He groaned and placed one last stroke against me before lifting his face from my skin. He pulled my sweatpants back up and wiped the wetness off his chin. “Did you learn your lesson?”
I moved to my knees and grabbed the waistband of his pants. “Yes. But it’s only fair that now I get to cover you in ice and lick you like a popsicle.”
“Yeah…” he caught my hand before I reached into his sweatpants. “Guys don’t work like that. It’s cold. So he’s not having it.”
“Really? Even after what we just did?”
He raised his eyebrow at me. “I would never lie about such things.”
I pulled the waistband of his sweatpants anyway and peered inside. “Hey there, Little Dicky.”
“You’re so dead.” He started to make a snowball.
I scrambled to my feet. “I call a truce!”
He didn’t stop making his snowball, so I started to run, my feet skidding along the ice.
“Brooklyn wait!”
I ran faster, my feet finally adjusting to the sleek ice.
“Stop!” he yelled. He sounded really upset.
Probably because he couldn’t reach me with his snowball. I took another step and I heard the ice crack. I froze, but my feet skidded farther. The sickening sound of the ice cracking echoed around me.
“Don’t move,” Miller said.
Some cold water started coming through the cracks, soaking my sneakers. I wasn’t fucking going anywhere.
“I’ve got you,” Miller said calmly as he took a step on the cracking ice. The sound grew worse. “Shit.” His feet froze. “I need you to get down on your hands and knees, Brooklyn.”
“What?”
“I’ve got you, okay? But I need you to get down on all fours. I need you to trust me.”
I didn’t even hesitate to follow his instructions this time. Of course I trusted him. I got down on my knees, not caring about the cold water biting my skin.
“Crawl toward me, okay. Really slowly.”
“I can’t.” My heart was pounding against my ribcage.I can’t.
“Look at me, kid.”
I slowly looked up from the ice and into his eyes.
“Just crawl toward me really slowly. I’m right here. Just look at me. You’re going to be okay.”
I moved slowly, the ice making terrible cracking noises the whole time. I was almost at him when there was a loud crack. My feet went into the freezing cold water first. And then my whole body slid backward. “Miller!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I wasn’t even sure how he reached me, but he grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the freezing cold water right before I slipped under the ice.
My heart was pounding as I clung to him. “You saved me.” My whole body was wet and shivering. But his arms were so comforting. It was like my heart instantly stopped pounding so fast when he held me like this.
He didn’t respond. He just held me tightly.
“You saved me,” I said again.
He still didn’t respond.
