected it to be a Christmas themed horror film. Watching Ashley jump every time there was a scare made it worth it.

  By the time everyone was ready for bed, their first day had been exhausting but pretty excellent.

  The next morning, Blake had gotten up early in hopes of going skiing. He honestly couldn’t say that he was very disappointed when the only person who wanted to come with him was Thea. From their brief skiing experience yesterday, Blake knew that Thea was the only one who could actually match Blake’s skills. As much as he loved Ricky, even with his best attempts, he would not be able to keep up with the sort of skiing Blake wanted to do.

  “And you’re definitely sure it’s okay if I go?” Blake asked Doe. Remy’s words rang in his mind, about how Doe deserved better, how Blake needed to make sure he treated her better.

  Luckily, she didn’t seem to mind. “Just go have fun, I know Thea’s been dying to do some actual skiing,” Doe assured, giving her friend a wide smile over Blake’s shoulder.

  “Alright,” he nodded. If Doe said it was fine then he’d take her word for it. “Guess it’s just me and you, then,” Blake said turning around to face Thea. “Are you really competitive in skiing, too?” He assumed ‘yes’. Thea seemed competitive in pretty much everything.

  “Of course,” Thea answered, confirming his suspicions. “I’ve learned to embrace it.” Her tone was teasing, but it made Blake wonder if there were some truth to what she’d said. Perhaps Thea hadn’t always been as comfortable with her competitive spirit as she seemed now. He couldn’t think of a way to ask that wouldn’t make things awkward. He focused on making sure they both had everything they would need.

  Thea waved goodbye to Doe, then joined Blake outside. “You didn’t seem competitive about the game last night,” Thea observed. “Is it just physical things that make you want to win?”