I quickly turned, feeling the warmth spread between my thighs once my overreactive imagination conjured up the images of his suggestions. Troy chuckled huskily knowing the effect his words had on me.
Jace came back with our keys and started handing them out. We had the same amount of people we had on the last mission. Even though the Illinois team wasn’t the most skilled or trained, they had heart, and they had already shown improvement since we went on our last mission. They stayed longer after training was completed and sought additional help from us and the trainers. They put over one hundred percent of themselves in everything they did.
We all gathered in a tight circle.
“We’re setting the brains up in cabin 1. No one goes anywhere or does anything without seeing and going to them first.” Jace pointedly looked at Jemmy and Jaxson who had been the most restless to get on the slopes. “No one is to go off on their own. Even if you decide to hang out with another team, both team leads need to know where you’re going, and you need to have your phones on you at all times.
“The first course of action is to drop our gear off into our cabins, and then the brains need their headquarters set up. No one is dismissed or able to go off until the brains release you. Copy?”
We all nodded and immediately went to grab our bags. I went to grab my bag but Remy immediately took it out of my hand. I gave him a look of exasperation and he shrugged. “It’s slippery out here, and you don’t have the proper shoes yet.”
I huffed but I knew resistance was futile. I followed Jace to the cabin assigned to me, my guys, Kade, Gavin, Sierra, and Jemmy.
The teams had been rearranged for this mission. Each team was assigned to one cabin. They had tried to place us in cabins with the people we were naturally drawn to. However, the Nons were all split up between the other gifted teams. We were the only team without any Nons on it. We knew teams might change again based on the mission, but this is what we were beginning with.
I gasped once more as I entered the cabin. The outside didn’t do the inside justice. Inside was a large open area. The kitchen, dining room, and living room were all in one place, a huge fire place, already lit, dominated the middle of the room. The back wall was filled with nothing but large windows and doors that led out to a sizable deck complete with hot tub.
Two sets of stairs led up to a balcony where I counted seven closed doors. I looked over to my right and left and noticed three additional closed doors. I saw a look pass between Jemmy, Jax, and Noah before they took off running up the stairs. Noah ran up the farther stair case, while Jaxson and Jemmy pushed each other to go up the other.
“What in the-?” Kade asked in confusion.
“The children are looking for the best rooms,” Jace said with a small smile. He grabbed my hand and gave me a knowing smile. He led me to the left of the kitchen and slid open a barn door. Behind the doors was a large spacious bedroom that I assumed was the master, complete with a walk-in closet and master bathroom.
“There are more rooms down stairs, too.” Jace poked his head back out the door to tell the others before he turned back to me. “I already talked to Gavin, and he was okay with you taking the master.”
“Why?” I asked mystified. “I really don’t need all this,” I said halfheartedly. I really did like the idea of spreading out on the king size bed with one of my guys tonight.
“You deserve it. You’ve been bed hopping for months now, and we figured while we’re here we can come visit you in your room,” Drake said quietly from the doorway as he leaned against the frame. Troy and Remy were right behind him.
“You didn’t clue Jaxson, Jemmy, and Noah in, did you?” I laughed.
Remy raised a brow at me. “What do you think? Besides, if they would have studied the mission briefing they would have seen the plans for each one of the cabins.”
I ducked my head. I have to admit I had skimmed over that page as well. Again, when they said cabin, that’s the image that was conjured up in my head. A small rustic abode- not this extravagant monstrosity. I didn’t really care where we stayed. The children were upset at me, and I currently lived in a six hundred or so square foot apartment.
“You can start unpacking. We’re going to put our stuff in our rooms, and then we’re going to help set up Ops,” Troy grabbed my upper arms and kissed my forehead.
“I’m going to help, too,” I said resolutely. “The sooner we get done, the sooner we can go grocery shopping. I’m hungry.” I smiled.
We had stopped at a fast food joint on the way here, but I hadn’t been terribly hungry then. I had only grabbed a couple items off the dollar menu. Now I was famished.
“We’re having it delivered. I already placed our order online last night,” Drake explained with a smile. “The local grocery store delivers to all the resorts around here. I already told the other team leads, too, just in case they wanted to place their orders.”
I stood up on my tiptoes and grabbed his face to pull down to mine. “I love how prepared you always are.”
“Can we convince you to stay here so you can unpack and get a little of your school work done before we head out to get our snow gear?” Jace gently prodded.
He said the right words. The only thing that could convince me to not help was my school work.
I submitted my paper and the
n opened up my math ‘workbook.’ I pulled out my notebook and transferred the problem over to my paper. After I worked out the problem, I plugged the answer into the computer. I continued doing that for the next twenty-four problems before I hit submit. Within seconds, my grade popped up. 92% popped up on my screen.
They gave me an option to redo the problems I got wrong to gain two points back per problem. I confirmed the redo and reworked the problems. I silently cursed myself for the simple mistakes I made. It didn’t take me long to get them correct and my grade came back as a ninety-six percent.
When I first started school at Knightstown, I thought some of their methods were unconventional but after being in the school for some time, I was pleased with it. Some of the classes had the option to ‘fix’ your mistakes. Like math. Which made sense to me now.
“Can you proof read this for me and check my outline?” Kade asked from the couch. His hair had gotten longer, and it was in disarray. His frustrations were mounting as he worked on his English paper.