Page 3 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

He laughed.

And I laughed.

I wasn’t sure how long we stood like that. But all I wanted to do was tell him how much I loved him. And how much it hurt when he pretended I was invisible. My babysitter, Julie, had told me that when boys were mean to you it meant that they liked you. But I told her that it wasn’t true, that Miles was mean because he hated me. I hated that he hated me because I loved him with every piece of my heart.

This was the first moment where I thought Julie might actually be right. Miles wasn’t looking at me like he hated me. He was smiling out of the corner of his mouth. He was acknowledging my existence. It felt like my insides flipped over.

I had one chance to make him keep smiling. “Do you want to make snow angels with me?” I asked.

“No.”

Maybe I had two chances. “Do you want to go sledding?”

“No.”

I guess I had no chances. I put my hands on my hips. “I’ve never done anything to make you hate me. Why are you so mean to me?”

“Because you’re so annoying.”

I glared at him. My babysitter was wrong. And Miles Young was a jerk face. “Well I don’t want to play with you anyway.”

“Good.” He turned around and started to walk away.

I just wanted to be friends with him. Was that really so hard to ask? There were no other kids around. It was just the two of us. We were supposed to be best of friends.

And in that moment I hated him so much. I leaned down and packed a snowball together, lifted it up in my mittens, and threw it at the back of his stupid head.

It was glorious. The snowball made perfect contact and exploded into powdery dust. He immediately froze.

I clapped my mittens over my mouth so he wouldn't hear my laughter.

“Oh, it is so on,” he said and leaned down to pack a snowball.

I squealed and started running. I didn’t even want to retaliate. He was hitting me with snowballs. Which meant he could see me. I wasn’t invisible anymore.

In a few minutes I was covered in snow. I was pretty sure if I looked in the mirror I’d think I was looking at a snowman instead of myself.

“I surrender,” I said. I fell backward into the snow and started making snow angels.

He laughed and plopped down in the snow beside me. I smiled up at the falling snow when I heard him flapping his arms and legs. He had wanted to make snow angels. And I had convinced him to make them with me.

One of my favorite things was catching snowflakes on my tongue. I was about to tell him to try, but when I turned to face him, I stopped. He was still making snow angels. And his tongue was sticking out.

I had never seen it directed at anyone but me. There he was though, catching snowflakes on his tongue. And I realized that catching snowflakes was no longer my favorite thing. His smile definitely surpassed it.

I was about to tell him how much I liked playing with him when his mother called his name.

“The hot chocolate is ready!” Mrs. Young said. “Summer, do you want some too?”

I stared at Miles. All I wanted in the whole world was for him to invite me in. I had been in his house before, but always by his mother’s invitation. He had always made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want me around.

“I guess you can come if you have to,” Miles said as he sat up.

I definitely had to. Yes, it was the rudest invitation in the history of invitations. But how could I refuse him? I loved Miles Young. The only thing I hated about him was that he didn’t love me back.

Chapter 2

18 Years Old

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