Beauty in Pain(On Hold)

Sledding

        By the time I had tried on all of the clothes and made it out of the dressing room, the others had returned. Cody, Nathaniel, and Garret held a bag in their hands and I eyed them curiously as he we made our way to the checkout. 

       They followed me up to the register and swarmed in front of me. Before I could even try to pay, not that I could have if I had even wanted to, Travis had snatched the clothes out of my hands. I tried to pay attention to the price, but their broad shoulders were in my way. Travis smirked at meafter they were done and swung the bag around in his hands as we made our way out of the store and I rolled my eyes.

       We huddled close together as we charged out into the blizzard and I started to question whether it really was a good idea or not to go sledding right now.

       Cody held the front passenger side door open for me once we reached the truck and I didn't bother thanking him until we were all inside. It was too cold to even pause.

       I shivered as Travis started the truck and let the car start warming up. I rubbed my hands together and peeked into the back at the guys, my gaze landing once again on the bags they had.

       "What did you guys get?" I asked curiously.

       "Just a few things for you," Nathaniel said with a grin and I frowned.

       "For me? You didn't need to do that," I said. I didn't want to feel more obligated to them than I already was.

       Garret tsked at me and held out his bag as Travis began making his way out of the parking lot. "No need to sound so ungrateful."

       "Sorry," I murmured as I accepted the gift. "I just feel bad that you guys spent more money on me."

       "Don't worry about it," he said and watched as I opened the bag.

       A thick mint, green scarf rested at the bottom of the sack and I grinned as I pulled it out. "Thanks, Garret."

       He nodded and Nathaniel held out his bag for me next. "Here, open mine."

       I grabbed the black sack that he practically threw at me and peeked inside. My mouth turned up into a smile as I took the turquoise blue beanie out of the bag. "It's beautiful. Thank you."

       Cody set his bag down on the middle console and I opened it curiously. A pair of thick black gloves were inside and I grinned up at him and the others. "Thanks so much you guys. These are perfect."

       They nodded and I turned back around to study the gifts better. The rest of the drive was filled with playful banter and country music. We moved at a sluggish pace, but that was okay because I didn't like how much we slid around the road.

       We eventually made it to a deserted church parking lot and Travis pulled to a stop. Travis turned in his seat to face all of us and get our attention.

       "Okay, it's pretty cold out there so I'm thinking just one turn each. You can get changed first, Harley, and then we'll follow after," Travis said and we all nodded. The guys hopped out of the truck then and left me to get changed.

       I changed out of my jeans  shimmied the new thermal clothes up my thighs, trying to be quick so that I wouldn't take up too much time. Once I had on all of my gear, I jumped out of the car and made my way out into the cold. The guys were just finishing attaching a yellow rope to the trailer hitch on the back of Travis's truck when I arrived. Travis smiled over at me as the others made their way back to the truck to get on their snowsuits as well.