ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK Read Free Page A

sliming my fingers.
I smiled at the feeling and looked up into Courtland’s eyes that lingered on me
for a few seconds before he averted them back to the ground once again.
    “Ah, is your dad home?”
    I nodded, unable to
find my voice. Why was it again Max hated Courtland?
    “He called me to come
over to check on the horses,” Courtland said, his eyes squinting from the sun,
making him frown a bit, adding to that dangerous look he sometimes had going.  
    Now I was the one studying
the cracks in the old red-painted concrete porch my dad had been threatening to
remodel with wood decking since we’d moved there eight years ago. Why anyone
would paint concrete is beyond me. What’s wrong with plain gray? I mean,
everybody knows it’s concrete.
    “He’s over at the
stable,” I said, managing to locate my voice somewhere down past my esophagus, the
statement so curt, I even surprised myself.
    “Thanks.” He turned and
headed down the pathway.
    “Wait,” I shouted, not
sure what I wanted to say. I wasn’t about to apologize for my rudeness, that’s
for sure, but I didn’t want him to mess with Big Blue. I wanted to be the one
to calm him and talk to him. Big Blue was my horse and I didn’t see the need to
have a stranger whisper in my horse’s ear. If anybody was going to do any
whispering to Big Blue, it was going to be me, no matter what my dad said.
    He turned and stared at
me; the cool morning breeze blew his thick dark hair into his eyes. He brushed
the strands away with long slender fingersand for the first time, I
noticed that his eyes were not only green but also the deepest shade of emerald
I’d ever seen.
    “Yeah?” he said coolly.
    “Um …what exactly are
you going to do?”
    His lip curved up on
one side. “Well, I don’t know yet. I’ll have to ask the horses what they want.”
    I blinked. “Oh,” was
all I could think of to say to such an odd statement and he turned and walked
away. Shiloh pushed her nose against my hand one more time before turning to
follow Court. What did he mean , “ask the horses?” At this, I ran
to my room to put on my riding boots. I wanted to be there when Courtland asked
Big Blue that question. I chuckled at the image of Big Blue neighing and
shaking his head in my direction, indicating it was me he wanted. I glanced in
the mirror on my way to the closet and froze.
    Did I really just
answer the door looking like this? My shirt was buttoned crooked; the last
button was completely undone. I hadn’t even brushed my hair before pulling it
back into a ponytail and it was all bumpy and lumpy with tons of escaped
strands sticking out.
    I yanked the elastic
from my hair, cringing at the broken strands that came with it. Running the brush
through the tangles, I smoothed out the knots, and pulled it back into a neater
ponytail this time. I tugged off my shirt and pulled on a grey sweater instead.
It had been a little nippy outside and besides, the sweater stopped short of
the silver embroidery on the flaps of the back pockets of my jeans, which
accentuated the little curve of my never-to-be-perfect bottom—not like my mom’s.
I think I must have inherited some ancestor’s butt from my dad’s side who
hadn’t had much in that area. Kicking off the old brown boots my dad referred
to as my shit-kickers, I opened the closet door to get my black riding boots
and screamed.

Chapter
2
 
~~
Courtland ~~
     
    I moped my way to the
stable, kicking at almost every rock I saw along the way. Shiloh trotted beside
me and leapt after several of them. What a freakin’ douche. I’d been totally
tongue whipped. Good thing Adela couldn’t read my mind. When she opened the
door, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. What a sight. I had to keep my
eyes from hers in order to refrain from laughing. As beautiful as she was, this
morning she was a mixture of sweet and ruffled. Not the normal angel I’d come
to covet. But then, we don’t have major earthquakes every morning, so I