Page 28 of The Perfect Catch

“Okay, so Captain America will be an easy one to design. Do you want to start with the star or the circles?” Kate asked, her head peering around my arm. I often forgot how short she was because her personality made her seem inches taller.

“Star sounds like a good idea.” My mouth was dry, and the words were barely intelligible.

I glanced around the room, taking in the half-woodshop/half-television-and-gaming area of the small shed. When she’d said we were coming back to design our outfits after we’d gone rock climbing that morning, I thought more people from the group would have joined us. As much as I liked this alone time with her, the more I was around her, the more attached I felt. How was I going to tame my feelings for her after this dance?

She nodded, moving my arm for me to start the star. “Okay, the easiest thing for me is to start with an outline of the shape I want. Is this the color you want for the star?” She bent my arm for me, accidentally jabbing the brush with the paint against my face, leaving a smear of blue paint across my cheek. It was cold, and I gasped.

Kate dropped my hand and placed both palms over her face, her eyes wide.

“I’m so, so sorry. I really didn’t think I was moving your arm that hard, and then it was just, like, whoa,” she said, moving her arms to imitate what had happened. She turned to search for something, grabbing a small paper towel at the end of the table.

While she looked that way, I dipped my brush into the paint again and swiped it across her cheek when she turned back.

Her eyes went even wider than before, and her smile revealed her shock.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” she said, swiping her finger over the wet paint.

I grinned, stretching the brush forward and swiping across her nose. “I was just helping us match.”

She giggled, the sound like little bells, and I joined in, feeling more comfortable than I had since my mother died. In a quick movement, she darted around me, and before I could grab her arm, she swiped a section of red from my eye to my jaw.

We moved back and forth, each one adding another brush stroke to the face, until I wrapped my arm around her waist, lifting her and setting her down behind me, allowing me full access to the paint and blocking her away.

“That’s not fair,” she said, her hand pushing against my middle with surprising force.

I dabbed some yellow just under her eyes, getting transfixed in the sight.

She stole the brush from my hand and swiped it along my chin. Her eyes stilled on mine, her finger resting in the wet paint on my chin. “This is a canvas I think I can work with.” Her voice came out breathless and soft, her expression tender and kind.

The pull between us was thick, like cords latching us together. I kept glancing down to her lips, already feeling the nerves in my own sparking, remembering how it happened the last time we kissed.

We leaned in, and I dipped my head a second, watching as she closed her eyes, her long lashes visible. I was about to kiss her, when the knob of the door turned. It didn’t take long for me to jump back, knowing I’d be putting up with her mother if she caught us out there kissing.

“Have you two finished yet?” her brother asked, looking less than enthused to be out there. He took a look at both of us and laughed. “Looks like you got more on your faces than on the shirts.”

Kate huffed and waved him away with her hand. “We’ll be done in a few minutes. Just go out.”

I saw the redness of her cheeks and wondered if she was embarrassed that we’d almost kissed or that we almost got caught.

Instead of walking out the door, Zane plopped down in a chair by the door and shook his head. “Mom said I’m supposed to stay here until you finish. Something about needing a chaperone or something,” he said, mumbling the last part. “Hurry up, though. I was right in the middle of my game when she made me come out here.”

Nothing like having the mom be suspicious about us out here by ourselves. Then again, I could understand that. Karsten and Bree were my siblings, but if they were in a similar situation, I’d have sicced a watchdog on them too.

Kate flashed me a guilty smile, ducking her head as she rolled her lips in and picked up the paintbrush from the ground. “Okay, well. How about we race to see who finishes first?” She raised her eyebrows, heightening the challenge.

I tried to hold back a grin when I said, “What does the winner get?”

Her eyes flashed, and we both looked over at her brother for a few seconds. His eyes were engrossed in something on his phone. “Let’s leave it up to the winner.”

Challenge accepted.

Chapter 20

Kate

Idid not win the competition. Dax spread paint around like a five-year-old, and I did everything I could to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth at the sight. I wasn’t usually a control freak, but that all changed when I was dealing with paints and brushes.

When I asked Dax what the reward was, he said, “You’ll see.”

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