Darkroom: A Moo U Hockey Romance Kate Willoughby (read full novel .TXT) 📖

wasn’t too concerned. I only took the class to fill out my schedule and even though I was really enjoying the class, getting a good grade in photography wasn’t high on my priority list. I had a lot of details to nail down for The Big Night. Both AJ and Ruby were helping, although AJ’s part was just finding somewhere else to be for twenty-four hours.

Indi and I had been wandering for about fifteen minutes when I spotted a little girl going down the playground slide. Miraculously, she had a birthmark like Indi, but it spread across her eye all the way down to her lip with an almost straight line down the median of her face.

“Indi. Look.” I inclined my head toward the little girl.

A broad smile broke across Indi’s face and she went right over.

“Hi, I’m Indi. I like your birthmark.”

The little girl beamed. “Thank you.”

“What’s your name?” Indi asked.

By then the mother had approached and put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders in a protective gesture. “Excuse me, who are you?”

“My name is Indi Briscoe and this is Hudson. I was telling your daughter that I like her birthmark.”

“It’s not often that people realize it’s a birthmark,” the mom said, warming up slightly.

“Well, I have one too,” Indi said.

“You do?” the little girl exclaimed excitedly. “Where?”

“It’s on my face, but you can’t see it right now because I have makeup on.”

“I’m Denise Snow,” the mom said.

“And I’m Leah! I’m seven and a half.”

“You’re practically a teenager,” said Indi.

Leah giggled.

“Mrs. Snow, do you mind if I take her picture for my class project?” Indi asked.

She produced the form letter Professor Larkmont had given us that outlined the project parameters and gave both her phone number and the website address where the photographs would be displayed.

After reading the letter, Denise said, “It’s all right with me if it’s all right with Leah.”

“Is it okay, Leah?” Indi asked.

Leah nodded.

“I’ll be right over here watching, sweetheart.”

While Denise and I made small talk, Indi snapped shots of the little girl, who seemed like a natural. I could hear their laughter as Indi pushed her hard on the swing and then ran around to the front so she could take pictures. Denise was a bookkeeper who worked out of her home. Leah was her only child so far.

“But there’s a baby sister or brother on the way,” Denise said, her hand on her stomach. She didn’t look pregnant at all, but I was certainly no expert.

“When are you due?”

“March. We have a while yet, but Leah’s so excited to be a big sister.”

“I can imagine. I was an only child and I’d always wished for a brother or a sister,” I said. “Do they know if port-wine stains are hereditary? Will your new baby have a birthmark too?

“There’s a one in three hundred chance the new baby will have a port-wine stain, but if he or she does, it won’t matter much. We’ll have a matched pair. That’s all.”

Leah came running up. “Mommy, the monkey bars are empty now. See? Can I go play on them?”

“Of course, honey.”

“Can you come help me reach, Indi?” Leah asked.

“I was going to show your mom the pictures I took…”

“I’ll help you,” I said. “I love the monkey bars. Race you!”

I loved kids. Being with them made me feel like a kid again myself, especially the younger ones, like Leah. They always made me laugh.

I let Leah win the race and then helped her reach the first rung. She weighed practically nothing.

“I want to make it all the way across today,” she said, her face screwed up with the effort it took to hang on. She swung her legs back and forth and managed to grab the next rung.

“Atta girl!” I exclaimed. “Keep it up.”

After hanging there a while gathering her strength, she reached out but missed the third rung by an inch before dropping to the ground.

“I’m going to try again.”

We went through the same routine again, and again she missed that third rung. This time, she flopped onto the rubber mat below.

“My arms are tired,” she said dejectedly.

“You know what would help?” I asked.

“What?”

“Once you get going, don’t stop. Keep going. Like this.”

After grabbing the first rung, I bent my knees so I was off the ground and swung for the second and then the third. “See that? You’ve got to keep up your momentum. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.” I kept this up until I reached the other side.

I glanced over to see if Indi had seen me. She was still talking with Denise but she was frowning. I wondered what they were talking about.

Leah regarded me with wide eyes. “You’re strong.”

“Thanks. Now try again. Let’s see if you can make it to the third rung.”

I boosted her up again with one eye on Indi. As before, Leah successfully grabbed the second rung but this time, she didn’t hesitate before reaching out again.

“You did!” I exclaimed as she grabbed the third. “Keep going, girl!”

Despite a valiant effort to make it to the fourth, she missed and dropped to the ground. Her face was red from exertion, but she was beaming.

“Did you see me?”

“I sure did. You did a great job.”

She took off running back to her mom. “MOMMY, I MADE IT TO THE THIRD BAR!”

As she recounted what she’d done, Indi strode toward me at a quicker than normal pace.

“Let’s go,” she said, passing me by.

Waving, I called out a goodbye to the mom and daughter then turned to catch up with Indi.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Stopping abruptly, she made a hand gesture toward where Denise was still sitting and made a frustrated sound. “That woman!” she exclaimed then started off walking again. “She suggested that because I wear makeup, I’m ashamed of my birthmark. I’m not ashamed.”

I wasn’t sure this was one hundred percent true, if only because she’d been so afraid to show it to me. Then again, I’d been blessed with a fair amount of good looks and had zero