Finding Abigail (26 page)

He laughed,
shrugging his shoulders as he scraped a piece of egg on top of his toast.
“Whatever, I know you’re hiding something, you can’t fool me. But we don’t need
to talk about that right now, we have to finish eating so we can get to the
barn before ten. Wade likes the horses out early.”

My hands
gripped my coffee mug, warmth seeping into my palms. Did I miss something?
“What are you talking about?”

“I help Wade
Barker take his horses out for exercise on Sundays, and since I’m looking out
for you, you’re coming with me.”

“I don’t need
you to look out for me. I’m fine. I told you there is nothing going on. I don’t
know why your grandmother said that. I’m a big girl, I can take care of
myself.”

He never looked
up from his food, just kept shoving eggs and bacon into his mouth. He swallowed
and then picked up a piece of toast, staring at it as if he was inspecting my
ability to spread butter. “Is that why you keep a bat in your bedroom?”

“How do you
know I keep a bat in the bedroom? Are you spying on me?” My eyes narrowed at
him as fear threatened yet again. “Are you some kind of pervert?”

Now he looked
up, tossing the toast back onto his plate. “No, but you were carrying a bat
with you when you came out of your room, so I assumed you kept it in there.”

My mouth was
open about to yell, but his words silenced me. “Oh.”

“And besides,
when I went back to watch the fireworks, Cindy was all over me trying to
convince me to dump you.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I kind of made it
sound like we were dating. If you come with me, I can watch out for you and
Cindy will stay off my back.” When I opened my mouth to protest he held his
hand out to silence me. “And if you do this for me I’ll make you an amazing
dinner tonight. I make a great T-bone steak.”

All my fears
and nervousness washed away. There were just no words to express how silly he
sounded. “You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend to make some woman leave
you alone?” I asked him, shocked that this was happening at our age. He nodded.
“Well, I do have gym in a few minutes, but I guess I could go out with you
after school.” I couldn’t help my grin that threatened to become a full on
giggle.

“Okay, joke all
you want, but you don’t know Cindy, she’s very persistent. I’ve told her over
and over, and she never listens. Except for yesterday when you were there, she
didn’t come near me. As soon as you were gone she was like a fly on shit.” He
blinked. “And yes, I’m aware that I just called myself shit. But
come on
,
she won’t leave me alone.” His voice was so whiny it made me laugh. He was
scared of a persistent woman. I couldn’t help compare him to the monster. What
would Nick do in Noah’s situation? Hit her, or even worse. I cringed at where
my thoughts were heading. I pushed him out of my mind and focused on the man in
front of me, allowing myself to enjoy this. Besides, this could be fun to watch
and it wasn’t like I had anything else to do. And like he said, I’d get a good
meal out of it. T-bone steak sounded much better than the frozen dinner
I
would have cooked. “Here’s the deal, if I pretend to be your girlfriend, you
cook dinner for me three times a week. And you have to back off the secret
thing.”

He narrowed his
eyes at me while he thought over my proposal. “Deal, but you may have to kiss
me and hold my hand or something like that to convince her.”

I hadn’t
thought of that. I tried to find the fear that should have been lurking,
instead of the nervous buzz that was coursing through my body. “Holding hands
is fine, but no kissing.”

“Peck on the
lips and the odd hug,” he countered, pointing at me.

“Peck on the
check, and arm around the shoulder.”

Once again, he
considered. “Deal.”

Midnight

I wasn’t sure
what to wear to go riding since I’d never been on a horse in my life, so I
settled on a blue T-shirt and jeans. I’d seen people wear jeans in movies when
they worked with horses. I left my hair down, tucked behind an ear.

I must have
guessed right because when I went out to meet Noah, he was wearing jeans and a
T-shirt as well. Only his was black with a gray eagle spread along his right
shoulder. On his head he was wearing a red baseball cap pulled low over his
eyes. He was holding another cap in his hand; this one was blue.

“Here,” he said,
handing it to me. “The sun’s going to be bright today, and it can get kind of
dusty on the trails.” I took it from him and placed it on my head, threading my
hair through the hole in the back. He slapped the brim of my cap and then
climbed into his Jeep. “Come on,” he called when I hesitated. The urge to turn
away and lock myself in the cottage was strong, but I fought it, telling myself
I had made a deal with Noah, and I needed to keep up my part of the bargain.

The drive to the
farm was peaceful, the scenery, like the rest of Shimmer Lake, beautiful. Wade
lived outside of town on a farm that seemed to spread for miles. Noah pulled
into a lane, driving down a long driveway that led to a large red brick
farmhouse.

The barn was to
the left of the house about fifty feet away. We met Wade inside where he was
brushing a brown horse that had a white spot in between its eyes. Wade wore the
standard uniform, jeans and a white T-shirt, but on his head was a cowboy hat,
on his feet were work boots. He had black hair and ocean-blue eyes. “It’s about
time you got here,” he said to Noah.

“She’s not
really an early riser.” Noah nodded to me.

“You must be
Anna. Noah told me you’d be helping this morning. You ever ride a horse
before?”

“Ah…no.” Just
the thought of hopping on such a massive animal that could stomp me to death
scared the crap out of me.

“Well, I just
took Singer here out, and there’s only two more that need to go. I’ve got some
work out back to do.”

“Sounds good,
go ahead, we can handle the rest,” Noah said as he took a saddle off the wall.
Wade led Singer to the stalls and let him in, and then he gave us a salute
before heading out of the barn. We were left alone with the horses. I couldn’t
see them, but I could hear shuffling sounds coming from the back. The floor of
the barn was cement but a lot of it was covered in hay. There were strands of
it already sticking to the bottom of my shoes, and it was all you could smell.

“Okay, come on,
the horses are down here.” He led me down a row of doors and stopped at the
second from the last. He pushed it open to reveal a large shiny black horse.
“This is Midnight. He’s a good old boy who will be safe enough for you.” He
placed the saddle on the horse and buckled him in. “Can you go out and get me a
harness for him? They’re hanging on the wall in the tack room.”

I froze. Did I
admit that I didn’t have a clue what that was, or should I pretend to know and
get the wrong thing? He took the choice away from me. “It’s the thing that goes
over their head and has the straps.”

I scrunched up
my face. “I know what it means.”

He turned away
and stroked the horse’s head. “Sure you do.”

I stuck my
tongue out at him, but it didn’t really count since he didn’t see me. As I
headed to the back room I remembered my hat, which I had taken off in the car.
I went out to retrieve it and put it on, and then went back inside to the tack
room. On the wall were hundreds of horse thingies that, frankly, intimidated
me. Lots of metal and leather hung from hooks. I located what I was looking for
in the right back corner and stretched up on my tip toes to pull it from the
peg. The strap was made out of brown soft leather that was wrinkled from
continuous use; the metal was cold.

When I headed
back to the stall, I heard voices. Wade must have forgotten something. I was
about to walk into the stall when I heard the tinkle of a woman’s laugh. “Come
on, Noah, dump her, you know we could have fun together.” I peeked through the
crack in the door and saw Cindy rubbing Noah’s shoulder and leaning in, trying
to kiss him. He pushed her away, stepping to the other side of the horse.
Midnight swatted his tail and huffed. He didn’t like her either.

“Cindy, I
told
you, I’m dating
Anna now, please stop this.”

She followed,
tiptoeing lightly through the hay, and leaned up against him, rubbing his
chest. “Come on, Noah, you can handle two women, can’t you?”

I was enjoying
myself watching Noah squirm, but now I was annoyed. What kind of woman would
throw herself at a guy like this, and then willingly encourage cheating?

“Cindy, I’m not
like that. I would never cheat on Anna or anyone I was with.”

“You always
were a great guy. But really, Noah, how much could you like this girl, you
haven’t known her long.”

Now I
understood why Noah wanted my help. The women wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Actually, we met quite a while ago while he was visiting his grandmother,” I
said, walking into the stall and taking Noah’s hand. He squeezed mine hard,
obviously grateful I had intervened. I cringed, thinking back to the time when
I tried to escape Nick, and he squeezed my hand in the car. I shook the memory
away before worse ones appeared.

Cindy backed up
against the wall and scowled at me. “You never told me you were seeing
someone.”

“We met last
year. Remember when I went to visit my mom? My grandmother brought her to the
house and we’ve been emailing and talking on the phone ever since. It wasn’t
serious until a few months ago when she decided to move down here.” Letting go
of my hand, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I swear Cindy
turned green. “Well, let me know when you change your mind,” she huffed,
storming out of the barn, slamming the stall door. It smacked against the
wooden frame with a loud crack.

He breathed a
sigh of relief, removing his arm from my shoulder. “Thank you.”

“You’re
welcome. I’ve never seen a woman so desperate in my life. I thought you were
exaggerating. You were right, you do need my help.”

He took the
harness I was still holding and placed it on the horse’s head. “Right now I
need your help leading Midnight outside while I get Steve.”

I laughed,
standing a safe distance from the huge animal. “Steve? There’s a horse named
Steve?”

His eyes
crinkled at the corners, and his lips twitched. “Yeah, Wade and Cheryl let
their daughter name him when he was born, and she chose Steve. They thought it
was funny so they went along with it.”

“How long will
I have to stand out there holding this enormous horse?” I asked, just as
Midnight lowered his head to nuzzle on my hat. I stepped back, panic settling
in. “Ah… I can’t. I’ve never been near a horse before.”

“Relax, he’s
harmless.” He led Midnight outside. I followed behind, watching the horse’s
long black tail swish from side to side. Once we were outside, he took my hand
and guided it to his bridle. He walked back inside leaving me alone with the
very big animal.

“Hey, boy, it’s
okay. Please don’t eat me.” My voice was a soft whisper as I nervously rubbed
the side of his face the way I had seen Noah and Wade do it. His black fur was
like silk.

Noah came back
out with a reddish-brown horse that must be Steve, and tied him loosely to the wooden
fence.

“Here, hop on,”
he said, cupping his hands together so I could jump up onto Midnight’s back. I
did what he said, placing my sneakered foot into his hands, worrying that I
would hurt him. I couldn’t help noticing his usual scent of wood, mixed in with
the hay and horse smell. He hefted me up and I landed on the hard leather
saddle. It smelled of wax. I felt wobbly and held onto the reins tightly. I
didn’t want to move for fear I would fall off.

I watched Noah
expertly climb onto his horse. He clicked his tongue and tapped the animal
gently with his legs, and they started moving. I did the same waiting to move
forward; instead, Midnight leaned down to graze on a juicy dandelion growing in
the dirt, his lips making a sucking sound. I clicked my tongue louder this
time, only to hear Midnight blow out air in answer. When I patted his shoulder,
he stomped his hoof, making dust fly.

I glanced up at
Noah’s back as he drew farther away, his body graceful in his shiny leather
saddle. “Uh…Noah?” My voice was softer than I intended, afraid to spook the
massive animal underneath me.

Noah turned,
expecting to see me right behind him, and when I wasn’t there, he glanced
around. A soft chuckle reached me from the distance between us. “Problems?” he
called to me without turning his horse around.

Was he kidding?
“Not at all. I intend to stand in this spot for the rest of the afternoon while
you enjoy a nice stroll through nature.”

He steered the
horse sideways a little and let out a loud whistle, and that was all it took to
get Midnight moving. He trotted slowly as I bounced up and down on the hard
leather. It didn’t take long to catch up with Steve and Noah. “So what do you
think?” It was the man who asked, not the horse.