Four Seasons of Romance Read Free Page B

extended a good few inches beyond it, giving
him the extra length he needed to reach his love.
    By the time Catherine arrived a few minutes later and
flashed him her usual cool stare, he had completed his project. The other
students trickled in, and both Catherine and Leo waited in silence for the
school day to begin.
    The teacher embarked on a lesson in geography, and when she
got to the part about the Seven Wonders of the World, Leo took it as his cue.
He pulled the bouquet from his desk and slid it slowly forward until the wood
edge of the ruler was resting on Catherine’s shoulder and the flowers were
nestled against her ear.
    “Oh!” she exclaimed. The unexpected feeling of petals on her
cheek took her by surprise, and she jumped, knocking the flowers and the
ruler to the ground with a clatter. The teacher looked up abruptly from the old
globe and focused on Catherine, who looked flustered. Her eyes followed the
students’ gaze to the clump of yellow flowers on the floor.
    “Picking posies are we, Miss Woods?” the teacher asked. “And when you ought to be focused on your studies. Not what
I would expect from one of our best students. What would your father say?”
    A flush rose instantly to Catherine’s cheeks. She nodded
meekly.
    “Teacher,” Leo said, raising his hand. He was determined to
take responsibility for his action, even if it meant an afternoon in the dunce
cap.
    “Not a word, Mr. Taylor,” the teacher said, and something in
her tone made Leo fall silent.
    The damage was done. Leo’s playful gesture had made
Catherine look a fool.
    That day at recess, there were whispers on the playground
that something was about to happen. Catherine played with her usual flock of
girls, and the other children milled about, each hoping for something exciting,
and they were not disappointed. Leo approached Catherine, his head hung in
shame.
    “Hey,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
    Catherine, who had been laughing and smiling a moment
before, became cold, then turned to face him as a hush fell over the
playground.
    “You,” she said, her voice dripping with poison. “You have
been nothing but a nuisance since you moved here. You’ve done nothing but make
me miserable.” Her voice was building in volume and intensity as the other
fourth graders watched, mesmerized. “I want nothing to do with you. Leave me
alone, Leo Taylor. I wish you were dead!”
    Those words plowed deep into Leo’s heart like a revolver
bullet.
     
    *
     
    To Leo’s disappointment, Catherine and he were in separate
classrooms during fifth and sixth grades, at opposite ends of the hall in the
little red schoolhouse. Sometimes, Leo wondered whether Catherine had asked her
father to pull a few strings with the school board and arrange it that way
intentionally. At the same time, they were still in the same school and hardly
strangers to each other.
    During those years, Leo cultivated a taste for adventure,
earning a reputation as a daredevil, taking about any
dare other students threw his way. He started it to get Catherine’s attention,
but before long, he was doing it purely for the
thrill, the adrenaline pumping through his body, the taste of his mouth gone
dry with danger.
    Leo’s newfound hobby didn’t come without a cost. In fifth
grade, he jumped off the school roof, breaking an ankle, which didn’t keep him
down for long. The bone had barely mended when he pedaled a bicycle over a
makeshift ramp, jumping over two barrels. When he came home with scrapes and
cuts, his mother was rarely there, and even when she was, Deborah usually had
other things to do.
    Leo hadn’t seen his parents happy together in ages; they
hardly talked anymore. Rumors spread that Deborah Taylor had been seen with
various other men around town, but Leo refused to believe them, and when the
other kids tried to spread this malicious gossip, he shut them up with a fist
to the face.
    Meanwhile, Catherine devoted herself to her studies.