Nico quickly changed his stance on having a birthday party. Although the original plan was scrapped, Josefina Lopez, the town’s expert event planner, took charge and converted part of Rafael’s property into the perfect Nerf gun party within a short twenty-four hours. The whole place was transformed with inflatable obstacle courses, shooting forts, and an interactive practice zone. Even the round target piñata Josefina handpicked herself while visiting family in Mexico matched the blue-and-orange theme.
Rafael was worried that not many people would show up given the last-minute notice, but the turnout was better than I expected.
After thirty minutes of Nico sticking by my side, I tell him to go play with his friends.
“You’re really not leaving?” he asks.
“Not unless you want me to.”
A friend yells for Nico to come play, but he doesn’t budge.
I grab one of the Nerf guns off the table and kneel in front of him. “Don’t spend your birthday worrying about me. I’ll be here the whole time, protecting the cake from anyone who gets any funny ideas.” I’d already seen a few kids eyeing the custom-made cake by Alana Castillo, and I wouldn’t put it past them to sneak a swipe or two of frosting when no one is looking.
Nico hesitates to take the toy from me.
“Nico!” another kid calls out, but he ignores them.
“I promise to stay.”
“You pinkie swear?” He holds it up for me.
I lock my tattoo-free pinkie finger around his. “On my life.”
“Okay. But I’m going to come find you every thirty minutes just to be sure that you didn’t run away with the cake.”
“Deal.”
It doesn’t take long before I’m dragged away from the dessert table by Dahlia and Lily Muñoz. Lily passes me a magazine full of foam darts and a Nerf Hail-Fire blaster.
“Why do I need this?” I check out the toy.
“You’re on our team. Adults only, and girls versus guys. And the winners get a free spa day.” Lily loads her toy with the foam darts.
“Seriously? Girls versus guys? Are we five years old again?”
Dahlia passes me a blue plastic breastplate. “I know, but you weren’t there. Julian looked so smug when he bet we would lose against them.”
Lily raises a brow. “You know he was baiting you into playing, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” Dahlia waves her sister away. “But he didn’t plan on us recruiting Ellie.”
I shake my head. “Oh no. I’m the last person you want on your team.”
“Why?” Lily asks.
“Because I’ve played with Nico enough times to know I suck?”
“Don’t worry. I got you.” She cocks her toy with a smile.
“Lily here used to line my Barbies up and use them for target practice,” Dahlia says.
My mouth falls open.
Lily shoves her sister with a laugh. “That happened one time!”
“Only because Julian told you Lego figures make better targets.”
“I hate to say it, but he was right. They always made the most satisfying sound whenever they fell and broke apart.”
Dahlia and I share a look before she speaks again.
“See? Lily will have most of the guys begging for mercy in ten minutes or less.”
“Um…”
“Please.” Lily helps load my gun. “We need another girl for our team and you’re our first draft pick.”
“Great.” If I’m lucky, someone will shoot me within the first minute.
A bell goes off in the distance. “It’s starting! Let’s go!” Lily rushes toward the field filled with a hundred different inflatable obstacles, and we quickly lose sight of her as she disappears behind one.
“The guys are wearing neon-orange breastplates. You can hit them anywhere but the eyes.” Dahlia takes off running in the opposite direction to her sister.
Despite my reluctance, I run down the middle of the obstacle course maze and crawl beneath one of the small inflatable arches. I keep my toy gun drawn and focus on keeping my lunch down as I wait for someone to put me out of my misery.
“Come on out, Ellie.”
I can hardly hear Rafael calling my name over the rapid beat of my heart.
“The sooner you surrender, the faster we can get this all over with and cut Nico’s cake.”
After spending the last thirty minutes wedged under a small archway built into one of the hot inflatables, convincing myself that I didn’t really need to pee, I refuse to give up now. Dahlia and Lily are counting on me to bring home the win since everyone but Rafael and me have been ejected from the game, so I’ll be damned if Rafael tricks me into surrendering.
Exploding bladder or future UTI be damned because I won’t lose.
A small twig snaps underneath his sneaker as he gets closer to my hiding spot. My finger hovers over the trigger, one millisecond away from ending the match.
“I was surprised to find out you’re the last one standing,” he says from a distance this time.
Maybe if I wait until he moves on, I can crawl out and sneak up behind him.
“I’ll even be a nice guy and pretend to shoot you.” His voice drifts as he walks away from me.
I release the smallest exhale.
Rafael stops walking.
Shit.
“Gotcha.” This time, he speaks from behind me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I push forward on my elbows and army crawl toward the light at the end of the archway, only to be dragged out through the opposite end. My chest slides against grass and dirt as Rafael pulls me out from under the inflatable.
“Roll over.”
“No!” I reach for my gun, only to have Rafael kick it away.
“Shooting you in the back is less fun.”
“Why—” My question is cut off by Rafael flipping me over.
My self-defense training kicks in, and I use the element of surprise to bring him down with my legs. He lands on top of me at an odd angle, knocking the air from my lungs as his knees slam into the ground on either side of me.
“Well, that did not go according to plan,” I wheeze.
“No shit.” The hard planes of his body rub against my soft parts as he rises onto his elbows. “What the hell were you thinking?” He pokes at the scrape on his arm, completely unaware of how he is depriving me of oxygen.
My exhale sounds strained. “I’m not sure I was.”
“Where did you even learn to do that?” He stares at me in utter shock, completely unaware of the way his body presses mine deeper into the ground.
“Willow signed us up for self-defense classes when we first moved out to Los Angeles.” I tap his arm. “Now, if you don’t mind, could you get up? I think my left lung has collapsed.”
He curses at himself. “Sorry.”
A wave of warmth spreads from my cheeks to my toes as his body rubs against mine one last time before he jumps to his feet and grabs the discarded Nerf gun from the ground.
“We could call a truce,” I say.
He lifts his hand until I’m staring into the barrel of a toy gun.
“So that’s how it’s going to be?”
He doesn’t smile, but his eyes soften at the edges. “It’s nothing personal.” His finger hovers over the trigger.
“I’ll save you, Ellie!” Nico shouts from the other side of the field.
“Thank God I can count on one Lopez at least.”
Nico runs directly toward his father, but unfortunately, he doesn’t make it in time to save me from the foam pellet that hits me right between the eyes.
“No!” Nico cries as he raises his Nerf gun at his father and shoots. “Everyone get him!”
Hundreds of foam darts hit Rafael at the same time from all angles as twenty of Nico’s friends shoot him. He mutters a curse under his breath while I explode with a giggle.
The rare sound not only takes me by surprise but Rafael as well.
His dark gaze lands on my lips. “You think this is funny?”
Another laugh erupts from my throat as a foam dart hits him in the eye.
“Screw this,” he practically snarls.
One second, I’m lying flat on my back, and in the next, I’m being pulled into Rafael’s arms as he uses me as a human shield.
“Cease fire!” Nico shouts at his friends, but they don’t listen.
Foam darts hit me in the eyes, chest, and legs, making me hiss. “Ouch!”
Rafael’s lips press against my ear. “Not so funny now, is it?”
My stomach tightens as his lips brush over the shell of my ear.
What’s next? Goose bumps during a hostage negotiation? Pull yourself together, Ellie.
“You proved your point. Now let me go.”
“I plan on it as soon as they stop.”
“To think I once considered you a gentleman.”
“That was your first mistake.” Rafael lifts my feet off the ground as he hides his face behind my back. I try to break free of his hold, but the band of steel wrapped around my waist doesn’t budge.
“Stop! You’re hurting her!” Nico calls out in a panic.
I wiggle my way out of Rafael’s hold, but only because my butt rubs against something it shouldn’t have.
Something that felt way bigger and firmer than expected.
Oh shit!
We both try to speak at the same time.
“You were—”
“I wasn’t—”
Neither one of us gets a chance to finish our sentence before Nico rushes over to me and throws his arms around my legs.
“I’m sorry, Ellie! They didn’t listen to me when I told them to stop!”
I comb through his sweaty strands of hair. “It’s not your fault that your dad used me as a shield.”
Nico glares at his father. “Why would you do that?”
“She laughed when I got hurt.” Rafael shrugs.
“What are you? Five?” Nico laughs.
I hold my fist out for Nico to bump. “Nice one.”
When I look up, I expect to find Rafael glaring at us like usual, but I’m shocked to see him looking…calm. Relieved even.
While I wouldn’t describe him as happy, he doesn’t look like he might explode from jealousy either, which is a welcome change from our usual tense interactions.
I want to figure out what brought about the switch in him, but Nico doesn’t give me a chance before he pulls me away from his father, claiming he will keep me safe for the rest of the day.
