Fury darkened Tessa’s complexion even more. “I don’t have time for this. I have skating practice tonight.”
Brianna licked her red lips, and her eyes flicked between Tessa and me. “You two aren’t leaving this gym until you air out your differences.” She sounded as though she were the adult among us. Granted, she was a senior. But she was visibly irritated with Tessa more than me.
“I agree,” Liam piped in. He’d been watching things unfold without interfering, which was new for my brother. Normally, he would’ve told Tessa to back off a long time ago.
Regardless, I could feel my eyes bulging out of my head. Liam didn’t do interventions.
Tessa planted her hands on her hips as she sneered at her head cheerleader. “You’re not the boss of me.”
Brianna, who was Tessa’s height, glared at her teammate. “I am while you’re on my squad.”
Tessa and Brianna were in a staredown.
I would be glad to work out things with Tessa if I knew she would change. But Tessa Stevens didn’t understand what the word change meant. She was born with hatred in her bones.
Nevertheless, I had to do my part, whatever that part was. And if it didn’t work, at least I could say I tried. “I’m all for settling our differences before we walk out the door.”
Tessa snorted. “Such the goody two-shoes. Give me a break. I’m out of here. I only have the rink for an hour tonight.”
“What if we settle things on the ice?” I blurted out. I was probably going to regret that, but it would level the battlefield. She skated. I skated. Maybe we could settle our differences on the ice. That way, no one got hurt. No one had to throw a punch or pull out hair. Besides, it might be fun to see if I could beat her at the sport—something I hadn’t done even though I’d tried for years.
You’re rusty. She’s not. But I could practice. Again, I had to try something. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my high school years dealing with her.
All heads rounded to me. I glanced up at Maiken, who was grinning and nodding.
Tessa crossed her arms over her chest. “You want to do a skate-off? Ha! You’ll lose. You know that.”
All I did was shrug. She didn’t need to know that I’d been skating on the lake for the last couple of months.
“Who says she’ll lose?” Celia piped in.
Brianna clapped. “I think a skate-off is a brilliant idea.”
Celia and Brianna were sending me good vibes, although my heart was hammering in my chest. “If I win, then we call a truce.”
Chase, Maiken, and Liam were quiet.
Tessa studied me. “For real? You won’t win.” Her confident tone belied the stiffness in her jaw.
Given the statistics of her record versus mine, I would have to agree with her.
“Then w-why do you look scared?” I asked.
“She can so beat you.” Maiken’s Southern drawl, which I realized was thicker than when I’d first met him, blanketed my body in tingles.
Tessa pushed out a shoulder. “She can’t. But hey, I’ll take that bet.”
Brianna cleared her throat. “Good. It’s settled. Celia and I will line up some judges, and I’ll check with my dad on when we could schedule ice time at the rink for the competition.”
Celia nodded in agreement. “Sounds good.”
The word competition did something to my insides. They felt as if they were going through the spin cycle in a washing machine. Now I needed to focus on practicing for sure.
“All I have to say is if I win, you better be prepared for hell.” Then Tessa stomped off.
Before Chase followed his sister, he said, “You got this.”
I let out all the air in my lungs.
“To keep things fair,” Brianna said, “I’ll make sure you get some ice time at the rink to practice.”
I reared back, surprised she was helping me. The rumors were true, then. She was a nicer person. “I don’t have the money.” Renting an hour of time at the rink was expensive.
“I do,” Maiken said.
My eyes went wide as happy tears threatened. But I couldn’t take his money. Nevertheless, my heart exploded with joy.
“We’ll all pitch in,” Liam said.
“Not necessary,” Brianna added. “We’ll charge a cover fee, which will pay for the ice time. We’ll afford the same free ice time to Tessa to keep things fair.”
She made it hard for me to protest. “Thank you.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Brianna said to Celia and me. Then she walked out.
Celia squealed. “It’s on. Time to get your blades sharpened.”
“I’m proud of you, sis,” Liam said. “You didn’t resort to punching Tessa, although I would’ve enjoyed that too.”
“Believe me, I was a second away from pushing her on her butt,” I said.
Maiken removed his arm from around my shoulder. “What stopped you?”
I almost pouted at the loss of his touch. “I know this sounds crazy. But I felt sorry for her when her own brother threw her under the bus.” That was the truth. Sure, I had other reasons too, but I did feel sorry that her own blood relative hadn’t stuck up for her.
“Well, this should be epic.” Celia’s voice hitched. “And you so got this.”
Liam went over to the bleachers and snagged his sweatshirt. “Quinn, we should get home. I need to change first. I’ll meet you at the car.” Then he wandered off.
“Wait,” Celia called as she scurried up to him. “Quinn, see you tomorrow.”
Maiken flicked his head at the exit. “I need to go too. Kade is picking me up.”
I knitted my eyebrows. “Kade? You don’t have your car?”
He grabbed his hoodie from the bleachers. “I’m staying with him and Lacey. My aunt Denise is having some medical tests done this week, and my mom felt that she needed to stay a few extra days. They should be home at the end of the week.” Sadness weaved through every word.
“Is your aunt okay?”
He pulled his hoodie over his head. “Not sure.”
My chest tightened. He didn’t need any more bad news in his family. But any questions I had about his aunt were forgotten when he sauntered over to me with a sense of purpose and a mischievous grin.
I sucked in a breath when his gaze dropped to my lips. Then before I could blink, he was dragging the pad of his thumb over my mouth. “I want you to know that there’s one thing Tessa will never win.”
Goose bumps fired along my arms at the huskiness in his tone.
“She’ll never get me.” Then his lips crashed against mine.
I became a cooked noodle, forgetting about Tessa, skating, winning, and anything else around us.
Miller, Woods, Liam, and I huddled inside the horse barn at the Thompson farm, waiting on Chase. The rest of the basketball team was in another barn with the cows and their drill sergeant, who was none other than Carter Thompson, Liam’s older brother.
The four us fidgeted on our booted feet, with our hands jammed in our pockets. Knit hats covered our heads, and steam came out of our mouths as the cold, cold morning seeped into our bones.
The horses didn’t seem to mind, though. A couple of them nickered as their heads poked out of the stalls, seemingly looking at the bales of hay that lined the center of the aisle outside the stalls.
“The only thing keeping me awake,” Woods said, sniffling, “is the awful scent of manure.”
Liam busted out laughing. “It’s mild this morning with the wind blowing in.”
Woods pulled down his hat to cover more of his blond hair and big ears. “Chase better show.”
Yawning, I shuffled on my feet, nodding. Sleep had escaped me for a second night in a row, and I’d found myself lying in bed, staring at the popcorn ceiling in the guest room at Lacey’s dad’s house.
I’d spoken to my mom before bed, and she had sounded extremely worried about her sister. She wouldn’t tell me what was going on even though I’d tried to pull it out of her.
�
��You don’t need anything else to take your mind off of school. You kids have been through enough with your dad passing.”
She didn’t need anything else either.
Coach, who was talking to Mr. Thompson near Apple’s stall, glanced at his watch.
I did the same. Chase had three minutes before the clock struck five. I couldn’t imagine what was in store for us if he didn’t show or was even one minute late.
“So what are we doing this morning?” I asked Liam even though it wasn’t hard to figure out that we would be working around the horses. I wasn’t as afraid of them since I’d been around Apple a few times when I’d helped Quinn with her chores. “Is Quinn joining us this morning?” Her presence would make my morning, for sure.
Liam blew into his hands. “Probably not, dude. My dad told her she could take the morning off.”
Miller, the shorter of us four, shifted from one foot to the other, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “I will kill Chase if he doesn’t show.” His green eyes watered, probably from the cold wind that swept in.
I was with him. But Chase had no desire to get kicked off the team. That much I was certain of.
Footsteps pounded toward the horse barn, and we heard a guy breathing heavily. We all turned to find Carter, Liam’s older brother.
Carter’s face was pinched, looking as mean as ever. “Why are you all standing around?”
“Waiting on Chase,” Liam said.
Carter plucked a beanie out of the back pocket of his jeans and pulled it over his brown head of hair. “Fuck Chase. We got to get this shit done before school starts.”
“Tell that to Coach,” I said snidely.
Carter was one Thompson who rubbed me the wrong way. He’d been overly protective of Quinn when I’d first met her, going as far as making my life hell when a rumor went around school that Quinn and I had slept together. I couldn’t blame him for protecting his sister. I would do the same for any of my sisters. But in my mind, he was way over the top.
Carter blew past us and over to his dad.
“Normally, we would have most of the stalls done by now,” Liam said.
Coach zipped up his jacket. “It seems Chase doesn’t want to play basketball.”
Inwardly, I was jumping up and down for joy because that meant I could play shooting guard.
But my excitement was short-lived.
“I’m here,” Chase yelled as he rushed up to us.
Coach’s jaw turned to stone. “Do you like pissing off your teammates? Or me for that matter?”
“Coach—” Chase started.
Coach held up his gloved hand. “When I say to be on time, I mean it. Now where are your boots?”
Chase briefly lowered his gaze to his white tennis shoes. “That’s the problem, Coach. I was looking for them for the last hour.”
Steam floated out of Coach’s nose. “No excuse. You’ll follow everything Carter tells you to do. You’ll work in twos. Woods, you’re with Carter. Miller and Liam. And yes”—Coach started to grin—“Maxwell and Stevens. Maybe working together will do you two some good.”
Cuss words rang in my head.
Carter stabbed a finger at the high bench by the door. “Get gloves. Then take a stall, clean out the shit, replace the horse’s bedding with the hay you see in the aisle, and fill their buckets with food and water. We have seven stalls. When you’re done with yours, move on to the next one. Are we clear?”
Carter would do well as a military leader. In fact, as much as I wasn’t a Carter fan, my dad would’ve loved him.
Chase raised his hand. “Where do we dump the crap?”
“One of the three wheelbarrows you see in the aisle,” Mr. Thompson said.
Hustling to get a pair of gloves, I spotted Quinn walking toward us. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, she wore furry earmuffs around her ears, and she was dressed in jeans, an oversized hoodie, and rubber boots that climbed up to her knees.
Mr. Thompson followed my line of sight. “Sweet girl, I told you to sleep in.”
She gave her dad one of her award-winning smiles. “I know. But we have a lot of chores to do. Someone has to feed the cows and the rest of the animals.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t think I don’t know why you’re down here.”
Chase slapped me on the arm. “Move, asswipe. You don’t want Carter up your butt. Do you?”
As much as I wanted to stare at Quinn or do more than stare, my enemy was right. I slipped on my gloves and started for Apple’s stall, only to find Liam and Miller working in there.
Well, crap. I was comfortable with Apple.
When Chase and I looked in the next stall, we both glanced at each other then at the black stallion who was bigger than Apple and so much scarier.
“You want to go in first?” Chase asked.
That was a big, fat no. I grabbed the shovel that sat outside the stall. “Here. You shovel. I’ll get a wheelbarrow.”
“Like hell,” Chase whined. “You pick up the shit.”
Quinn bounced up. “Now, boys. Oscar is harmless.” She zipped into the stall, talking to Oscar like she was talking to a dog.
Chase ran in. “Oscar, huh?”
I rolled my eyes and clenched my back teeth before going in.
“See?” Quinn singsonged. “Oscar is a big teddy bear.”
Chase didn’t get too close, which surprised me. I recalled the day he’d shown up at the tree farm when Quinn had been riding Apple. He hadn’t been afraid at all.
“So you don’t like horses, man?” I asked.
“I’m cool,” he said, not taking his eyes off of Quinn… or maybe Oscar.
“Yeah, right,” I mumbled.
Quinn kept petting Oscar around the nose. “You boys should get started. My dad doesn’t like slackers.”
You mean Carter doesn’t.
Lo and behold, Carter poked his head in. “Idiots, the shit isn’t going to clean itself.” Then he noticed Quinn. “Sis, can I have a word?”
She giggled before turning around. “I was just leaving.” As she left the stall, her hand brushed mine, and electricity zapped up my arm.
Maybe that was all I needed because I grabbed the shovel. “Get the wheelbarrow, man.”
Chase kicked into gear at my command. I chuckled at how he ran out faster than a racing horse.
Quinn returned and glanced over the stall. “Maiken, are you going to be okay with Oscar?”
I was standing two feet away from a very large horse, which was nerve-racking, and my stomach was twisting. But I had to face my fear and show Quinn I wasn’t that much of a pansy. Besides, I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself in front of her, Chase, and the guys.
“I got this,” I said.
Oscar nickered as though he agreed with me.
Quinn’s amber eyes sparkled in the bright lights of the barn. “I’ll see you later, then.”
Chase came in with the wheelbarrow as Quinn disappeared from view. “So you’re afraid of horses? Wimp ass.”
Ignore him.
He muttered something else I couldn’t make out.
“Look, can the barbs.” Or else I’ll throw you onto this pile of manure that’s burning my nostrils.
He sneered. “Fuck off.”
Biting my tongue, I scooped a shovel full of Oscar’s shit, preparing to dump it into the wheelbarrow that Chase was holding on to for dear life.
He looked at the shovel then back at me. “You wouldn’t dare.”
It took me a second to realize he thought I was going to throw the shit at him. As much as I would’ve liked to have seen his bright-white sneakers dirty with manure, it was best we didn’t fight around a horse. If we spooked Oscar, the outcome would not be good for Chase or me.
Nevertheless, I flung the shovel over the wheelbarrow a little too quick and hard, causing some of the manure to hit the edge of the steel bed near Chase’s hands. Some of the manure ended up falling out onto Chase’s jeans and white sneakers.
> He growled. “What the fuck, man? You did that on purpose.”
Honestly, it was an accident. “Then step away from the wheelbarrow.”
Coach peered over the stall. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Chase said.
“Yeah. We’re cool.” We were far from cool.
Mr. Thompson sidled up to Coach. “Stevens, why are you standing around? Grab the damn hose and fill Oscar’s water bucket.” Mr. Thompson’s tone permitted no argument.
Chase narrowed his eyes at me before banging his foot against the wheelbarrow to rid his clean white shoes of shit.
I held in the urge to roar with laughter.
Coach Dean folded his bulky arms over his chest. “I guess I have to watch you two.”
“Send them over every morning,” Mr. Thompson said. “I’ll break them.”
Chase and I both froze. I wasn’t afraid of hard work, and I didn’t need breaking as though I were one of Mr. Thompson’s horses. But I wasn’t about to talk back. My dad had taught me to mind my elders.
“That’s a great idea,” Coach added.
As though Coach and Mr. Thompson had scared us straight, Chase and I went to work filling water buckets, shoveling manure, and replacing part of Oscar’s bedding, all under the keen eye of Coach.
An hour and a half later, all the stalls were clean, the horses were fed, and I was exhausted. Maybe after a morning or two like this, I would be able to sleep.
The basketball team gathered outside the barn—dirty, stinky, and tired—waiting for Coach to get off the phone.
No one was saying a word, but several yawned—me included.
I was fighting to keep my eyes open as I blinked several times, staring out at the oranges and purples streaking the horizon as the sun started to rise. On another blink, I scanned the farm for Quinn but came up empty.
“I am not doing this again tomorrow,” Chase muttered next to me.
My Heart to Hold: A Maxwell Family Saga - Book Two Page 3