Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 74

Jo leaned against the railing of the back porch at the Monroe's house, her hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate with huge marshmallows in it. Snow laid across the huge porch and the patio, a couple inches thick on top of the grill and the picnic table beyond.

Her nose was instantly cold. Bringing the mug up to her face to warm it with the steam, she took a sip, one of the oversized marshmallows bumping against her skin. The hot chocolate was delicious and relaxing after the last day of final exams.

Where'd you go? Ryker asked. He must've come out of the kitchen where he had been devouring a disgustingly massive sandwich and found her missing. Seriously, that sandwich had been eight inches high. Malcolm was a sandwich making monster.

Outside. It was hot in there.

You can throw fireballs, but you can't take a wood-burning fireplace?

It was HOT. It had been a couple months since they had Marked each other, and while her mental voice was never as clear as his, she had gotten better at talking through the mindlink. Now she could shout on purpose.

A moment later, the door opened, letting out the sounds of some random Disney movie that Lexi and the boys were watching. Brett and Aaliyah had gone out of town for the weekend, which meant Malcolm had gotten Lexi, Ryker, and Jo to agree to help him with Conner and Talon. The two of them had already created a fort in the middle of the living room, complete with a tower made of couch cushions. Ryker and Lexi had both complained that their dad never would've let them make something like that, but Malcolm had simply said that being a grandpa was different than being a dad and he would still skin them alive if they tried to make cushion towers.

"You didn't feel like yelling Silenzio Bruno?" Ryker asked as he walked over to her. He reached out and wrapped his hand around her mug, his long fingers engulfing hers. With his eyebrows raised, he lifted the mug and her hand and took a sip from the drink. "Ugh. Too sweet."

"Says Mr. Sweet Tea addict," Jo said, rolling her eyes. She extracted her hand and turned around, resting her back on the railing instead of her front. "I like the merkids, but now it makes me wonder if mermaids really are a thing."

"I've heard rumors, but that's about it," Ryker said. He crossed his arms over his chest. "There's probably a lot out there we don't know about."

"Like me?" she teased, but she did mean it, in a way.

"No one's like you," he murmured, voice dropping to that husky-sexy tone that was addicting and unfair and...and...really sucked when they were at his dad's house babysitting right now. Ryker's free arm wrapped around her waist and he tugged her against him, dropping his head to kiss her hair for a moment. Jo cuddled into his warmth while also snagging her hot chocolate back from his other hand.

"Thief." he murmured, wrapping both arms around her now.

She grinned up at him. "Well someone was a bad influence first."

Ryker gave her his best innocent look, which he was disturbingly perfecting the more time he spent around Conner and Talon. "Me? A bad influence."

"Mhmm. Who tried to cheat on their exams this morning?"

"You're my mate, we're supposed to always help each other," Ryker grumbled.

"Yeah, show me that rule in the handbook of mates."

Ryker lifted her up and sat her on the deck railing, his arms still gently around her to keep her balanced, although now her head was above his for once. He smirked up at her as Jo lazily draped an arm over his shoulder. "I'm gonna write the handbook and then it'll be there."