Chapter Eleven
Parker
The sound of hard banging on my front door jolted me from a very deep sleep. The room was dark, and I blinked a few times. I jumped out of bed and ran across the room and threw open the bedroom door. My heart was hammering in my chest by the time I reached my front door. The banging started again, and I whipped open the door.
Sienna stood there, but it took me a minute to interpret what I was seeing.
She wore a fitted camouflage outfit and face paint only fit for someone in the military. Her bright white teeth were smiling devilishly at me. And she held a paintball gun against her shoulder as if she were modeling the weapon.
Her eyes moved to my chest and back up to my eyes. “Surprise.”
I looked down and realized I was only wearing my pajama bottoms. In my rush to get to the door, I hadn’t dressed properly. Good thing it was her and not a real emergency.
She smacked me on my bare chest and pushed through the door.
I laughed. “This is your surprise? What are you going to do? Shoot me in my living room?”
“Not exactly. I thought—if I’m going to be your best man, I wanted to show you why you chose so wisely. And what do men like to do? Shoot guns. So, here I am.”
“Don’t you think it is a little early for this?”
A smile slowly crept across her lips. “It’s payback time. Now, get dressed. We leave in five.”
I used to go paint-balling all the time in college and was surprised to find one of my old outfits stuffed in one of my drawers. Back then, I had been in peak physical condition, so the shirt sagged a little, but the pants fit like a glove.
Sienna refused to let me drive, and she insisted on blindfolding me. “There’s only one place in the area that has paint-balling. The blindfold is unnecessary.”
“It’s totally necessary, and you’re going to leave it on. I’m in charge today. Sit back, relax, and shut up.”
I turned to her and tried to see her through the thick scarf she wrapped around my head. “You know I used to be insane at paintball. You better be ready for this,” I said.
“‘Used to’ is the operative phrase.” She blasted the radio and I sat back in my chair, feeling the freest I had felt in a long time. Even though her little beater car had issues driving above fifty, we managed to get to the paintball place in record time. Sienna was a speed demon behind the wheel, and I was almost glad I had been blind for the whole ride.
When we arrived at the paintball field, there were more cars in the parking lot than I expected for a Monday morning.
“Whoa,” I said, taking it all in. “I haven’t been here in forever.”
“They did an expansion many years ago,” she said, gathering our things from the trunk. “The back field is now several acres of forest.”
I helped her with the equipment and we walked through the front gate.
Since it was a weekday, they only had the main field open. Half of it was an open field with several barrels and a few high walls as hiding places. The back half was all in the woods as a more authentic terrain. I remember the wooded terrain being my favorite. Now that there was more, I was excited to get out there.
A group of about a dozen high school teens milled around the entrance. When they saw Sienna and me approaching, all eyes went to her. Of course, she was oblivious and strode up to the guy in charge, announcing our reservation.
We learned the group of teens were part of a high school baseball team taking part in a team-building activity. The two coaches were sitting in the cafe area, sipping coffee. I was surprised they didn’t take part. Being almost thirty, I was feeling giddy like a kid in anticipation of getting out and shooting something.
“All right everyone,” Taylor, the guy running the arena, said. “We’re going to split into equal teams. Sienna, you’ll be with these guys, and Parker, you will be with the other team.
My mouth dropped open. “We’re not on the same team?” I asked Sienna.
“Hell no! I want the chance to beat your ass, Parker.”
I laughed. “Good luck with that.” And I intended to prove her wrong. She was never the type of girl to want the boys to be gentle with her.
During the first match in the smaller field, Sienna had convinced everyone, even my team members, to shoot me. They all had a good laugh at my expense. And I was sure to have a ton of bruises from that attack.
“Just wait,” I called to her, perched high on one of the taller walls. She was laughing the hardest.
The rest of the matches were fair and everyone played hard for their team to win.
The final match was capture-the-flag in the woods. The guys on my team were pretty serious about winning this game in particular, and so was I. Since they knew Sienna and I were celebrating my upcoming wedding, they wanted me to be the one to get the flag.
The goal for this game was only to capture the flag from the other team, without needing to bring it back to our side as other versions of the game dictated. We left two guys guarding our flag, while the rest of them formed a circle around me and we moved forward through the trees.
Along the way, my teammates were being picked off one by one. There were a few close calls, one of the balls even zipped by my ear. There were two of us left by the time we found the flag.
Sienna’s team had left it unguarded. The yellow fabric flapped in the air as if it were daring us to come closer.
The guy I was with, Mike, looked around. “I think they sent everyone to the front line. They—”
A blast of blue paint exploded on his back.
He cried out and glanced over his shoulder. “Damn it!”
I turned in the direction of the shooter and aimed my gun and fired. I picked off the other teen, and he cursed. These kids were like sailors when they were separated from their coaches. Good thing Sienna had an even dirtier mouth, or I might have had to correct them.
Mike clapped me on the shoulder. “Good luck.” Then he held his gun high in the air in the surrender pose and trudged to the safe zone.
I ducked down behind a thick tree trunk and scanned the area. I hadn’t seen Sienna in the mix of guys who had taken out my entire team. I started to suspect she was sitting out there, waiting for me.
I glanced over at the flag; it was so close. I had to take the shot.
I did one more scan of the area then bolted for the flag. Just as I was reaching out for it, I heard movement behind me. My hand dropped to my side.
“Drop your weapon,” Sienna said.
I knew she wouldn’t shoot me from that close range, but she did have me. Now I had to outsmart her.
I dropped my gun to the ground and turned around slowly.
She had various paint splotches over her gear from the previous games and she looked like a war-painted princess.
“You got me,” I said. And as she lowered her weapon ever so slightly, I rushed her.
I grabbed her shoulders and pressed her against me. If I could get her to drop the gun, I’d be able to get the flag.
But her foot caught against a root and she cried out as we both went down.
“Oof!” her breath rushed out of her when I landed on top of her.
Her legs kicked out and her arms were pinned under me.
“You weigh a ton!” she said, laughing.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I think so,” she said, looking around.
I managed to get my arms out and lifted my chest off of her. She moved leaves and other debris off of her face.
“I didn’t realize there was hand-to-hand combat in paintballing,” she said.
“I didn’t expect your clumsy ass to fall over that easily.”
She laughed again, and this time I joined her. Her body was so small underneath mine; I could have crushed her. I reached up and pulled several leaves out of her hair. I noticed her shift in breathing and then looked into her hazel eyes. Her expression was no longer carefree; it was serious.
I swallowed hard. I knew I should have moved off of her but for some reason, my body wasn’t catching up with my brain.
A few seconds later, I rolled over to the side of her and she scooted away from me. I stood and helped her to her feet.
I turned away, unsure of what the hell just happened. The feel of her body under mine had messed with my rational thinking. I should apologize, but for what? Having a spark of not-so-platonic feelings for my best friend? I was getting married to someone else.
A sharp pain stung my ass cheek, and I turned around to see Sienna holding her gun in front of her.
“Gotcha!” she said and danced around with a big grin on her face. She pumped her fist in the air and said, “I won, I won.”
I couldn’t help laughing with her. And it brought the attention away from my awkwardness after having fallen on top of her and waiting too long to get up.
When we reached the entrance to the field, the other guys were standing there. They asked for a recap of what had happened and Sienna animatedly explained how she got me in the ass. I didn’t correct her because that would mean rehashing what had happened between us. I wasn’t sure I was ready to explain that quite yet, especially since I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, either.
We called it a tie since none of the teams had managed to get the other’s flag. The teens had to go, leaving me and Sienna to grab lunch by ourselves.
After a hearty meal of hot dogs and french fries, Sienna took me home. She had to stop over at the diner for a little while that afternoon.
“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun,” I said.
“I’m glad you had a good time.”
It was nice driving without a scarf over my face. And with Sienna’s attention on the road, I found myself staring at her while we talked. Her hair was a mess, and her face paint streaked down her cheeks. But she was still one of the most beautiful women I knew.
“Thanks for this,” I said, turning away from her. We were almost to my house. I didn’t want this day to end, but I consistently took her away from work. It was only fair after everything she did for me today that I let her get back to her life.
“No problem,” she said. “Just to let you know, this wasn’t your bachelor party. We’re going above and beyond for that.” She tossed a smile at me then moved her attention back to the road. “Lately you’ve been doing so much wedding planning, I thought you could use a day of being a kid again.”
“I definitely needed this.” As we pulled into the driveway, the weight of the wedding pressed on my shoulders.
“Glad to be of service.”
I got out of the car, not wanting to give her another awkward moment. What I really wanted to do was reach across the center console and give her a hug. As friends, we weren’t very affectionate, but since that moment when I’d fallen on top of her, I had the strangest desire to touch her again. I wanted to see if this was real or just me having cold feet.
I waved to her as she backed out of the driveway and waited until she was out of sight before I went into the house.
My phone rang, and I grabbed it out of my pocket. Maybe Sienna wanted to meet up after the diner; I’d be game for that.
Instead, Rachel’s face filled the screen. I stared at it for two more rings before I turned the phone on silent and walked into the house.