TONY LEFT THE horse. As he made his way to me, he fished for his cell phone in his pocket and keyed in a number. “Hey… Samantha needs more action. Could you come out and run the horse? ... Okay.” Tucking the cell back into his pocket, he grinned. “Plan B is in motion.”
Plan B actually arrived three minutes later with a lunge line and a crop. Smiling, Mrs. Jackson asked me which horse she should train for my drawing. I pointed the black stallion out to her.
“Oh yes, Jostle is the pride of my breeding. Let’s see if he’s up for some activity today.” She cinched the lunge line to his halter and led him away from the fence where the stallion had been rubbing his neck with pleasure.
After giving him a few minutes to get adjusted to the lunging, Mrs. Jackson had him trotting and then galloping in a wide circle. It was beautiful. The stallion moved gracefully, the power beneath his smooth, shiny coat visible.
“I don’t think Carrie can make the horse run all day, so you’d better start drawing,” Tony said as he sank to the grass next to me and broke my fascination with Jostle’s fluid movements.
I pulled a lollipop from my pocket and, while sucking it, I started to finalize my picture with swift pencil strokes. Tony watched and sometimes gave me good advice. He had a fantastic eye for detail, light and shadow especially, and he made me correct every line that was misplaced, even by just a millimeter.
“You sound like you’ve drawn many horses in your life,” I mumbled around the candy in my mouth.
“Some,” he replied quietly. “When I was younger, I often came out here to draw. Carrie didn’t mind. Some of my pictures still decorate the inside of her house.”
“Did she also teach you how to put a halter on a horse?”
“Yeah. She wanted to give me riding lessons, too.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m really not a horse person.”
Concentrating on the left front leg and the accurate size of the hoof now, I squinted. “Riding lessons sound great. I would have loved to have my own horse.”
“Carrie gives lessons for kids. My uncle died a long time ago. Now she takes in a bunch of kids every summer to teach them how to handle horses, and also to draw, if they’re interested.”
“Wow.” I erased a misplaced stroke, wiped the rubber dust away with the back of my fingers, and blew on the picture to get it clean. “That’s really nice of her.”
Tony’s shrug caught the corner of my eye. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against the tree trunk, gazing into the sun. “The house is big enough. Lisa and I stayed over often as well. She’s afraid of riding, but she loved to groom the horses and braid their manes.”
I hadn’t expected him to mention Lisa in front of me, but since he had, I considered whether I could probe his relationship with her some more. “Susan said you’re still in love with Lisa. Is it true?”
Even without looking up, I felt how Tony tensed beside me. I lifted my head and found him staring blankly at my face.
“Too personal, Summers.”
Of course. I bit my lip and lowered my gaze back to my drawing, but his shocked expression haunted me. He thought I didn’t know? Or did it bother him that I did? And what a stupid question it was, anyway. Like I hadn’t known he was going to block it.
Like I had hoped he would say no…
Dream on, Sam. He’s not interested in you.
Tony was nice to me now, and I should have been happy about it. There would never be anything more between us. Because even if his jibes had turned into a playful taunting, I wasn’t his type. That simple.
Suppressing a sigh, I chewed on the smooth plastic lollipop stick. It was okay, I told myself. He didn’t have to find me attractive or sweet or whatever. Because I wouldn’t fall in love with him either. Mentally, I shrugged it off. It wasn’t too late for me to get out of this. I’d just refuse to develop any stronger feelings for him.
Fortunately for me, my plan worked. I turned all my attention back to the project I had to finish. After a long moment, Tony continued telling me about his visits to his aunt’s place. He didn’t hold my getting too personal against me.
“Right over there in the woods”—he nodded to my left—“is a place where we used to hang out a lot. When I came here alone, I often went there to draw the landscape. Only I turned it into a fairy woodland, with trolls and leprechauns peeking out from behind rocks, or little elves sitting on buttercups. I could get really imaginative there.”
“That must be an awesome place.” I looked at him sideways. “Would you mind showing me when we’re done here?”
Tony nodded. “If the weather holds out.”
Turning the other way, I saw the dark clouds he meant. They sneaked toward us, promising rain later today. Nothing to worry about. My drawing would be finished in a few minutes anyway.
A few more pencil strokes with Tony’s instructions and soon I had a beautiful picture of a horse racing across a meadow, leaving rocks and bushes behind. It was perfect; the best drawing I had done in a long time.
“I have some great material on my computer about how to draw a body from the skeletal structure all the way to the last layer of skin. If you want, I can email it to you later,” Tony offered as I added the date and my signature to the bottom of the picture.
“Sure.” I ripped a small piece of paper from my sketchbook and scribbled my email address on it.
Tony arched one amused eyebrow as he read out loud, “Sammy-dot-Smrs? Does anyone really call you Sammy?”
“My mom does. And sometimes my aunt does, too.” I put the drawing into my folder and dropped it on the grass. Then I turned a provocative grin at him. “You don’t think it fits me?”
A silent moment passed. He looked as though he wanted to say something silly like, “That’s a name for a Golden Retriever”. Luckily, he thought better of it. “Whatever I say now probably won’t do me any good.”
A giggle escaped me. “Nope, it certainly won’t.” After a while, a memory from the morning after camping resurfaced and I wanted to know, “Why did you call me Bungee yesterday?”
Tony took a deep breath. He stared me straight in the eye. Had I been too personal again? In just the moment I gave up hope of getting an answer, Tony opened his mouth, but Caroline Jackson broke him off shouting, “Samantha, if you’re done with your picture, would you like to ride Jostle? I think he’d enjoy a little more exercise!”
My eyes widened at the offer. “I’d love to!”
“His bridle is in the stable, the first box on the right. You can go with or without saddle, up to you.”
Was she kidding me? Without! I rose from the grass, dusting off my behind, then beamed down at Tony. “Are you okay if I go horseback riding for a bit? I mean, we’re not in a hurry to get back, are we?”
“Not at all.”
Without another word, I rushed into the stables and found Jostle’s bridle in a metal box next to the wide rolling gate. As I spun, full of anticipation, I found Tony at the entrance. His hands had disappeared in his pockets as he leaned with one shoulder against the gate.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Ride that beast?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”
It was hard to tell if he was trying to taunt me again or if he was really worried about me but then he let his smirk slip. “Because he’s so big. And you’re so…well…” His voice changed to a wry rumble. “You’re tiny.”
I laughed at that, but in an instant I had jumped onto the cube of pressed straw next to him, held onto the metal bars of the gate, and leaned into his face. “Look me in the eye and say that again,” I teased with a growl.
Our noses almost rubbed against each other. The feeling I got then was weird. My heart sped up, my stomach felt like it was taking a ride in the washing machine, and my breath hitched. I knew this feeling. I’d had it last just before I’d been kissed for the first time.
Tony chuckled, disarming the situation. “Crazy little girl.” He reached out for the reins in my hand and pulled me down from the cube, then out to the paddock again, as if I was his horse and he was my master.
A little disappointed, I followed him, but that feeling vanished as soon as Caroline Jackson had me bit Jostle and Tony came to help me onto the horse’s back.
He held me by my ankle. “On three,” he said, then counted quickly and catapulted me upward. Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked up at me. “Feel good?”
I nodded. Jostle’s shoulders were level with the top of Tony’s head, but I wasn’t afraid of horses, small or big ones. It had been years since I’d last sat on one, but surely riding was something you didn’t forget.
Mrs. Jackson walked with me for a couple of minutes, but when she saw that I could handle Jostle well on my own, she removed the lunge line.
Tony went back to the apple tree and I tapped the stallion softly with my heels, spurring him on. The horse snorted and moved in long strides across the paddock. Reacting excellently to the light pressure of my legs, Jostle let me steer him in a wide circle, then a figure eight, and finally we galloped from one end to the other and back.
A few times I glanced over at Tony. He had grabbed my sketchpad and was idly doodling on it. I didn’t mind. As long as he was occupied, I didn’t have to worry my conscience for having fun while he had to wait for me. It wasn’t long, though, before he seemed to grow bored of doodling and came over to the fence again. He sat on the top, placed his feet on the middle rung, and leaned his elbows on his thighs.
I reined Jostle in to a casual walk and rode toward Tony. His head turned from one side to the other as we passed him, locking gazes with me.
“Are you bored?” I asked him after another round, when Caroline had walked back to the house.
“A little,” he confessed. “But you seem to be having the time of your life.”
Smiling back over my shoulder as I was already ten meters away, I said more loudly, “At least the best time since I came back to Grover Beach.” I nudged the stallion with my heels and raced him across the pasture once more, then I slowed him down in front of Tony and got ready to dismount.
I leaned forward and swung my leg over Jostle’s back. When I slid down, strong hands grabbed me at either side of my waist and coaxed a gasp of surprise from me. Tony gently set me down on my feet.
I turned to him, the corners of my mouth lifting. “You think I’m too tiny to manage anything on my own, don’t you?”
I was prepared for a mocking comeback, but not for his soft, intense look. “No. I just thought your leg might trouble you again if you jumped down.”
Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. “Thanks,” I said, lower than before.
In the distance we heard the first rumble of thunder. It was still miles away, but it reminded me of the fairy tale woods he wanted to show me. “Do you think we can make it into the woods and back home before it starts to rain?”
“Possibly. If we follow the path through the woods, we’ll get back to town from a different side. The distance is the same, so it doesn’t matter which way we go.”
Clasping Jostle’s rein behind my back, I rocked back and forth on my heels, grinning. “Sounds like a plan.”
After I had freed the stallion from the bridle and sent him back to his companions, we found Caroline inside and said goodbye. When she shook my hand, I told her thanks for giving me the chance to ride a horse again. She invited me to come back with Tony anytime I wanted, but I doubted that was going to happen.
While Tony got his bike, I fetched my backpack from under the apple tree. Then we strolled toward the woods behind Mrs. Jackson’s property. The sky was darkening by the minute, but I didn’t intend to stay much longer. I just wanted to see what inspired this boy.
About half a mile into the woods, Tony leaned his mountain bike against a chestnut tree. “We’re going to climb up there.” He pointed toward a rock face ahead. “If you’re not carrying money in that bag, I suggest you leave it here.”
Taking out my cell phone and tucking it into my pocket, I parked my backpack behind his front tire and followed him through the brush toward the rock face. Though it was steep and at least twenty feet high, Tony didn’t hesitate to climb it. There were narrow crevices here and there and roots sprouting from cracks in the rock that one could grip for a better hold.
The lower half was obviously the easier part, and before going on, Tony waited for me on a small platform covered with moss and grass. He reached down and I took his hand, so he could haul me up to him.
With the momentum of the tug, I bumped into him, bracing myself against his chest. He steadied me with a gentle grip on my upper arms. His pecs twitched under my palms and he tilted his face down to me. I gazed into blue eyes that stood out against the gray rock face behind him. The same butterfly sensation I’d had in the stable returned with such impact that I felt like the ground was slipping away beneath my feet.
But this time something was different. Tony didn’t defuse the fire he ignited in me but seemed intent to fuel it with a single soft whisper. “Careful.”
About what? About tripping…or getting too close and playing with fire?
The thunder rolling in the distance seemed to come closer, but neither of us cared. My heart banged against my rib cage, totally out of control. So much for refusing to fall for this guy.
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, then released it, breathing a little harder. Oh damn. Could he pull me that last inch toward him now and kiss me, please? I was aching for it.
Tony blinked. Once. Twice. Then he closed his eyes and a deep sigh escaped him.
No, he wasn’t going to kiss me. Not now or ever…