Chapter Sixteen
J axon was mystified as to how he got roped into chaperoning a paintball party for a thirteen-year-old’s birthday. But when Alden’s dad Garrett got called into work, and Alden’s mom Priscilla claimed a migraine, Jaxon got recruited to fill in. He shook his head. He could’ve said no, but Alden was a great kid and someone had to show up as the responsible adult or the party couldn’t happen. So, paintball, really how bad could it be? A dozen middle school boys running like lunatics through the brush while brandishing paint guns—dear lord, who was he fooling?
“Okay,” he said to all the faces not looking up at him. He let out a shrill whistle and raised his voice. “Pay attention. Who are the team captains?” Ronnie and Alden raised their hands high.
“Well, that means I’m on your team.” Alden’s pretty, fifteen-year-old sister sidled over to Ronnie. The three boys who were gathered around him cheered, then, embarrassed by their enthusiasm at a girl joining their team, shuffled their feet, eyes downcast. Jaxon, understanding the awkwardness of the age, hid a smile.
The rest of the boys divided themselves equally, and Jaxon was grateful that it happened organically and he’d avoided the choosing of teams. He counted. Perfect. So far, so good. First hurdle jumped, maybe this wouldn’t be complicated. “Okay, we have an even number of players on each team.”
Alden raised his voice, “But we’re missing someone. I know she’ll be here. She promised.”
“She?”
Alden jumped up and down. He pointed down the hill. “There she is!”
Jaxon turned and couldn’t believe his eyes. Ivy Wayland was strolling over the rise toward them. Hair in her signature high ponytail, she was dressed in a red, faded Community Projects sweatshirt. Black yoga pants hugged her hips, revealing lush curves. Jaxon’s mouth went dry. It took a moment before he could speak. When she drew near, he asked, trying not to sound too hopeful, “Are you chaperoning, too?”
“Chaperoning?” She gave him a long perusal, and he couldn’t help standing a bit straighter. “Hardly.” She gave a sassy sidestep. “I’m a party guest. Right, Alden?”
“You came,” Alden breathed, starstruck.
“You bet. Happy birthday. So whose team am I on?”
Shouts of “mine, mine, mine!” rang out. Jaxon wanted to chime right along with them, even though he wasn’t playing.
“I guess I better stick with the birthday boy.” She stepped closer to Alden and reached out for a fist bump.
Alden regained his composure enough to complete the fist bump with Ivy before proclaiming, “That’s right. You’re on my team.”
Ivy grinned at Jaxon.
“Hey, they have more players,” wailed Ronnie. “That’s not fair.”
So much for uncomplicated. Before a riot broke out, Jaxon raised his arms, and said under his breath to Ivy, “Troublemaker.”
“Who, me?” She batted her eyelashes.
“I’ll join a team to make it even. Ronnie, I’m with you. What do you say?” The boys on Ronnie’s team cheered. “Let me go get equipped. Better watch out,” he told Ivy.
Ivy watched Jaxon stride down the hill to collect his own paint gun, his long legs eating up the distance. Oh, my, what had she gotten herself into? Today’s confidence was all bluster. She had never in her life played paintball or even planned to. This started out as her just being nice to a boy with a crush, and now Jaxon was here? And playing for the other side? She had zip idea what she was doing. Her original plan, as she’d picked out what to wear, was to hide as much as possible. Paintballs hurt when they hit, or so Holly had gleefully told her, and bruises were not her go-to style.
She was so not the adventurous one. The fact that she considered paintball adventurous probably said more about her than she cared to admit. With Jaxon on the opposite team, she feared hiding might be challenging. She had a sneaking suspicion he might just hunt her down. Or maybe she would hunt him down. She found the idea of blasting Jaxon Langford with a paintball surprisingly appealing.
While the boys milled about, shoving and aiming at each other, she scoped out the grounds. Trees and shrubs provided a modicum of cover, but a tremendous amount of open space remained. How was this game played, anyway? Was it a free-for-all? Surely not, if they had teams. That, at least, meant only half the participants would be gunning for her.
She could do this.
Jaxon returned and started speaking. He looked amazing, armed with a paint gun and dressed in blue jeans and a collared tee, muscled arms bare. He’d obviously not planned to be a participant, not with how he was dressed. Despite the warm weather, Ivy had layered her clothes. Her sweatshirt hid a halter top and a long-sleeved tee. A girl needed to protect herself. She had no illusions she could escape being hit. “First off, everybody, helmets on.” Jaxon waited until they’d complied.
She squinted through the helmet’s opening. This made it harder. Safer sure, but she’d lost a good portion of her peripheral vision, making hiding an even more appealing plan.
“This’ll be more fun with a goal.” A now-helmeted Jaxon waved an orange flag. “So instead of just Last Man Standing, today’s game is Capture the Flag with weapons. What do you say?”
He had such a way with these boys. More shouting and jumping by the boys commenced, followed by eye-rolling and a loud sigh from Alden’s sister Rebecca. After a pointed look from Jaxon, she reluctantly slipped on her helmet.
Jaxon strode to a rise near a copse of trees and planted the flag in the round.
His voice rang out. “Team Alden, choose your base.” Jaxon motioned to two other sections of trees, and Alden took off running with his teammates. Ivy followed, while Jaxon’s team dashed for their base. Jaxon raised his voice to be heard by all. “Whichever team successfully grabs the flag and gets it back to their base without getting hit by a paintball is the winner. Oh, and no shooting players on their base. Okay. Game starts now .”
Alden’s team clustered round to make a plan. A plan which involved Ivy to a higher degree than she was comfortable with.
They would split into three groups. Alden really was quite the strategist. Group one would head directly for the flag. Group two would swing left, while group three swung right.
She and Alden were to slip off together to hide behind the shrubs closest to the flag. Hiding was good, but she had a sneaking suspicion she was expected to be the flag snatcher.
“You should carry the flag, Alden, you’re team captain. I’ll stand out too much as a girl.”
He nodded. “All right.”
Ivy squinted across the field to see what Ronnie’s team was up to. They had completely disappeared from view.
Bad, very bad. She scanned the area. Where could they have gone?
Wait. Ivy spotted Rebecca.
Splat.
“Ugh,” shouted Rebecca. She whipped off her helmet and threw it on the ground, where it bounced a couple of times. “Look at me!” With both hands, she pointed at the big red splat on her white sweatshirt. “I knew this would suck.” She stomped off, kicking the helmet just as another splat hit the boy who’d shot Rebecca.
“Wait, Becca, wait up. I’ll keep you company.” Scooping up her helmet, the boy chased after her, sounding not at all bummed to hang out with the buxom Becca.
Ivy glanced behind her. Where was the shooter? Then, she spied him. A member of Ronnie’s team was tucked high up in the Y of a tree, concealed by leaves. Ah, so they had a sniper. Clever. She wished she’d thought of it. No doubt Jaxon was responsible for that bit of brilliance.
They’d need to up their game. Ivy slipped down the hill and away, sneaking and keeping her head low to stay out of sight. Her goal was to stay “alive” as long as possible. She wasn’t really into shooting any of the boys. Nope, she was gunning for Jaxon. Hitting Jaxon in the ass had become her number one goal. Alden was sneaking alongside. “Where are you going?” he whispered.
“To take out Jaxon.”
“We need to get the flag.”
“But Jaxon’s giving Ronnie great ideas. I bet he thought up that sniper-in-the-tree bit.”
“Sure, but they should’ve synchronized their attacks. Now we’re scanning the trees. See, right there.” He pointed up to another boy stretched out horizontally, high up in a white oak about eight feet away. Alden motioned to her to crawl through the shrubs. “With me.” When she nodded, they belly-crept along the ground until they were just below the tree. The boy had taken aim at a camo-clad member of Team Alden dashing through the clearing.
In hushed tones so soft Ivy had to strain to hear, Alden said, “Ready. Aim. Fire.”
Ivy and Alden fired in quick succession. The tree-bound sniper avoided Ivy’s attempt, but in doing so, swung right into the paintball fired by Alden. “Yes!” Alden gave a fist pump. “See, we make a great team.”
Ivy grinned. The sniper swung down, gave a sheepish wave at Alden, and sprinted off to seek out Rebecca. Hanging with Alden’s sister was serving as a consolation prize for everyone out of the game.
Ivy glimpsed Jaxon running low, head down, toward a group of boys to give instructions. This was her chance. If she could just…
Alden’s grip on her arm stopped her. He shook his head. “Don’t give away our position. There’s too many of them.”
He was right. Getting Jaxon would be fun, but it would sacrifice them, and Alden deserved to play until the end. Ivy decided in that moment to make sure Alden remained the last man standing. She was covered in brambles now, and uncomfortable, but it was a small price to pay to give Alden a memorable birthday.
She listened to Jaxon giving orders.
“Okay, Antony, you and Edgar, you’re on flag duty. Not to grab but to guard. Rex, you and Preston will keep the snipers safe. We don’t want to lose any more snipers. Cody and Nathan, you two stick to the sidelines and pick off whoever you can.”
“What about Ivy and Alden? No one has seen them. Ivy’s a girl. I bet I could pick her off easy.”
“No,” Jaxon said, “Ivy is mine.”
A chill of anticipation traveled from the tip of Ivy’s head along her spine to her toes at Jaxon’s vow.
She was his? Oh-ho, no, he was hers. Now she was even more determined to take him out, but she’d stay true to her primary objective: keep Alden free of paintballs. Make this his best birthday ever.
Getting Jaxon—oh yeah, she’d do that, too.
Alden was tugging on her sleeve whispering instructions. She’d have to leave Jaxon for later. Right now, she was Alden’s bodyguard.
*
Jaxon knew Ivy was out there. He could sense her. It was almost like he knew she was watching him, but that was ridiculous. Surely just his imagination. Or him hoping. He spent a lot of time wondering about Ivy and worrying how his decisions would affect her. His choices might impact her whole life, not in paintball, but in selling the building. He shook his head. He needed to keep his head in the game. Right now his goal needed to be giving these kids a fun time at paintball.
All other concerns needed to wait. But taking out his number one sniper had been inspired. He’d seen Ivy with Alden in that double-pronged attack. Now he had zero idea where she’d gone. The boys took off with their marching orders, and he scanned the horizon. She was here somewhere. He kept himself low. He could hear the occasional paintball splat and ensuing groan by the player taken out of the game. He always took a moment to look up and make sure the boy was okay. He was chaperoning. He needed to remain cognizant of that. Playing the game was fun, but his chief goal was to keep these boys safe and unharmed in their play. Goal number two was taking out Ivy. Or not, he didn’t actually want to shoot her with a paintball, he just—what? What did he want from Ivy? That was the real question he needed to answer, and not just in terms of paintball. Jaxon stayed to the outskirts, pensively watching the progress of the game.
When the sale of the building was complete, what then? He’d be on to his new life and Ivy would be left with what? Would she still have a business? He didn’t trust wild-card Derrick Cross. He was beginning to think no one could, but was the man completely untrustworthy? Cross hadn’t done anything shady. He was just brittle somehow, like he had a hidden agenda other than real estate acquisition.
Splat. Another one bites the dust.
Splat. Another one down.
Splat. And another one down.
As long as Ivy didn’t bite the dust, he was okay with it.
Jaxon counted. Where were all the boys? He peered over at the seating area and counted the boys sprawled out chatting up Becca Whitaker. Twenty of them lounged in chairs, so that left four. Alden, Ronnie, Ivy and him.
The game was coming to a head. Jaxon eased toward the flag. Time to finish this. He popped up behind Ronnie. “Hey.”
Ronnie about jumped out of his skin.
“It’s just me. What’s the plan?”
Ronnie’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“You’re the captain.”
Ronnie puffed up a little, and Jaxon smiled inwardly.
“It’s just us on our team. The rest are out. They’re hanging with Becca.” Ronnie frowned, clearly envious of being left out of Rebecca holding court.
“You’ll have your chance after,” said Jaxon. “Now, let’s get that flag.”
They ran low along the fence line, ducking behind barrels and stacked pallets, peeking around corners. Ronnie was obviously having a fantastic time. It felt good to be one of the last men standing. They headed up the rise toward the flag. The coast was clear. No one had even spotted Alden and Ivy for at least forty-five minutes, but that didn’t mean they were in the clear. Those two could be anywhere and…
Suddenly they materialized. Alden was covered in dirt and leaves, blending in with the terrain. And Ivy, Jaxon almost laughed when he saw her, was thoroughly covered in brambles. Despite her pincushion attire, she was majestic, brandishing her paint gun like a pro, sun glinting off her hair. The mask hid her face, so he couldn’t see her expression.
Alden rose up and took aim at Ronnie just as Jaxon took aim at Alden. Ivy tilted her head at Jaxon and shook it. She pointed to herself and aimed her gun straight at Jaxon. He got her meaning even with the mask on.
Let Alden win.
He grinned. They needed to act quick. Splat went Alden’s gun—Ronnie was out. In unison, they tilted their guns up, aimed at each other. In the last instant Jaxon dipped his gun and let his paintball fly at Ivy’s foot.
Splat right on her shoe just as Splat!, a hit straight to his heart.
Alden grabbed the flag, whooping and running for his base, last man standing, and clearly the winner.
Ivy pulled off her mask.
“Thank you! What better time to win paintball than on his birthday? I was hoping, and then I saw you, and I just knew you understood my signals.”
With a groan of disgust at Ivy’s excited spiel, Ronnie stomped off with a backward comment. “You can have her.”
“What does he mean by that?”
Jaxon shrugged. “Oh, you know, kids.”
“I’m thrilled Alden won.”
“Me too.” They grinned, basking in the moment.
He glanced over and saw Ronnie boasting to Rebecca how he almost won the game.
Jaxon ruefully rubbed the paint spot on his shirt. “You hit me straight in the heart.”
Ivy bit her lip. “Did I?”
Jaxon swallowed. He needed to get back to chaperoning. He muttered, “You have no idea.”