Sleigh of Hope by Wendy Lindstrom Page A

to Adam’s spirit. He wanted to talk with her, but her younger brothers were hanging around scuffling with Leo.
    He nudged Leo and gestured with his chin to walk ahead of them.
    Leo continued his horseplay without catching any of Adam’s hints to leave them alone.
    Rebecca giggled and rolled her eyes, but Adam wanted to knock the knit cap off Leo’s thick skull.
    As the end of the live-long-boring school day neared, all he could think about was last summer when he and Rebecca would meet at the creek. They would skip stones and talk about their lives and their dreams for their future. He wondered if she ever thought about the first time they kissed.
    As their teacher droned on, Adam wrote a note on his slate. Thinking about our kiss at the creek last summer... He passed it to Rebecca.
    Surprised, she read it quickly and smiled. At her first opportunity, she jotted a note below and passed it back to him.
    “Is that something you wish to share with us, Mr. Grayson?” the teacher asked, catching Rebecca passing the slate back.
    Adam’s ears felt like twin flames shooting from the sides of his head. If MacEnroy read the note they would be in big trouble at school and at home.
    A loud crash from across the room startled everyone.
    Mr. MacEnroy’s head jerked toward the disturbance, his eyebrows slashing downward in a fierce scowl. “What are you about, Mr. Sullivan?”
    Adam scrubbed his forearm across his slate, clearing away the evidence that would cost him and Rebecca a paddling and much embarrassment.
    “Sorry, Mr. MacEnroy,” Leo said, picking his slate off the floor. “I accidentally knocked it off my desk.”
    He had done it on purpose, of course. MacEnroy knew it, but couldn’t prove it, so he let it go. But Adam knew it and silently thanked Leo for saving him a load of trouble.
    MacEnroy held out his hand. “Your slate, Mr. Grayson.”
    Adam presented it as requested.
    MacEnroy’s scowl deepened when he saw the clean slate. “Whatever shenanigans are going on had better cease this instant,” he said to the class at large.
    As MacEnroy strode back to the front of the room, Adam and Rebecca grinned at each other. He may have erased the words she’d written, but they were burned in his mind. I miss you...
    He missed her, too, and the fun times they had at the creek. He wanted more times like that where they could skip stones and talk and just be together.
    Leo leaned back in his chair, catching Adam’s attention. He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
    Adam snorted then coughed to cover his half-laugh before MacEnroy got mad enough to switch him.
    The last half hour was a battle for him to keep a grin off his face. When MacEnroy finally released them, Adam bolted into the winter afternoon as if he’d been chained to his desk for a week.
    On the way home, he thanked Leo.
    “I figured I owed you after messing with you this morning,” Leo said.
    “You knew I wanted you to get lost, didn’t you?”
    “Sure did.”
    “And you hung around like a bad cold.”
    “Yup.”
    Adam punched Leo’s shoulder. “You’re right. You did owe me a favor.”
    Leo laughed. “Here’s your chance,” he said, then ran after Rebecca’s brothers with his arms wide. “Who wants to get buried in a snowdrift?”
    The boys took off at a run, giggling and zigzagging down the street to avoid Leo.
    Adam lagged behind with his sweetheart. “He sure makes it hard to stay mad at him,” he said, watching Leo pelt the boys with snowballs and make himself an easy target.
    “Why were you mad at him?”
    He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
    “You sure?”
    Nothing mattered but her. “Do you really miss me?” he asked.
    She looked into his eyes, her own dark and sincere. “More than ever.”
    “I miss you, too,” he said, wanting to convey all the feelings inside him that he didn’t have words for. Someday he would know how to tell her what she meant to him. For now, they would both have to settle for friendship and small