Page 44 of Always Be Mine
He looked to Lucy, who shrugged. “Colored water. Kind of a nice touch, don’t you think?”
“I think it’s perfect.” He offered her a warm smile, but she quickly looked away again. He couldn’t help but feel like he was doing everything wrong with this woman. He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable around him. Especially with the news he had for her. He opened his mouth, but unable to come up with anything else to say, he closed it and focused his attention on his daughter again. “What color did you say her head was going to be?”
“Daddy.” Meri rolled her eyes dramatically, but she giggled and handed him a spray bottle. “Pink, of course. You do it, Dad.”
“Wow. You’re trusting me with the pink?” He clutched his chest dramatically. “I’m honored. Do you think I can handle it?”
Meri considered his question seriously and after a moment nodded. “Probably.”
It was as good of an endorsement as he was going to get. He shrugged his jacket off and left it on the rail before getting to work.
The three of them worked together to finish the snow princess, and it didn’t take long before she was completely colored with pink and purple. Meri ran inside for the finishing touches, and Craig boosted her up on his shoulders to drape the cape over their creation and place a crown atop her head.
“It’s beautiful.” Meri clapped her hands with delight when Craig set her down.
“I’m afraid she’s going to melt soon.” Craig frowned. “This isn’t going to last but she looks great for now and the snow was perfect for it.”
“That’s what Kane said.”
Craig’s head spun to look at Lucy, who was crouched down next to a pile of quickly melting snow. “Kane?” He heard the jealousy he wasn’t entitled to in his voice and swallowed hard before he spoke again. “Kane Nelson?”
Was that who she was dating?Craig didn’t know Kane well, but they had mutual friends. He seemed like a nice guy, and he had that whole snow god, Viking look going for him that made him popular with the ladies.
And Lucy, too, apparently.
He inhaled through his nose as Lucy stood and nodded. “He said that this last minute spring snow was just wet enough for the perfect snowman.” She pointed to their creation. “Or snow princess, in this case. It doesn’t really snow much in Vancouver, so truthfully, this is my first time.”
She tossed the snowball she created up in the air.
“Can you believe that, Dad? She’s never made a snowman before.”
“Or snow princess,” Lucy corrected her with a wink.
Craig eyed her and glanced at Meri. “So,” he said as he crouched to make a ball of his own. “Does that mean you’ve never had a snowball fight before?”
Lucy laughed. “Not since I was a—” The snow hit her in the leg. Stunned, she looked down and then back at Craig.
For a moment, he wondered whether he’d gone too far. Maybe he shouldn’t have thrown a snowball at her, but he needed to do something to get the image of Lucy and Kane Nelson together out of his head. “Sorry, I couldn’t help my?—”
“Now you’re going to get it.” A wicked grin crossed her face, and she cocked her arm back.
Meri shrieked with joy as her new nanny hurled her snowball at her daddy and hit him directly in the chest.
“Impressive.” He scooped up some more snow. “But now it’s on!”
The snowball fight began in earnest, with Meri hiding behind the snow princess, taking turns to cheer for each of them. Lucy put up an impressive fight for a woman who didn’t have a lot of experience with snow.
He was sure he had the upper hand as he crouched in the snow to build his final giant snowball that would end it all when Lucy surprised him by appearing over him with an armful of snow.
“Surrender now.” She held her armful of wet snow over his head. “Before I bury you.” Her voice was laced with laughter as she tried to maintain her composure.
Craig looked up into her eyes twinkling with mischief. She was right; she definitely had him cornered. But he wasn’t going to give up that easily.
With a quick breath, he leapt up from his crouch and cried out, “Never surrender,” as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Together, they tumbled backward into a large, wet pile of snow.
He’d used his arms to shelter and protect her as they fell so she wouldn’t get hurt. Her eyes were wide with surprise as he looked down at her pretty face, flushed from the exertion of their fight. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and her breath came fast.
He knew what those lips felt like. What she tasted like.
