thought, why not a hay fight?”
Oh my. If she could see what her heart looked like right now, she imagined it would be aglow, throbbing in her chest. “You went through all this trouble because I said I wanted a snowball fight?” She gazed at the brown straw that was piled everywhere, overwhelmed.
Engineering a hay fight was one of the weirdest and nicest things anyone had ever done for her.
“It wasn’t trouble. I had to call my brother to ask if he had a lot of hay.”
A phone call wasn’t too bad.
“He’s running low. So I had to find out where to get the hay, go to the big house, get a truck, go pick up the hay, and then . . . do that like three more times to have enough hay. Not that big of a deal.”
“Right, that sounds like not a big deal at all.”
He didn’t seem to pick up on her dry humor, because he shrugged. “Nope.”
She leaned over and touched the hay in the bale closest to her. It was scratchy and dry, and would be hell on her delicate skin.
The idea of this was so sweet and also something she had no interest in doing. “Um, Jas—” She yelped when something wet hit her shoulder and exploded. Outraged and confused, she whipped her head around to glare at him.
His delighted grin took her breath away. He tossed a bright red water balloon in his hand, and that was when she noticed the pail at his feet. The pail filled with more water balloons. “Unfortunately, after I paid for all that hay and got it all here, I realized no one actually wants hay thrown at them. And there’s this thing called farmer’s lung?”
She wrung out the chunk of her hair that had gotten wet. “Sounds like something we don’t want to contract.”
“Right. So I figured it would have to be a water fight. Water is closer to snow, anyway.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her outrage turning to amusement. “This isn’t fair! I don’t have any ammunition.”
“I’d never water fight an unarmed woman.” He nodded at a hay bale. “Right behind there.”
She darted around the bale and crouched down, finding her full pail right where he’d indicated. She grabbed a balloon, poked her head over her hay barricade, then retreated when a water balloon sailed at her head. “What are you going to do with all this hay now that it’s useless?” As quietly as possible, she lifted two water balloons, one in each hand, and waited for him to speak.
“Hay is never useless. My brother and grandpa will be confused and delighted by my gift to the farm.”
Using his voice as her guide, she launched to her feet and fired two balloons rapid-fire. Her brain processed every action in slow motion—the windup, the release, the trajectory of the balloons as they launched through the air, landing and bursting against his face and chest.
A helpless giggle escaped her at his disgruntled expression. He wiped the water out of his eyes. “You’ll pay for that.”
“I’d like to see you try.” She squealed and ducked when he tossed a balloon at her. They darted around and behind the hay and the air filled with their laughter and curses. Most of her shots missed. A good number of his landed. “Unfair, you’re a trained soldier and guard. You have better hand-eye coordination,” she puffed from behind cover.
“All’s fair.”
In love.
She reached into her pail and made a sound of dismay when she discovered she only had two balloons left.
She said a quick prayer and launched to her feet, hands full, and ran away from the makeshift obstacle course.
A balloon hit the back of her leg, and she sped up.
“Why are you zigzagging?” he called out as he chased her, and the asshole didn’t sound out of breath at all.
“That’s how you get away from bears.” Another wet hit on her arm. How did he still have so many?
“I think that’s a myth about alligators, and I’m neither of those things.” The laughter in his voice was evident. Something smacked the ground at her feet, and she sped up. “Quit running. Stand your ground.”
“Retreat is the better part of valor,” she managed, though she was huffing and puffing. It was warm today, and she was actually sweating a little despite her damp clothes.
She ran right into the copse of trees, darting around the big trunks. She finally stopped when she couldn’t hear his footsteps behind her any longer.