“Yes, you. Why is that so surprising?”
“Because I don’t play football?”
“Don’t tell me you never played catch before.”
“I don’t think…”
“Didn’t take you for a coward, Kitty,” I sing-song, interrupting her before she gets a chance to finish her sentence.
Her eyes narrow at me like I expected they would. Katherine can’t resist a challenge. “I’m not a coward.”
“Then show me.” I wiggle my brows, which only makes her scowl deepen.
Kate looks at me for a while. “Fine,” she says finally, stomping toward me determinedly. “Let’s see what you’ve got, big guy.”
“Big guy, huh?” I ask, pulling away from her.
“How are we going to do this?”
“It’s just a game of catch, Kitty, not the Super Bowl,” I laugh. “I throw, you catch.”
Happy with the distance, I extend my hand and let the ball fly. The pigskin lands softly in her outstretched hands.
“See? Easy. Now you tr—”
The words die on my lips as the air is kicked out of my lungs. I wrap my hands around the ball at the last second as it bounces off my chest.
“Like that?” Kate asks, innocently batting her eyelashes.
My fingers grip the ball as I face her, a grin spreading over my face. “Oh, it’s on, Kitty.”
I pull back, creating more distance between us, and this time when I throw the ball, I don’t hold anything back. Okay, I hold back, just not as much as I did that first time around. For a while, we play catch, trash-talking one another.
For all her complaining, Kate is actually pretty good at this. Although she fumbles a little bit when it comes to catching, she has a pretty good arm on her and quick legs.
“Okay,” she says, lifting her hands in the air. “I’m done.”
“No,” I protest, not ready to go back just yet. I didn’t get nearly enough time with Kate in the last few days, and even the little we did get was with our friends, which is definitely not the same. How can a guy show a girl what she’s missing when there are busybodies mingling around? He can’t. “There’s still time.”
“I know, but I’m done.” When I move closer, I can see that her chest is rising and falling rapidly and that her cheeks are bright red from the exercise. “I don’t think I’ve exercised that much, like ever.”
“Don’t be a party pooper, Kitty.”
“The only party pooper here is you.” She points at me and starts walking backward. “Standing between me and doing nothing.” Then she goes and pokes her tongue out at me before turning on the balls of her feet and running away.
“Oh, now you’ve gone and done it, Kitty,” I yell after her, but of course, she ignores me. I throw the ball in the direction of our things and go into a full-on sprint, catching up to her in no time.
“What…”
But before she can even finish, I’m already tackling her to the ground. My hands wrap around her waist, pulling her closer to me as we both fall to the ground. I take the brunt of the fall, but as soon as we’re down, I roll us so she’s under me.
“You were saying?” I pant, looking down at her.
“Y-you’re crazy!”
Crazy about you. The words are there before I can blink, but I hold them back. The last thing I want to do is scare Kate away. But it’s hard. So fucking hard when she’s lying down under me, looking at me with those big blue eyes of hers.
Slow the fuck down, dude. You need to think about the long game.
I softly push the hair out of her face, my heart doing a funny flip in my chest. “That’s because you said I’m a party pooper,” I say gently, my fingers skimming over her cheek.
God, she’s beautiful. So fucking beautiful even when she scowls at me.
“Do you usually have a tendency to tackle everybody who doesn’t agree with you?”
“Nah.” I shake my head. “You’re special.”
The corner of her mouth lifts in a half-smile.
We stare at each other for a while. Her lips are parted slightly, and she’s so close that all I have to do is lean down to kiss her. Not even a couple of inches separates us. It’d be so damn easy to lean down and close my mouth over hers. Her tongue peeks out, sliding over her lower lip.
Reluctantly, I lift my gaze from her mouth back to her wide eyes.
“Emmett,” she breathes softly. Her eyes fall down to my lips and then come back up. She must have realized what’s on my mind.
Kiss me, Kitty. Just one tiny little kiss.
It’s a lie, and we both know it. There is no way I could ever stop at just one kiss. Not when it comes to her. And she’s not ready for that.
Sighing, I pull back and offer her my hand.
“C’mon, let’s get back.”
This time, Kate doesn’t protest me holding her hand or carrying her bag. I’m not sure if she’s growing soft on me or if she’s thinking about what just happened, but either way, I’m going to relish this moment.
Slowly, we get back to the school just as the bell rings.
I pull her hand, holding her back for a moment.
“About this weekend?” I ask, remembering the question I wanted to ask before Mrs. Burke interrupted us earlier.
“Yeah?”
“There is a fair coming to the next town over, and I thought we could go.”
“As a d-date?” she asks, her voice stuttering on the last word.
“Do you want it to be?”
Her cheeks flush. “Oh, God, that’s not—”
She starts fumbling, looking anywhere but at me. I move in closer, my finger slipping under her chin, and I lift it so she looks at me. “Because you just say the word, and I’m gonna date the hell out of you, Kitty.”
Kate lifts her hands and covers her face, making the words come out stifled. “Can we forget this?”
“No way,” I laugh, pulling her hands down. “But seriously, everybody’s going. You should come.”
She bites into her lip, thinking. “Who’s everybody?”
“Becky, Miguel, some guys from the team.” I shrug. “People.”
“So it’s like a group thing?” The idea of it perks her up a little.
“Yeah, you could say that.” It should probably bother me that she wouldn’t want to go if it’s just the two of us, but I’ll take her anyway I can get her.
“Over the weekend?”
“Yes, we have an away game on Friday, but Saturday afternoon is all free.”
Kate nods.
“Is that a yes?” I ask, feeling hopeful.
“I guess so.”
“You guess so?” I lift my brows.
“Fine, yes, I’d like to go with you guys.”
“Great.” I grin, letting my hand fall by my side. “I’ll pick you up on Saturday, at five.”
Pulling back, I continue walking towards the school, my mind already going through all the possibilities of getting Kate all on my own on Saturday, even if only for a little bit. Ride there included.
“You said it’s not a date,” Kate calls after me.
I look over my shoulder and find her still standing where I left her. “It’s not.”