I stood from the lounge chair and Parker waved me down. I sat.
“It’s fine,” he said. “We can do it another day.” He sighed. “I needed a day like this with you. It’s been too long.”
“Well, you should enjoy this relaxing time, because tomorrow, you’re going to hate me.” I grinned at him.
“In that case, I think you should get me a beer so I can relax even more.”
I hopped up from my chair. “Coming right up.”
I smiled all the way to the kitchen, excited to see his face tomorrow when he realized what I had planned for him.
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 m
y 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.