Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109318 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109318 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Great.” Vance clapped his hands, made eye contact with everyone. “We now commence the first annual Prospect Park Rumble: Nerds versus Preppies. A few rules before we begin—”
Beat caught Vance in the neck with a line drive. “No rules,” Beat called, shooting Melody a wink. “No mercy.”
Melody threw up her fists. “To the death!”
Utter chaos ensued.
Everyone scrambled at once, some of them too drunk to remember where they’d put their premade snowballs. Participants were falling without even being hit, getting stuck in the deeper drifts of snow. Others treated it like a proper war, mainly Melody’s coworkers. They formed a V, spearheaded by Savelina, squatting to collect snow in their palms and hurling the balls like major-league pitchers.
“No fair,” Vance screeched, after taking a snowball to the throat and staggering backward. “They have home field advantage.”
Behind Vance, someone pinwheeled and ass-planted after getting hit in the knee.
Beat shook his head. “You guys are embarrassing me.”
“Fan out!” Melody’s boss shouted. “Their defenses are weakening. It’s time to press our advantage.”
Melody jogged out from behind Savelina with—no joke—an armful of snowballs. One by one, she launched them at Beat, striking him repeatedly in the chest. Meanwhile, he had one single snowball in his hand. Up until now, Melody had been in the rear of the V formation, so Beat’s targets had mainly been her coworkers. Now that she was out in the open—and apparently trying to kill him—he couldn’t bring himself to throw an object at her. Even if that object was soft and slushy.
“Stop taking it easy on me!” she yelled, laughing and pelting him harder than before.
“I’m not!” he fibbed smoothly. “I can’t get a clear shot.”
Melody gasped. “You liar.”
Having no choice, Beat lobbed the snowball at Melody. Underhand. She watched it arc upward and soar gently downward where it landed softly on her shoulder.
She leveled him with a look of disgust. “Really?”
He cleared his throat hard. “That was a valid shot.”
Melody pointed to the girl standing twenty yards away. “Judge?”
The girl presented a definitive and dramatic thumbs-down.
“I will not stand for this insult,” Melody said, staggering back when Vance hit her in the stomach with a brutal throw.
“Hey!” Beat growled at his friend. “Watch it.”
Vance gulped.
Beat strongly considered turning on his friend, but Melody demanded his attention when she shouted, “I’m coming for you, Dawkins.” Once again, she produced an artillery of snowballs seemingly out of thin air, cradling them in her arm as she ran toward him, firing as she came closer. They’d already established that Beat couldn’t bring himself to throw anything at Melody, giving him no choice but to jog backward, deflecting the balls being launched at him. One by one, white burst in the air as the snowballs connected with his palms. When there was finally a cease-fire and Beat realized she’d run out of ammunition, he watched in disbelief as she barreled toward him, launched herself through the air, and tackled him backward into a snowdrift.
Melody, who just about reached his shoulder, had brought him down. And pure joy almost fractured his chest muscles. Tendons stretched to allow the feeling to expand and it didn’t merely spread, it ran wild, rocketing a laugh upward from the deepest recesses of his stomach, busting down a sky-high barrier—a barrier against feeling this much happiness all at once—he’d put in place without even realizing it. There was no keeping her out, though. She kicked it down and hurled herself over the debris and he could barely breathe over the rush of . . . everything. All at once.
Relief. Shock. Gratitude.
Love.
The avalanche of emotion was so overwhelming that it took Beat a moment to realize Melody had lifted her head to watch him in awe. “Ohhh . . .” she breathed.
“What?”
“You’re letting me see it, Beat,” she whispered.
He started to breathe hard, more tendons snapping in his chest.
“You’re so beautiful like this. Not hiding anything from me. From yourself.”
Despite being lodged in a snowbank, he was hot. Everywhere. His skin prickled and heated more and more. What the hell was happening inside of him? He didn’t know. But he couldn’t look away from her unblinking eyes. She was the anchor holding him in place. Hiding wasn’t an option. Not from Melody.
“Mel, I want to tell you everything tonight,” he said gruffly. “Why I need the network’s money. Why I needed to do this god-awful live stream. All of it. Okay?” He wet his lips, desperate to get the rest out. “Maybe I needed two days away from you to realize . . . you’re this gift I’ve been given and I’m squandering you by keeping things to myself. You’re the one person who will get it. Get me. Every time.”
“Beat,” she murmured, a sheen forming in her eyes, her mouth lowering to his—
“Hey, guys. I hate to interrupt.” Beat jolted, wrapping his arms around Melody on instinct, tucking her face into his neck. Jesus Christ. There was the camera, pointing straight at them from ten yards away. Vance stepped into the shot, possibly on purpose, with Savelina at his side. “There are people coming. Like, a lot of people.”