He laughs. “Did I?”
Smack.
A deluge of grimy snow slides down past my collar at the side of my neck. Another boy, Brett, smirks from the end of the group, clearly the culprit who caught me when I was lecturing Baker.
Right on cue, Baker bends forward and gives a dramatic bow. “I always do my homework, coach.”
“Someone must be too good of a teacher.”
Bates pushes past us, jogging ahead toward the door of the Little Haven Inn. He catches my eye as he passes, and although he doesn’t make any exaggerated expression, I can read what he’s putting down.
He wants me to stay. Bates has this vision of me giving up the New York Liberty to come work with him and be with Molly and live here and…
A snowball smacks into the back of Bates’s head, and he whirls around, huffing.
“Punish Smith for the good coaching, not me. I’m just a master delegator.”
This time, when he catches my eye, he winks. He huffs up the stairs to the inn and pulls open the door. Cozy amber light from the new bulbs bathes the snowy veranda and invites us in.
Bates stands in the doorway as the first of the boys shuffle past him, shedding coats and hats for the hook by the entry table.
“Miss Moore said the tables and chairs are stacked out back by the barn where the rental company deposited them. You’ll want to keep the coats on, kids.”
“Thanks again, guys.”
I’m the last one in, just in time for Molly herself to emerge from her office with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. She catches my eye and gives a little wave.
Bates goes to shut the door behind me, but a gust of wind and snow beats him in. The breeze cuts through the room, whipping Molly’s dark fringe and making her cheeks flush pale pink as she visibly shivers. She smiles and laughs, pressing the coffee to her plush lips for a warm drink.
She looks like one of her Christmas decorations. Something crafted with care, each detail lovingly attended to.
“Don’t think you’re getting out of helping, Gray.” Molly turns as a voice booms out from the office behind her. Hunter emerges, red-faced and grinning. “If I’m assigned as free labor, so are you. Took off a morning of work to be here. Now get out there with your boys.”
My joints go stiff as Hunter walks around the counter to pull me into a bear hug. This goddamn push and pull will never ease up, will it?
“Please, don’t act like you don’t live your life prepping to appear on a season ofAlone,” Molly chastises her brother. “You’d be out searching for critters in that snow if I didn’t already give you a reason to be there. Leave Gray alone and give him a break from the coaching.”
She steps toward her coffee machine, already pulling a mug down from the cabinet for me.
“Cream or sugar, Gray?”
My stomach tenses and I step to follow Hunter, who is heading off to follow my basketball team to the barn. “I’ll pull my weight. I can’t abide any more jokes about being a city slicker.”
“AYankee,” Hunter corrects me. “We said you were a no good, traitorous Yankee who forsook his hometown. Get it right.”
“Right.” I purse my lips and shoot him alook. He just grins in response.
“Any insults will be punished with toilet duty,” Molly announces. “I still need to clean the bathrooms before tomorrow’s party.”
She steps toward me as the coffee brews, and I step back. Some flicker of understanding registers in her eyes, and I feel the vaguest bit sick.
“Lift a table or chair and you’ll sleep outside in that snow tonight,” she tells me. It’s a line delivered deadpan, reading as a joke for her brother’s benefit. But I can read what she’s feeling behind the threat. Molly is sensing my panic, feeling it echo back inside her chest because she knows something’s up.
“I’ll be fine,” I promise. “I won’t leave a bad review of the inn on Yelp or anything like that.”
Hunter slings an arm around my shoulder and pulls me toward the door. “Come on, let’s get the boys to set everything up and then tell them we decided to rearrange the room. It’ll be a hoot.” He grins devilishly.
Molly’s hand shoots out, grasping my elbow. “Okay, but seriously, hang out for a second, Gray. You’ve got mail at the front desk I don’t want to forget to give to you.”