He laughed when he saw me. And he didn’t miss a beat. He immediately joined in on the game. “Skadi!” he said and picked her up.

She squealed as he lifted her above his head so I couldn’t tag her. “Save yourself!” He tossed her onto the couch.

“Oh it’s so on.” I reached out to tag Jacob, but he dodged out of the way. “Hey!” I tried to tag him again, but he jumped backward.

And then he had the audacity to start running backward.

I couldn’t catch him because of my cramp, even with him running backward at the slower pace. I stopped and just started laughing. I was going to be it forever.

We all ran around the living room like complete barbarians. Jacob had slowed down too. I think partially because he felt bad that I had been it for so long.

But as he slowed down, he stopped looking at the ground. His right foot landed on one of the toy cars and he started to slip. He grabbed my hand and the two of us fell onto the couch. I landed on top of him.

“You’re it,” I said.

He laughed.

My heart started pounding. Our lips were only a couple inches apart. I could easily just lean forward. But I really wanted him to make the first move. I wanted to know that he truly did like me. Because no one had ever really liked me back before.

Jacob’s eyes fell to my lips.

But then I felt a bunch of small hands and knees on my back as all the kids piled on top of us.

I groaned. “Ow.”

Someone grabbed my wrist. And I felt my arms being tied behind my back.

“Onyx!” I yelled. “Stop it!”

He giggled.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Jacob said with a laugh. “We’re escaping.” He helped me to my feet as Nerf darts started flying through the living room.

We both laughed as we ran to the stairs. But I definitely took a few Nerf darts to the face.

I somehow managed to run up the stairs with my hands tied behind my back. That kid was seriously good at knots.

“What did the little demons do to you?” asked Nova as we passed by Chloe’s room. She barely even looked up at me. As if these things happened all the time.

The two of them were sitting on Chloe’s bed, somehow managing to ignore the chaos downstairs. Chloe and Nova were both spitting images of their mothers, Nova a mini version of Aunt Bee and Chloe a mini version of Aunt Brooklyn. Although I was pretty sure Nova had a devious streak like her brother Onyx. Chloe and Nova would both be going to high school next year. And they already looked the part.

“It was Onyx,” I said. “I lost tag.”

She shook her head.