Page 33 of Take My Heart
‘I did it!’ I say. ‘I got you!’
‘Yeah, it’s usually better if you wait until the person is farther away. You want to take them by surprise and try to throw it hard so they feel it when it hits them.’
‘Oh,’ I say, embarrassed. ‘Sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing.’
‘You don’t have to be sorry. Hey.’ He sets his hand on my shoulder. ‘I wasn’t making fun of you. I shouldn’t have said it that way. I was just telling you how it’s usually done, but there aren’t any rules. You can throw it however you want.’ He smiles. ‘We good?’
I nod. ‘Let’s do this.’
Brody just met me and already sensed how I was feeling. He knew his comment upset me and said something. I don’t think that’s ever happened with anyone I’ve ever met.
‘I’ll give you a head start,’ Brody yells from across the yard. ‘Go ahead and make a few.’
Keeping my eyes on him, I quickly make some snowballs. The snow is wet, not powdery, making it stick together well.
A tree branch snaps off behind Brody from the weight of the snow. As he turns back to look at it, I toss the snowball, hitting him in the leg.
‘What the hell?’ he says, turning back and smiling. He takes the snowball he was holding and hurls it at me. I duckdown before it hits me. I see another one coming and take off to outrun it but my boots get stuck in the snow. I end up falling straight down on my face.
‘Kate? Are you okay?’ I hear Brody yell.
I hear the snow crunch as he runs toward me.
‘Kate?’
With a snowball still in my hand, I turn on my side and hurl it at him. It smacks into the front of his jacket.
He looks down at it, then back at me. ‘You were faking it?’
‘Maybe,’ I innocently say.
He laughs. ‘Good job. Even my brothers couldn’t fool me like that.’
‘I guess I’m a natural at this,’ I say, pushing up from the snow.
‘Here.’ Brody offers me his hand and helps me up. ‘You having fun?’
‘Yeah. I really am,’ I say, brushing the snow off me. ‘When I left the church today I thought I’d be spending the rest of the day crying and depressed and wondering if I made the right decision.’
‘And now?’
I smile. ‘And now I’m hanging out with some strange guy, wearing his clothes, throwing snow at him and—’ I pause and look down, suddenly feeling sad at what I was about to say.
Brody puts his hand on my arm. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I just realized I haven’t felt this way in a really long time.’
‘What way?’
I look up at him. ‘Happy. Like truly happy, not happy because someone said I should be.’ I shake my head. ‘Never mind. Get out of here before I hurl another snowball at you.’
‘You’re out of ammunition,’ he says with a smug grin. ‘Better hurry and make more because I’ve got a whole stockpile.’
He heads back to his spot at the edge of the yard while I hurry to make more snowballs. I can honestly say I can’t remember when I’ve had this much fun or felt this free. I’m covered in snow, wearing clothes that don’t fit, with no makeup on and messy hair that’s stuffed under a hat. I’m sure I look horrible, and yet I don’t care. For the first time in my life, I’m not trying to impress anyone. My mother’s not telling me to go inside and clean myself up. I don’t have Cam looking at me with disapproval and telling me I’m being childish. I can just play in the snow without anyone judging me or telling me it’s wrong.
‘Watch out!’ Brody yells as a snowball flies past me, part of it hitting my face. ‘Sorry! I didn’t mean to aim that high!’
‘Yeah, right,’ I yell back, running toward him with my snowball. It’s a slow run since it’s really hard to move in these boots.
