“Like the piano?”
“Exactly.”
His eyes narrowed for a moment as though he were considering something.
“You like horses?” he asked. I shot him a dubious glance in return, and he seemed to catch his mistake. “Let’s try that again. Do you want to find out if you like horses?”
“Yes. If it gets me outside for a bit, I’m game.”
“Great, let’s go,” he said, extending his hand to me. I stood up and took it, allowing him to help me out of the room. My ankle felt like it was about to explode, which made me think I’d kicked the wooden bed frame during my nightmare freak-out. “Oh!” he exclaimed, stopping by his bedroom door. “I’ve got something for you. I can’t believe I didn’t remember I had these things before now.”
“Well, almost running over an amnesiac trauma victim with your farm equipment can tend to derail one’s rational thought, I imagine.”
He laughed.
“That mouth…” he said, staring down at my lips. “Your friends and family must have their hands full with you.”
“I may not remember, but I’m guessing that’s a safe bet.”
He made sure I had a grip on the door casing before letting me go. He crossed his bedroom, which was twice the size of mine, and disappeared into a small closet on the other side. He congratulated himself when he located what he was looking for, then emerged with two adjustable metal crutches.
“I blew out my ACL playing football my junior year,” he explained, bringing them to me. “They should go down enough for you to use them.”
“These will be great. Thanks so much,” I said, smiling wide.
“Sassy to sincere in a heartbeat. You really are something, Trouble.”
“So you’re sticking with that name for now, are you?”
“Unless you come up with yours, I think I will. I feel like I need to call you something.”
“Fair enough.”
He nodded.
“Now let’s go see about those horses.”
***
I maneuvered my way down the porch steps without aid, much to one farmer’s chagrin, and followed him down a dirt road to the barn out back. It was massive and weathered and fit perfectly with everything else on the property. Gabe swung the large wooden door open and stepped back, allowing me to schlep my way past him. Once in the barn, he closed the door behind us.
“Jinx is a bit of a handful sometimes. I don’t want him making a break for it.”
“Sounds like my kind of horse.”
“I’ve got no doubts about that, Trouble.”
He walked past me, leading the way down to the far end of the barn where the stables were. Hearing Gabe coming, two large heads poked out of their stalls to greet him.
“Jinx. Mason. I expect you two to be on your best behavior now. We’ve got company,” he announced, stopping to pet the neck of the jet-black horse. “This one here is Mason. And that ornery bugger over there is Jinx.”
I smiled and made my way toward the troublemaker. His shifty side-eyed gaze only made me more convinced that we were kindred spirits.
“Don’t listen to him, Jinx. He just doesn’t understand the rebels of the world…the rule-breakers.” The honey brown horse snorted and shook his head a little as if he were agreeing with me. I reached my hand up toward his face slowly, not wanting to spook him. “Am I doing this right? Is he going to bite me?”
“Just slide your hand up his neck to his face. That’s his favorite. He’ll be your friend for life if you do.”
I did as Gabe said, and the results were instant. The horse was mine whether I wanted him to be or not. Gabe came over to me and opened the stall door.
“Now act like you have some upbringing, Jinx.”
The horse snorted again.
“Ignore him,” I said, running my hand down his face. Then Jinx nuzzled my neck with his nose.
“Wow. He really does like you.”
“Maybe I just have that effect on horses…people too.”
Gabe stared at me, his warm brown eyes assessing me while he undoubtedly considered my words.
“I think you just might.” Though there was a playful tone to his reply, his gaze was intense. I shied away from it, turning back to Jinx.
“Can I ride him?”
“Yeah…I don’t think that’s such a great idea with your ankle and all.”
“I think my ankle is exactly why I should ride him. Non-weight-bearing transportation is the order of the day.”
His brow furrowed.
“So you’ll take help from the horse but not me?”
“I mean, if you really want to crawl around on all fours with me on your back, I’ll jump on, but this seems more convenient.”
His expression lightened.
“He’s been known to rear and toss riders he wasn’t too fond of.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing that we’ve hit it off, right?”
“You’re a determined little thing, aren’t you?”
“Looks that way,” I said with a smile.
“Well I hate to rain on your parade, Trouble, but I don’t need to add to the chaos around here. I’ve got a tractor that needs fixing and crops that need harvesting. No time for your brand of shenanigans.”
“No joyride today?”
He shook his head.
“No joyride today.”
“Fine,” I conceded, “but you need to find something for me to do. I can’t just sit around and cook all day…”
He mulled over my observation, then walked over to the far side of the barn and grabbed a saddle and a stool. Bringing them over, he set them down beside me, a mischievous smile on his face.
“Let’s see how good your cleaning and polishing skills are. This thing is long overdue for both.” He handed me a brush and a container of some kind of wax or polish or something to use on the worn leather. He briefed me on the steps I needed to follow and then turned to leave. I sat down in the seat and hoisted the heavy saddle into my lap.
It made me glad I wasn’t a horse.
“Thanks for offering to help,” he said. There was a hint of amusement in his tone.
“How long is this going to take me?”
He stopped and looked over his shoulder at me.
“Longer than you think.”
With that, he disappeared out the barn door, leaving me, the boys, and the saddle to ourselves.
***
“I’ve come to take you back to the house,” Gabe said, walking into the barn. He was covered in grease, his shirt most likely destined for the trash. I wondered if he or the tractor was winning the battle being waged outside.
“You going to take a shower while we’re there?” I asked, propping myself up on my crutches.
His laughter was response enough.
“There’s no way you’re a farm girl at heart, Trouble. I think we can rule that lifestyle out.”
“Why? Because I don’t look like I picked a fight with a mud puddle and it won?”
“No,” he replied, still laughing. “Because the look on your face when I walked in told me you don’t see people like this often. That’s a good thing, though. It narrows down the possibilities of where you might be from.” Something about my expression seemed to trouble him, so he came toward me, an apology on his tongue. “I don’t mean any offense by that. Honest.”
I forced a smile, then turned my attention to the saddle.
“How’d I do? Did this alleged city girl take care of your farmer gear well enough?”
He picked it up and inspected it, turning it over to see how comprehensive a job I’d done.
“Not too shabby,” he said, looking genuinely impressed. Then his playful deep brown eyes looked over to me. “For a city girl.”
“Alleged city girl,” I corrected. “Unless you know something I don’t.”
“You argue like some fancy lawyer,” he laughed.
“Maybe I am one. Or maybe I’ve just had a lot of experience arguing. Who
knows? Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to find out one day.”
His expression sobered, and he laid his hand gently on my shoulder.
“We will.”
He looked so earnest—so hopeful—that I couldn’t help but feel the same way.
“I know.” My reply was barely a whisper.
He stared down at me, unmoving, his hand on my shoulder slowly sliding up to my neck. His thumb brushed along the edge of my jaw so softly that it tickled. I had to fight the urge to giggle and pull away.
But something in his gaze made that fight much easier.
The silence in the room dragged on for an eternity until Jinx whinnied, startling me so badly that I jumped.
“Jesus!” I gasped, clutching my chest and laughing. “He scared the crap out of me.”
“Yeah,” Gabe scoffed, dropping his hand from my face to rub it through his hair. “Jinx is great for that.”
I turned and looked at the horse, who seemed rather pleased with himself.
“He’s going to put you in the doghouse now, Jinx. We’ll never get to go for that joyride.”
“For now the only place we’re going is inside,” Gabe said, hefting the saddle back up into his arms. “Shall we?”
I nodded and started toward the barn door, Gabe trailing behind me.
“Jealous,” Gabe muttered under his breath. I looked back to find him patting Jinx on the nose.
“So boys love attention just as much as girls?” I joked.
“Sure seems that way,” he replied, heading toward me. “Especially from the pretty ones.”
He passed me on his way to hang up the saddle, never giving me so much as a sideward glance. Then he disappeared through the barn doors for the second time that day. But his comment had stayed behind, hanging in the air around me. His words tugged at something deep in my mind.
Hey there, pretty girl…
A flash of warmth shot through me, forcing a ghost of a smile to my lips.
I’d known a boy like him once, I thought.
And I’d loved him.
Chapter 8
I fell asleep early that night, having passed out from exhaustion on the love seat in the living room. All I remembered was resting my head down for a moment, then waking up in my bed with the dawn’s early light peeking in through the curtains in the guest room. Not long after, Gabe was at my door, announcing that he and I were headed into town to pick up a few things—mainly food and a few essentials for his unexpected houseguest.
After breakfast, we said goodbye to his mother and made our way outside and into his truck. I watched as he walked around the front of the beat-up old green Ford. The tension in his features was impossible to ignore, and I wondered if it had anything to do with his financial strain—or at least the strain that I’d inferred from the situation with Cheryl.
He hopped into the cab and swung the door closed as it creaked and protested.
“I feel bad about this, Gabe,” I said nervously as he pulled out of the driveway. “After yesterday and Cheryl’s visit—”
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, I needed to get a couple of things in town anyway. As long as you can keep it to a dull roar, my bank account should be able to limp away without major injury.”
“Kind of like me?” I asked with a laugh.
“I’m hoping it fares a bit better than that.”
“I’ll behave. I promise.” I smiled brightly at him, forcing a chuckle and head shake from him.
“I reckon you’ve never behaved a day in your life, Trouble.”
“Again, I think you might be onto something, though I cannot confirm nor deny your theory.”
“Maybe you can soon enough.”
Those words fell heavily on my ears for some reason, as if he were hoping that I’d remember so he could pass me off to my family. I knew I was a burden to him, even if he made light of it. Knowing that made my chest ache.
I looked over at him as he drove down the neglected two-lane road, weaving around the bumps and craters it sported. There was an intensity to his gaze that left me feeling unsettled.
“You’re normally a keep-to-yourself kind of guy, aren’t you?”
The corner of his mouth curled up slightly.
“You could say that.”
“Was that always the case? I mean…when life was simpler?”
He exhaled hard.
“No. It wasn’t always the way of it.”
“Were you popular? In school?”
“I was the quarterback on the football team, the student body president, and would have been the valedictorian too.”
I stared at his profile, uncertain what to make of his answer.
“Help me out here, because I don’t really know what all of that is supposed to tell me.”
He turned and looked at me like I had three heads.
“Well I think it’s pretty clear that you aren’t from the Midwest or the South,” he said, hazarding a glance in my direction.
“How do you figure that?”
“Because the quarterback is always popular. That just goes without sayin’ in those parts of the country.”
“Maybe I just forgot that detail.”
He shook his head.
“No. You’ve remembered all sorts of other nuances and details about general culture. There’s no way you knew this fact and forgot it.”
“So I’m a northern coastal girl? That narrows things down a bit,” I said with an eye roll.
“Just stating the facts, Trouble.”
“So, getting back to my original question, you were popular. Glad we’ve cleared that up.”
“I liked school—liked learning—but once my family died, everything changed.”
“You became an adult overnight.” He nodded, even though it was unnecessary. “I’m really sorry, Gabe,” I said softly. “I don’t think I know what that’s like, but it makes my heart heavy just thinking about it.”
He sighed.
“Trouble, from the looks of what happened to you, you don’t have it so easy yourself.”
A sobering observation indeed, and one I would have loved to have refuted, had I known it wasn’t true.
Instead, I stared out the passenger window at the expanse of flat farmland that stretched on for miles. I felt an uneasiness as I looked at it. I felt exposed somehow, like we were a target in the wide open, but I didn’t know why.
I don’t know how long it was before I started to see the silhouettes of buildings on the horizon. We’d nearly reached town, which was a relief. Gabe hadn’t spoken to me the rest of the ride in, and I was desperate to get a bit of space between us. Maybe it was him, or maybe it was me, but there was an edge of irritability between us that was undeniable. Maybe I shouldn’t have pried into his past. He’d basically admitted he was a private person, but I wanted to know more about the man that had saved me and taken me in. I felt like I needed to know more. The nagging sensation at the back of my mind wouldn’t rest until I did.
We pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and found a spot for the old truck. There were several other small stores in the strip mall that had seen better days. Everything about the plaza was depressing. It looked old and tired and neglected. The whole town did for that matter.
“We can grab the groceries first, then go get you some…girly basics,” Gabe said, walking around to my side of the truck. He helped me hop down and fished my crutches out of the truck bed. After I was settled, we made our way across the parking lot toward the grocery store.
“So,” I said hesitantly. “This town—it's kind of. It looks like…has it—”
“Seen better days?” he cut in, saying what I seemed unable to spit out.
“Yeah. That.”
“It has.” There was a harshness to his tone, as though that fact really bothered him.
“What happened?”
“The death of small farms, that’s what.”
I paused for a moment.
“But you have a small farm, right?
”
“Yep. And that’s why we barely scrape by,” he replied, as though that were sufficient explanation. When I looked up at him with a curious expression, he elaborated. “Farming isn’t a job anymore, it’s an industry. More for less, regardless of how that affects the product. Chemicals, genetic modification, depleted soil—none of that matters to the big places. It’s all about the bottom line. Lots of good people have lost everything to operations like that.”
“What happens to them?” I asked as we entered the store.
“The bank forecloses on their property and a major corporation swoops in and buys it for next to nothing.” He grabbed a cart from the queue and started toward the produce section. “I’ve done everything I can to fight those bastards off. I will not lose the farm that my mother grew up on to some asshole in a suit.” He turned to me, pressing his lips together tightly. “Sorry for the language, but not much gets me riled up like those guys. My mother is holding on by a thin thread. I’m afraid that if I lose that land, I’ll lose her right along with it.”
“Well,” I said, plucking an apple off of the pile, “you seem to have done a damn good job on your own so far.”
He stole the apple from my hand and put it in the cart.
“We’ll see if my luck continues.”
With that, he wound his way through the store, picking up random items along the way. It wasn’t long before we were standing at the checkout. I tried not to notice him flinch when the employee told him the total.
While he paid the bill, I stared out the window, looking at the almost vacant parking and beyond at the buildings across the street. Something about the sight was unnerving to me. There was a heaviness to the town that didn’t sit well. I felt fidgety all of a sudden, itching to get out of there.
Gabe must have noticed my change in mood.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, leading the way to the exit.
“I think we should go,” I said, still looking out the window.
“Sure. We can stop off next door and get what you need, then head out.”
Live Wire (Blue-Eyed Bomb #1) Page 7