Rhett takes a step. “Mav, close your eyes. Dakota and I will make sure you don’t run into anything.”

Dakota gets on the opposite side of Mav from Rhett. “No promises from me,” she says before they start to guide him away.

Heath sweeps my feet out from under me. “Close your eyes, baby doll, I got you.”

I wrap my arms around his neck and let him carry me. I close my eyes, playing along, though I hardly see the point.

“Are you really leading me to find the others or taking me somewhere to make out?”

“That last one sounds real tempting, but the sooner we find the others, the sooner I can take you home and make out with you in my warm bed.”

His lips graze against mine and I lean forward to kiss him harder. He stops, wherever we are, and his tongue sweeps into my mouth, warm and demanding.

He pulls back way sooner than I want, but he doesn’t move.

“Ginny, open your eyes.” His voice is filled with wonder and excitement.

His head’s thrown back and he stares up into the sky. A tiny snowflake falls onto his nose.

“It’s snowing!”

The small white flurries fall around us, slowly at first. Heath sets me down and I hold my arms out to the side. “I love the snow. It always feels so magical.”

I can just make out Dakota’s laughter and the guys shouting and know they’re excited about it too. Heath and I walk toward them in the snow, joining them at the same time Reagan and Adam have abandoned their hiding spot.

“This is amazing,” I say as I reach Adam.

“Right? I can’t remember the last time it snowed like this in December.”

“It won’t last,” I say sadly. Even by morning, it’ll probably be gone.

“But it’s here now.” Rhett smiles and takes a seat on the ground.

One by one, we all drop to the cold grass in the middle of campus. Maverick goes into his coat pocket and brings out a bottle of Mad Dogg. “I came prepared.”

It hits me, sitting here with my friends—people I can no longer imagine not being in my life—I found this amazing group of people in the hardest five months of my entire life when I needed them the most. And amidst my brother’s friends. Who would have thought?

But, if I’ve learned anything since coming to Valley, it’s that we can only really prepare for the small things. What to wear, what to bring on a trip, which direction to go. The rest is fate and luck. And I feel like the luckiest girl of all.

42

GINNY

JUNE