Page 64 of When Fate Breaks
“Don’t worry about it,” Blake says.
“But, it’s covered in mud–”
“Evangeline. I don’t care about the shirt. It’s yours.” I feel my eyes go wide. “Come on,” he says, pulling me by the hand he’s still holding. “Let’s go in the back and rinse you off.”
I let Blake guide me into the backyard, us staying quiet and tip-toeing through the rain when we have to graze past the outer wall of the house. He stops when we get just behind the back deck and under the cover of the overhanging roof. “Wait here,” Blake says, ducking back into the rain to unroll the hose from a few feet away.
“This is ridiculous,” I grumble as Blake starts spraying me off.
“Your coordination skills? Yeah, I know.”
“No,” I scoff. “This,” I say, waving my arms over myself as he continues to aim the hose at me. “I feel like a dog.”
Blake halts his spraying, standing up straight and tilting his head. “Huh.”
“What?” I ask.
“You kind of look like one too.”
My mouth falls open. Without thought, I scrape a handful of mud from my side, flinging it right at Blake’s chest. It hits him square on target, some ricocheting onto his face. Blake gapes, looking between the mud and me before an evil gleam I’ve never seen before enters his eyes. “You didnotjust do that,” he growls.
“Hmm...I think I did,” I respond, putting my hands on my hips.
Blake brows raise, his arm coming up to wipe the mud from his cheek with the back of his hand.
“Oh, you asked for it, Jacks,” he mutters before ducking to the ground in a flash, scooping up two handfuls of mud and grass and flinging them right at me. I gasp as the mud splatters me from my knees to my neck.
I look down at Blake’s blue t-shirt, the Jays logo completely unreadable with the amount of muck covering it. I shrug off my denim jacket, letting it fall to the ground. “Well, you better bring it then, Di Fazio.”
Blake and I both dart fully out into the rain at the same moment, grabbing any ounce of mud we can from the ground and launching it at each other. Strangled squeals and laughter fill the air as we each attempt to dodge each other’s blows, both of us failing nearly every time. Blake’s cap has fallen off at some point, mud plastering his curls to his forehead and making his light eyes stand out even more in the moonlight.
We both slip and slide around the yard, neither of us willing to back down. At one point I try to throw Blake off by faking a run to the left but instead bolting directly for him. He catches me in my path, his arm shooting out to hook around my waist, pulling me backwards to him.
“No!” I giggle. “Stop!” I throw mud at him over my shoulder, his own laughter shaking his chest against my back. We both lose our footing at the same time, nearly falling down into the grass before Blake corrects us, lifting me off the ground by my waist to do so.
“Truce?” Blake asks, his warm breath tickling my ear.
I’m still laughing, the pouring rain streaming down my face and through the long strands of my hair. “Ugh,fine!” I give in.
Blake sets me down gently and I spin around to look at him, almost slipping once again on the swampy mud pit we’ve created. Blake's arm shoots out, grabbing me by the elbow and steadying me.
“Oof, thanks,” I sputter. I’m still chuckling when I’ve fully regained my footing. I feel Blake’s arm still on mine and glance up at him to see him staring intently at me though the sheet of rain separating us.
I open my mouth to say something, but something in his eyes stops me. I can’t even begin to decipher the emotion plastered across his face. His eyebrows are pinched deeply, his lips parted slightly, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His eyes have darkened to an olive sort of green, his pupils dilated and searching my face.
I feel my own breathing begin to labor, the air in my lungs suddenly thicker than it was moments ago. Something twists in my chest as Blake slowly raises his hand to my cheek. His eyes trail slowly from mine to his hand as he wipes away a streak of mud from my cheekbone, the pad of his thumb grazing roughly against my skin, making me shudder.
I feel the mud fall from my face, but Blake doesn’t drop his hand, his gaze slowly returning to mine. My lips part as I suddenly become aware of his thumb tracing back and forth across my cheek. Raindrops cling to my eyelashes and I blink them away, not willing to miss a split second of this dream I’m convinced I’m about to wake up from back in the Di Fazios’s guest bedroom.
Blake blows a breath out of his nose, rolling his lips into his mouth as he takes a step closer. My breath hitches as his hand fully wraps around my cheek, tilting my face up towards his.
I can hear my pulse pounding in my ears, drowning out the noise of the surrounding rain, goosebumps spreading across my entire body. Blake’s eyes burn into face, glancing downwards momentarily before returning to my eyes. He moves in closer, the tip of his nose grazing mine.
“What are you doing?” I manage to whisper.
“I don’t know,” Blake says, bringing his other hand to my face, eyes darting back and forth between mine. “Do you want me to stop?”
A knot forms in my throat and I swallow, trying to force it down. My heart slams against my rib cage. I feel my hand trembling as I raise it to Blake's wrist, wrapping my fingers around it. “I don’t know,” I breathe.
