AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I thought of the next thing you should do for your list," he said. I cocked my head, not seeing anything around that would make me particularly naughty. The sidewalk right outside the wall was crowded with people walking to lunch or back to work.
Danny crouched down and gathered up some snow that he began to pack into a ball. He stood up and handed it to me.
I scrunched up my nose. "What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked him, perplexed.
He gestured beyond the wall to the rows of business men and women walking nearby. "You are going to throw that snowball at them," he said matter-of-factly.
My stomach clenched. "No. That's not happening," I said, beginning to back away.
Danny stepped up behind me so I couldn't get away. "You told us you wanted to live a little," he reminded me gently in my ear. "You told us that you wanted to get on Santa's naughty list this year," he said. "Taking a few shots in the airport bar isn't gonna get you there."
My mouth gaped open like a fish. He was right, but I hadn't exactly been envisioning throwing snowballs at adults when I said that. I didn't actually know what I had been thinking of, but certainly not this.
"You gotta start somewhere," Max said, the challenging look on his face. "If you can't do this, I doubt you're gonna be able to do anything really naughty," he said with a smirk. "Come on princess. I dare you."
The taunting way that he said it riled something up in me, especially because of how naughty I had been earlier that morning. Not that they would ever find out about that. "Okay, I'll do it," I said, causing Danny to give a hoot of joy from behind me.
"Tell me I can do this without someone seeing?" I said worriedly as I took the snowball in my hand. "The sidewalk looks too slippery for me to be able to run away," I noted, looking at the chunks of snow everywhere.
"That's just a risk you're gonna have to take.” Max winked, seeming to love how much I was squirming.
Danny had his arms around my shoulder again. "They shouldn’t be able to see you behind this wall, little bell," he told me reassuringly. "I used to always hide behind things during snowball fights growing up and they never caught me," he said proudly.
"Except the difference was you were probably eight when you were doing that," I noted.
"Are you going to do it or not? You can't delay forever," Danny prodded.
I huffed. "Okay, fine. Here goes nothing."
There was a man walking past us, looking close to our age. I figured that he would have a better sense of humor than the grizzly older businessmen around him. Reaching back my arm I threw it forward… And missed.
"Oh, shit," Danny muttered laughingly, pulling me behind the wall when my snowball missed my target but hit a particularly mean looking titan of industry type fellow. It smacked him right in the chest, splattering snow all over his face.
Even Max had a smile on his face at the sight. "You did it," he said, almost disbelievingly.
"Keep your voice down," I muttered to him, sure that the man was going to come after me seeking retribution at any moment. Danny peeked his head around the wall. "He's already gone," Danny said confidently.
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Why did you look so surprised?" I asked Max, remembering the look on his face. "Didn't you ask me to do that, or did you have an expectation that I wouldn’t?"
"I didn’t think you would throw a snowball at a random stranger when taking a shot at an airport bar was an act of courage for you… I just didn't think you could do it.”
I stuck out my tongue at him, realizing that somehow in the last ten minutes I had reverted back to my childhood...throwing snowballs and such.
He threw his head back and laughed, surprising me and Danny evidently. It was a beautiful, throaty laugh, made all the better because I knew that it didn't happen often.
We walked through the streets and wandered into stores for the next couple of hours until the sun started going down and Danny whined.
“I'm hungry."
Max rolled his eyes. "You're always hungry.”
Danny patted his perfectly muscled stomach. "I want cookies… and milk," he said ridiculously.
I snorted. "Then I can sit with Santa?" I joked. Danny just smirked at me. He threw his arm around me once again and walked with me towards a restaurant I had never heard of.Grand Lux Cafe.
"This place is like Cheesecake Factory on crack," said Danny delightedly.
"I wanted to take you to Gibson’s Steakhouse," said Max, frowning at the place Danny had picked.
