The Bet (Book 1 in The Deception Series)

Chapter 30: snow and lakes

Garrett

~~~~~~~

"LOVE LOOKS PRETTY ON YOU"- Nessa Barrett

My hands shake from the freezing cold as I unlock the front door of my grandma's lake house.

"Come." I tell Taylor as I open the door.

She follows me inside and it's pitch black. The familiar scent of the house fills my nose, it smelt like home. I turn the hallway light on and it's like all my memories here are unlocked by a switch.

"Race ya!" I shout as I run down the stairs of the lake house, gripping onto my hockey stick.

"You got a head start!" I hear Connie yell from behind me.

I ignore him and run to the mudroom. I grab my skates and put them on as fast as possible. Excitement was filling my body as I looked out the glass door that led outside to the frozen lake. The snow was falling and it was white everywhere.

"Put your jackets on or you'll freeze to death." My grandma says as she walks into the room with Conrad.

He glares at me as he grabs his skates and puts them on next to me.

"It's not that cold, Grandma." I tell her as she hands me my big puffy jacket.

"You won't be saying that when you walk out the door." She tells me.

I sigh as I reluctantly take the jacket from her hands. I slipped it on and zip it up before looking at Conrad who was putting his on as well.

"Ready?" I ask him.

He smiles, "Hell yeah."

"Connie, watch your mouth." Grandma warns him.

"Hell isn't a bad word, Grammy." He says.

She sighs and shakes her head just as Grandpa walks into the room, all ready in his outside gear.

"Ready to play some hockey, boys?" He asks, his face filled with eagerness.

I didn't get to see my grandparents for a while because my mother wasn't speaking to them. After she ran away from home, she cut them out of her life but they somehow rekindled their relationship after her brother went to jail. And now, I actually had grandparents who loved me. My dad's side didn't care about us, but Mom's side did.

Mom looked a lot like Grandpa, the same nose and eyes. Connie looked more like Grandma, I didn't look like either one of them. Everyone said I looked more like my father. I hated being told that. I didn't want to look anything like him.

"Wow." Taylor says as she looks at the massive house.

She walks through the hallway to the living room and takes in the whole place. It was beautiful, there was nothing about this place I didn't like.

"Let's start a fire." I tell her as I crouch down in front of the fireplace.

She smiles as she pulls over the huge bean bag and puts it in front of the fireplace. She sits down and looks around the room. I missed her, I was glad I called her and brought her here with me. It was the only place I wanted to be right now, and she was the only person I wanted to be with.

"The lake is beautiful." She says as she looks out the back windows of the house and takes the jacket I gave her off.

"It's probably frozen, we could go skating." I told her.

"Oooooo yeah." She says with a big smile.

Once I get the fire going, I grab blankets and cuddle up with her on the bean bag. I breathe in her scent and feel my body relax.