He really had to do something about that.
Molly's eyes met his and he felt a warmth run through him as she grinned at him. With a deep breath, he stood up, both of his arms outstretched and blocking Molly from any snowballs coming from the Pipkin building.
“Liam!” Nicholas called out. “We know you’ll be out of snow soon! Here’s your chance to get Ms. Carmichael before our lunch break is over! Do you think you have a shot?”
“Hey, no fair! You’re standing in the way!” Liam whined with displeasure. “How am I supposed to get her?”
“All’s fair in love and snowball fights!” Nicholas yelled back, waving his arms. “Do your worst!”
“Yeah, do your worst!” Molly repeated from behind him. There was a soft whump sound and Molly shouted in surprise. “Nicholas! It’s a trap!”
“What—” Nicholas found his own sentence blurred as multiple snowballs all came for him at once. Wiping at the snow on his face, Nicholas could now see that there was another child standing on an adjacent rooftop, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Two more popped up beside that one and snowballs came from all directions.
Molly was being pelted by snowballs, but instead of anger, she roared with laughter while leaning into Nicholas’ side.
They tried to run, but there was no where to hide that was safe. After the fourth or fifth snowball to the chest, Nicholas began to laugh with Molly. The kids had beaten the adults. No contest.
“We surrender,” Molly yelled, waving an empty hand over the park bench. A chorus of cheers went up from their enemy.
Nicholas helped her stand, brushing snow from her jacket. She went up on her toes and brushed snow out of his hair with a grin. The way her body leaned into his made him heat up. He was surprised he didn't melt the snow still clinging to him instantly.
Molly waved to one of the kids on the roof. She took a step back for a better view and he watched as her boot caught onto a bit of unpacked snow, causing her to slip backwards towards him. Without thinking, he moved to catch her, but instead of the smooth rescue he meant to do, they toppled together into a snowbank. At least she landed on him, breaking her fall.
Their shared laughter continued, even as they both lay defeated in the snow. The way her weight pressed into him made him swallow hard.
“Oh my gosh. I can’t believe we fell for that.” Molly’s words were punctuated with giggles as she struggled to her feet.
“We? No way, I’m not taking the heat on this one,” Nicholas told her with a laugh. “I’m going to be shaking the snow out of my coat for days.”
He stumbled out of the snowbank. Molly turned to brush snow off the side of Nicholas’ coat, a big smile remained stuck on her face. “You’ll be alright, Mr. NYC. Since when does a little snow keep a true New Yorker down?”
Snowflakes frosted her eyelashes and her cheeks were flushed with cold and excitement. Her lips were red and open, begging for a kiss.
Molly then grabbed onto Nicholas’ wrist, tilting his watch towards her face. “Oh! We’ve got to get back to the store. We’re five minutes from opening back up.”
“Five minutes?” Thoughts of kissing her still ran through his mind, but sense was slowly coming back. “Ms. Molly, how fast can you run?”
“Faster than you,” Molly told him. She brushed some snow from her arms. “You want to turn this into a bet?”
“You just lost a snowball fight and now you want to bet against me in a race?” Nicholas asked, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know when to quit, do you, Ms. Molly?”
Molly shrugged, and turned towards the direction of the shop. “If you're scared, it's okay.”
“Oh, no. There's no fear here,” he assured her. “Prepare to eat snow.”
Nicholas then found himself needing to catch up with her surprisingly fast footsteps as she took off for the store.
As he raced behind Molly Carmichael for the second time that afternoon, Nicholas realized that there was a strange feeling building in his chest, one that he didn’t pay much attention to back in New York, but it that seemed to be showing up more and more the longer he stayed around Molly...
Nicholas thought that it felt like happiness.
But he was quick to dismiss the thought as a ridiculous one.
He barely knew her. They were supposed to work together.
She was beautiful, but that wasn't what attracted him. It was the way she made him feel. The joy she brought with her with every smile in his direction.
It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t possible. And it had no place in the real world.