“Yes.” She clipped a branch, missing a small piece that held it to the tree. Her mouth set and she gave the branch a tug until it snapped free, then she placed it with the others. “I thought it seemed like a good spot.”
Owen glanced down at her shoulder. A small part of him was hesitant to follow through, but she was the one who put a foot in his napkin this morning. Surely pine needles wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He reached up, snapping a few boughs and allowing the pleasant conversation of everyone present to fill his ears. And when Leah seemed to finally relax after whatever anxiety their earlier conversation had caused, he reached above her head, pretending to work on the branch over her.
He rustled the branch, shaking it and sending some snow sprinkling down on her.
She brushed her hood back off her head, allowing the snow to fall to the ground. “Owen, do you mind?”
“I’m sorry. I cannot get this pesky thing.”
She rolled her shoulders. “Then move on to another.”
“Ah, wait. I seem to have gotten it.” He gave the branch another rustle, dropping his palmed needles. “Leah, spider!” he yelled, jumping back.
Her eyes flew wide and she reached back to her neck where the needles fell between the collar of her jacket. “Well, don’t just stand there. Get it out!” She brushed her hands over her neck in a frenzy. But it didn’t take long for the needles to fall to the snow.
“Oh, good. You seem to have gotten it.” Owen nodded, leaning against the trunk of the tree as Leah stared at the green needles.
“They were simply pine needles.” She turned unamused eyes up to him. “There was no spider, was there?”
He smiled, using his hand to hide his mouth. “I must have gotten them confused. It really seemed like a spider at the time. But I must admit that now that I have a better look—” He made a show of glancing down where the needles fell. “They look very much like pine needles.”
Leah crouched down to the snow, running her hand over the area. And quick as a flash, she balled up a fistful of snow and threw it directly at his face. “Well,” she said, with a smile in her voice. “That was very satisfying.”
Owen used his fingers to scrape the snow from his eyes, flicking it to the ground. “Oh, you have asked for it now, Leah.”
She held a hand up. “Oh no. That was only in retaliation for what you did.”
“What I did?” He laughed and reached down for some snow. Leah slowly backed away with a hand out in front of her to ward him off. “You are the one who put a foot on my lap this morning and made me play a donkey last evening.” He began tossing and catching the ball of snow in his hand as he watched her.
“But only because you ran into me with your toboggan!” She insisted.
He shook his head. “I told you that was a mistake. And it was. But now we have a predicament.”
She stared at his hand with reticence. “What is our predicament?”
“I fear I must throw this snowball at you.”
She spun around, running as fast as a lady could in deep snow while wearing a dress. He threw his icy weapon at her retreating form, but it went just a tad too far to the right, missing her by a few inches.
Leah turned to him. “Ha! You missed me.”
Owen shot off from the tree, running after her and sending her running again. She kept glancing over her shoulder as she laughed, trying to keep ahead of him. “Owen, no. Please don’t,” she said, stopping and reaching down for another handful of snow.
“What are you two doing,” Rose yelled out after them.
“Owen is attempting to kill me with snow,” Leah called back.
Owen shook his head. He turned back toward Rose who was now following along with Miranda and Graham just behind. “Your sister is a liar. She started it.”
And then he took another face full of snow.
“Leah Thompson,” he said, turning to her. “You have no room for excuses at this point.”
She covered her mouth with her hands, laughing so hard that her whole body shook. “You should see your face. It is entirely white.”
He blew a breath up, trying to clear some snow off his lashes before swiping the rest away with his sleeve. “Yes, if you can believe it, I can actually feel the snow on my face.”
“I am sorry.” But she didn’t seem so as she was still laughing to herself. “I just could not help myself.”
