Unbreak Me (Second Chances #1) (18 page)

Chapter 16

Katie stretched and yawned as she forced herself awake. She crawled out of bed and made her way over to the window. It looked beautiful outside. There was a fresh blanket of snow out and it was just begging to be played in. Her mouth curled up in a childish grin as she rushed over to the bed and flopped down next to Hannah.

“Wake up!” she exclaimed as her body crashed down on the soft mattress.

Hannah jumped up from shock and glanced around, “You just about scared me to death, Katie Lewis.” Hannah clutched her hand over her chest trying to calm her racing heart and looked at Katie, “What’s the big deal?”

Katie went over and pushed the curtains back, “This!” She pointed out at the yard and grinned.

“Last one out is a rotten potato,” Hannah giggled as she bounced over to the side of the bed.

As they raced to put their warm clothes on, they couldn’t help the giggles that escaped their lips. They made their way down the hall as quietly as possible, careful not to alert Melanie and Austin that they were up. When they passed Melanie’s room, Katie noticed that the door was open and the bed was made. She placed her arm out to stop Hannah and pointed to the open door. Hannah shrugged her shoulders with a quizzical look on her face and raised her chin to point to the family room. Katie nodded in silent understanding as they continued down the hall and peered around the corner. What they saw brought smiles to their faces. Melanie and Austin were sound asleep snuggled under a blanket on the couch. She had her head on his chest and an arm wrapped around his middle. Austin had his arm around her shoulders cradling her to him. His chin was resting on the top of her head.

“Awwww, that’s so romantic,” Katie whispered as she turned to look at Hannah.

“Shhhhhhh, we don’t want to wake them,” Hannah smacked her on the arm and stifled a chuckle.

Just then the sleeping couple shifted and sighed as their embrace became slightly more intimate. Melanie had rolled inward throwing her leg over Austin’s body in the process. He had tightened his grip on her, pulling her flush with his chest and was absentmindedly stroking her back in his sleep.

“Come on,” Katie grabbed for Hannah’s hand and pulled her in the direction of the back door.

Once outside with the door closed, they raced through the snow shouting and laughing.

“It won’t be long now,” Hannah spun in a circle throwing her head back to catch falling flakes in her mouth.

“For what?” Katie put her hand out to stop her.

“Til we’re sisters,” Hannah shrugged as if it was common knowledge.

The girls were walking through the small yard heading for the trees in the back, when out of nowhere a snowball came flying through the air nailing Katie right between the shoulders.

“Hey, watch it!” she turned on her heel and darted her eyes around the yard scanning for the offender.

While looking in the direction of where it had been thrown, Hannah was hit with one in the legs.

“Where are you?” she shouted. break

“Who did this? It’s not funny,” Katie placed her hands on her hips as a scowl made it’s way across her face.

“Oh, I think it is,” came a deep male voice from behind a tree a little ways over.

“Oh you do, do you. Well why don’t you show yourself then? Or are you scared?” she taunted.

Patrick came leaning out from behind a tree about fifteen feet away tossing another snowball up in the air and catching it. “I’m not scared. I think you might have me confused with someone.”

“Who’s that?” Hannah grumbled in Katie‘s direction.

“New neighbor,” Katie rolled her eyes. “Come on, he’s not getting away with this.”

She pulled Hannah around to the other side of the tree and crouched down to start packing snowballs as fast as she could. When Patrick saw this, he went back towards his yard where he’d made a pile of them and started heaving them in her direction. Katie and Hannah were being pelted the entire time they were working. They could hear Patrick’s cocky laugh as they worked with their backs to him to shield the snow.

“Oh, he is so going to get it,” Katie grumbled and shook her head in frustration.

By the time Katie and Hannah had a good pile of snow balls, Patrick had run out and was attempting to make more. Katie picked up as many as she could carry and made her way in his direction all the while grumbling to Hannah.

“When we get close enough, I want you to tackle him. I’ll do the rest,” Katie glared in Patrick’s direction.

“Got it,” Hannah nodded as she took in Patrick’s form.

When they were about ten feet away, Katie looked over at Hannah, “Now!” she shouted.

Hannah launched herself in the air and grabbed onto his shoulders pulling him to the ground sideways. He rolled on his side and curled into a ball as Katie began a heavy barrage of snowballs all over him.

“So you think it’s funny to sneak up on a girl, huh?” she shouted as anger blazed through her. “Well I don’t!”

“Ok, ok, ok I give up. You win!” he begged, placing his hands in front of his face to shield himself from their assault.

“That’s better,” Katie laughed triumphantly and crossed her arms over her chest.

Hannah pulled herself to a standing position and offered a hand to Patrick as a silent truce. She then moved to stand beside Katie and stare back at him.

As Patrick stood up and brushed the snow off his pants, he asked, “So is this your sister?”

“No, we’re just friends,” Katie put her arm around Hannah‘s shoulders. “Best friends.”

“I can see that,” Patrick laughed and shook his head as he continued to brush snow off his body.

“How long have you lived here?” he looked at Katie.

“We moved in about five months ago. Why?” she gave him a confused look at the sudden change in subject.

“Just curious,” he shrugged.

“I don’t know anything about you. What’s with all the questions?” she pointed and tapped her foot. Her anger was rising, and she had no idea why.

“Well, I moved here from Maine with my family, which you saw yesterday. I play hockey. What else do you want to know?” he cocked his head to the side and lifted his arms all the while grinning at her.

“How about a last name?” Katie rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe this guy, he was so full of himself.

“McKinley,” he shrugged.

Katie repeated the name and let it roll off her tongue, “How old are you?”

“I turned fifteen last week,” he looked like he was blushing. “Why, how old are you?”

“I’ll be fifteen in May,” she toed her boot in the snow and shifted her weight.

“Cool,” Hannah jumped in trying to lighten the mood. “That means you’ll be in the same grade as us. Are you going to go to St. Vincent’s too? It’s the best school around.”

“No, my mom home schools me. I haven’t been to a traditional school since I was in the third grade.”

“So is your mom a teacher?” Hannah asked.

“No, you don’t have to be to home school. She used to be a lawyer, but when Max was born she decided to stay home with us.”

“So wait, your mom used to work and teach you at the same time?” Katie raised her brow.

“Yep,” Patrick answered matter of factly. “You act like that’s unbelievable or something. Lots of women have both a career and are a parent.”

“ I know,” she huffed. “My mom is one of ‘those‘ women. Why’d you move to Boston?” she asked.

“Geez, what’s with the third degree?” Patrick’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m just curious,” Katie flipped her hand in the air and huffed.

“My dad got a better job here,” Patrick shrugged. “We’ve moved around a lot, but he says this is it, we’re not moving again. I hope he’s right. I’m tired of starting over.”

Just then Katie shivered. “Well, I’m going in,” she shrugged. “It’s freezing out here.”

She turned to walk back towards the house not giving Patrick a second glance, and soon Hannah followed.

“It was nice meeting you,” Hannah called over her shoulder as she giggled.

“Same here,” Patrick waved.

As they made their way back to the back steps, Hannah leaned into Katie’s shoulder, “He’s cute.”

“What? No, he’s obnoxious,” her eyes went wide and her face flamed.

“Ok, sure. Whatever you say,” Hannah laughed as she shouldered into Katie.

When the girls came in the house, Melanie and Austin were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Katie and Hannah gave each other a knowing glance.

“So you seem to be getting along with the new neighbors just fine,” Melanie smiled at Katie, noticing her snow covered clothing.

“Yeah. He’s ok,” Katie flipped her hand in the air.

“We should bake them something and take it over there,” Melanie suggested.

“You better let Austin help you,” Katie snickered.

“Katherine Anne, I am not that bad of a cook,” Melanie scolded playfully.

“Sure Mom, whatever,” Katie laughed as she took a seat at the kitchen table.

Hannah was busy taking her heavy clothes off and hanging them up to dry. “He seems nice.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re making friends,” Melanie shrugged.

“Did you sleep well last night, Mom?” Katie spun in her seat to see Melanie hide her face behind the newspaper that she was reading.

“Yes, very well,” she choked out.

“What about you, Dad?” Hannah giggled.

“Yep, fine,” he answered noncommittally.

“Umhuh,” Katie raised her brow and cocked her head to the side, “I’ll bet you did.”

“Katie, we’ll talk about this later,” Melanie glared at her and she knew she needed to drop it.

“Well, we best be going,” Austin began to rise from the table. “I need to get home and get some work done on my newest project, among other things.”

“Sure, thanks for all your help with the tree,” Melanie stood to walk him to the door. “I was wondering...well actually hoping,“ she knotted her hands together in front of herself. “Well, the hospital holds an annual Christmas Ball every year. Would you like to go with me? My invite allows a guest,” she blushed and glanced in every direction except his.

“Did you really think you needed to ask?” he whispered in her ear as he leaned forward and turned her face to look at him.

She felt shivers down her spine when his warm breath tickled her neck. “Well, I didn’t know if you had plans yet. It’s next Saturday night. Cocktail attire,” she grimaced slightly. She knew he didn’t like dressing up unless he had to.

“What time do I need to pick you up?” he moved closer to her.

“Ummm, seven? I think,” she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

Hannah cleared her throat just as Austin was pulling Melanie into a deeper kiss. “We’re standing right here, you know,” she let out an exasperated sigh.

Melanie snickered and placed her forehead on his shoulder. “I’ll call you this week and we’ll work out the details then.”

He pulled away from her to put on his coat and made his way out the door. Hannah soon followed after shouting a “see you tomorrow “ to Katie.

“So mom, why did you sleep with Austin on the couch? Wouldn‘t your bed have been more comfortable?” Katie didn’t waste any time getting to the point.

“Katie, I’m an adult and what I do is my business, but Austin and I aren’t doing anything wrong. I told you years ago when we had the talk about you becoming a woman, that you should wait until you’re married.”

“But you’ve been married before and so has Austin. Don‘t you want to be with him like that?” Katie shrugged.

“What I want and don’t want with Austin is my business, and we haven’t been married to each other,” Melanie moved to sit on the couch and patted the spot beside herself.

“Nothing’s going to happen until a wedding is involved. I can’t very much tell you not to do something if I’m not going to follow my own advice, right?”

“Sorry Mom, I know it’s none of my business,” Katie hung her head.

“No, you’re older now. I’m glad that you feel that you can talk to me about this stuff. I only hope you still feel this way in a few years. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and throw your beliefs out the window when something feels so powerful.” Melanie hugged her, “So anytime you want to talk, I will, but privately.”

Katie nodded, “Again, sorry Mom.”

“Apology accepted. Now lets go bake some Christmas cookies for the new neighbors,” she stood and extended her hand to Katie.

“Right, cookies,” Katie rolled her eyes. “This should be a lot of fun. Do I need to call the fire department so they don’t show up when the smoke alarm goes off again?” Katie laughed.

“Katie!!! I’m not that bad,” Melanie blushed and shook her head.

Two hours later and five dozen cookies were sitting on the kitchen counter. About half were edible, the rest were burnt.

“Well I think we did better this time,” Melanie smile triumphantly.

“Yeah Mom, smoke alarm only went off once this time,” Katie’s whole body shook with laughter. “I think we should give Patrick the burnt ones.”