“Blinky?” Jaya said, raising an eyebrow. But then she knew in the next instant what he meant. He was talking about all her faux flirting before, when she was still executing her plan. Blinky. It was a less than flattering description. And not just that, but it made her feel… a little revolted at herself. She’d been trying so hard to “trap” Grey that even he’d felt it.

“Right,” she said, laughing a little to cover up her discomfort. Should she tell him the truth about everything? Now would be a good time. But he’d literally just told her he was changing because of her. How could she tell him she’d gotten close to him in the first place only because she wanted to completely shatter his heart? How would that make him feel?

A sudden wind tried to make off with her scarf. Jaya shrieked, but Grey grabbed it just in time. Turning to her, he slowly draped the scarf back around her neck, his blue eyes holding hers, her skin coming alive everywhere his fingers touched. They gazed at each other for a long moment, Jaya’s eyes falling unwittingly to his lips.

“Grey,” she said, her voice breathless as she looked up at him. “You know the one thing I’ve missed the most about snow?”

He shook his head, his hands still on her scarf. “No, what?” he murmured.

She could feel the wicked gleam in her eye. Bending down, Jaya rolled up a snowball with the speed of lightning and lobbed it at Grey’s torso. It exploded on contact, sending snow flying into his face and hair. “Snowball fights!”

“Hey!” he said, his eyes going wide. While she was busy laughing at him, he dumped two entire handfuls of snow on her head. Big handfuls.

“What the—” she spluttered, caught completely off guard.

She heard Grey laughing, snow crunching under his boots as he ran. She blinked the snow out of her eyes. “You’d better run, Grey Emerson! Because when I find you—” A snowball hit her, squarely in the chin this time, ice-cold precipitation going down her jacket and the front of her shirt. More laughing from behind the pine trees up ahead. “Oh, that is it!” Jaya said, rolling a snowball of what could only be described as epic proportions.

She ran off into the trees to the right and took cover, scanning the darkness for movement. They were about ten feet apart now. There was a crunching sound and a flash of Grey’s red jacket. Jaya took aim and launched her snowball—catching him in the shoulder.

“Ha!” she yelled, triumphant. “Take that!”