Page 47 of Hard Rain
“You put me in the hospital again.”
“Couple hours.” Axel shrugged.
“Overnight.”
“Observation.”
“You fractured two ribs.”
“I barely touched you.” It hadn’t been one of his finer moments.
“Barely touched me?” Whip gaped at him.
“That’s my story.”
“You tackled me into another zip code.”
“Still legal.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Scoreboard says otherwise.”
Winning settled a lot of arguments.
Whip threw a twig at him.
Axel caught it before it hit his face.
“See?” he said. “Still got the reflexes.”
“Still rewriting history.”
“Still won.”
Whip’s chuckle filled the cabin before he tossed another twig at him.
Axel chuckled and caught it automatically.
Neither of them stopped smiling.
The cabin smelled like wet clothes, damp canvas, and smoke.
True to his word, Whip had the flames in the fireplace roaring after several minutes. Heat finally began pushing back against the chill that had followed them into the cabin. Steam rose faintly from Axel’s socks where he’d stretched his feet toward the hearth.
About damn time.
“So, whose idea was it to come out here in the middle of the night chasing Cutter in a storm?” Axel nudged a boot closer to the fire.
“Screw you. It was your decision.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, I know so.”
“Wrong.”
“Right.”
