Chapter One
“Flame, can’t you just stand still for one more minute?” she demanded, shoving futilely against her beloved stallion’s shoulder. He seemed to grin down at her and turned his head to playfully nudge her pocket for the umpteenth time.
Deziree Jamison knew that talking to him would get her no where. He couldn’t understand her. But Hott Flame could obviously sense the growing frustration and annoyance in her voice because he stopped shifting from foot to stocking foot. Instead, he heaved a long, heavy sigh and draped his head over her shoulder, making her smile and kiss the side of his neck nearest her.
“You better love on me, you little suck-up.”
Voices from the hallway had her stiffening and Flame’s ears pricking forward. She sighed in relief when she recognized both voices.
“Dezi!”
She let out a small yelp of pain when Flame shouldered her aside and stretched his head out over the half door so that he could greet them.
Now breathing was even harder and more labored than before. She hurt, really bad but there was no way to fully relieve the pain.
“What’s going on, Greg?” she asked tightly, as her twin brother came into sight.
Greg stood at a perfect six foot. He resembled her almost exactly, with the exception that he was a guy. His hair was the same almost-blue, shining black, his eyes the same emerald green. His shoulders, though, were almost twice the width of hers thanks to the seven years he’s played football. When he gave her a hug, he had to lift her up off the floor to reach her. She’d been told before that when he was hugging her, if someone looked at them from behind Greg, they wouldn’t even know she was there.
Her stomach did flips and her heart flopped when she noticed the tall, broad shouldered guy beside him.
James Peyton. The name itself said everything in her opinion. It suited him perfectly, though Dez couldn’t explain why, even to herself. He just stood there and smiled at her.
James stood at just over six feet tall. His shoulders weren’t quite as wide as her brother's, as James was a receiver and Greg was part of the defense. His long, dirty blonde hair fell into his ocean blue eyes, and was the perfect contrast to his lightly tanned skin. When he ran his hand through that hair, the lights in the stables glinted off of the topaz in the middle of his big class ring and the silver stud in his ear. His body was toned, the result of seven years of playing football, basketball, and baseball, as well as running track and cross country.
It took her a moment to realize that Greg was trying to talk to her.
“Huh?” she asked dumbly, turning her attention back to him.
Gregori Jamison rolled his eyes. He knew his sister like his best friend, though she’d never told him. She always had and always would. But he acted like he knew nothing about it.
“We’re planning to go to the drive-in when it opens on Monday to see that new action movie. You wanna bring Justin and go with us?” he asked. Greg’s attention was mainly focused on feeding Flame an apple and pulling all of his fingers away unscathed, so he didn’t see her reaction.
But James did. He noticed everything when it came to her.
He loved everything about her, from her sparkling green eyes and long, wavy black hair to the simple gold studs she always wore in her earlobes. From the raggedy clothes that she wore when working with her horses to the nail polish she put on that barely lasted two days because of all the work she was always doing. But the part of her that got to him the most wasn’t physical. It was her shy but outgoing and friendly personality, her heart.
She loved everything and everyone, from the dirt to the sky. From the most unpopular, over-looked people in their high school to the guys on the football team that adored her for making them cookies and sugary treats. It was all completely platonic, of course. She cared about everything, which was why she ran an adoptive shelter for abuse and neglected horses that were taken away from their owners. She also bought horses that were auctioned off for factories and slaughter houses.
Anyone with a brain refrained from saying anything about “those horrid places” while Deziree was around. That was one of the only topics that James had ever watched her get furious and border-line hysterical over. She ranted and raged until she was out of breath, her cheeks spotted bright red, and she was panting.
Oddly enough, the one thing she absolutely wouldn’t talk to anyone about was her boyfriend. Unfortunately, James would have to wait for another time to ask Dez why she had gone ghostly pale at the mention of Justin Lowell’s name.
“Well,” she started, thinking fast and working the comb through Flame’s mane, “he’s going to be extra busy for the next couple weeks. Working with his dad, you know? There’s no reason to make him feel bad by asking him when I know he wouldn’t be able to make it anyway.” Her voice was perfectly calm as she explained.
Greg looked almost concerned at her coloring when he looked over from across the hallway at his own stallion’s stall. “Right, if you say so. Make sure to invite Jaycee along,” he told her, hinting. But he froze when he noticed the arm she still clutched against her jarred ribs. “Why are you holding your side so tight?”
“Flame was just a bit happier than usual to see me this morning.”
Greg nodded in understanding and headed towards the door. “Yeah, he does that sometimes. Just be careful next time, sis.”
Dez just smiled and fed Flame a carrot, stroking his forehead before turning back towards the stall door. She jumped and gave a tiny cry of alarm when she spotted James still standing in the hall outside. Holding a shaking hand to her galloping heart, she smiled automatically in thanks when he opened the door for her.
“And here I thought that you’d left with him,” she commented quietly, heading towards the small back wall where the brushes and grooming supplies were hung in bins.
James smiled at her and slowly shook his head, watching her so intently that when she caught his gaze, she blushed and ducked her head. “No, I had a question for you, but I must have forgotten it. I’m drawing a blank now.”
It was an outright lie, but she must have believed him because she didn’t say anything about it. So, after tucking an escaping strand of hair behind her ear, he turned and left.
“He doesn’t know anything, does he, girl?” she asked the nearest mare, Delilah, scratching under her chin absently. Delilah shook her head, making Dez laugh quietly. Her horses always lifted her spirits, though they could be a pain in her butt sometimes.
Because of his crazy and exhausting football schedule, she had been picking up the slack Greg had left around the stable, letting him sleep as much as he could. The football team at Imlay Prep was just starting their season. And, like the three years previous, they were determined to come out as the state champions. That mind set gave the two co-captains, Greg and James, more work to do and less sleep.
He was acting ever more distant than before, something she had discovered almost nine months prior. James never seemed to want to talk to her anymore or to just trail ride like they used do, which confused her. They used to be close, but now things were a lot different and she desperately wanted her friend back.
In the past, they would have brushed the horses right before school, making Greg wait to leave until they would get to their first morning class just in time for the tardy bell to ring. James was just as good with the horses as she was. There were even times that he could understand what she had done wrong or figure out how to help when she might have stalked away, frustrated beyond belief. And she would always do the same for him.
“Oh, well,” she sighed to herself, moving across the hall to her mare’s stall. She was greeted with jealous enthusiasm. Sun Dancer nickered and butted her chestnut head against Dez’s chest, making her gasp in pain and shove the mare away.
She had always been an extremely jealous mare; the first Dez had ever been the true owner of. Part of that jealousy was from being spoiled for many years before Dez had started adopting other horses.
Dancer stood at nearly sixteen hands, had two white socks on her front feet, and had what looked like a white paintbrush stroke up the middle of her forehead. She had been on the auction block just over seven years ago with a horrible temper and an even worse attitude.
The previous owner had been a little old lady, who’d gone to an auction house to find a mare for her only granddaughter. The one she’d bid on, without meeting first, had been Dancer. It had been hours later when she tried to unload the mare from the trailer at her house that she had discovered the bad temper and biting habits. The poor mare had been taken back to the auction house the same day. And because of her bad habits, Dancer hadn’t been saddle broken, another point against her. Her attitude had only worsened while she was confined in the tiny stall without any interaction whatsoever.
Deziree, who had just turned 10, had pleaded relentlessly with Nan until the woman had given in. They bought Dancer from the lady for a fraction of her original price. The lucky mare had never again gone near the auction block or the glue factory, where she had been headed before Dez and Nan had taken her home.
Now, though she was still prone to throwing temper tantrums now and again, Sun Dancer was fully saddle broken and the biting habits were down to a small number of incidents.
Deziree sighed and ran the comb just a bit more quickly through her mare’s mane. A knock sounded on the stall door behind her.
“I’m trying to hurry, really I am,” she called, watching the black hair quickly start to shine and wave. Glancing up at the door, she saw James, who was now wearing a apologetic smile.
He smiled and laughed quietly, not really sorry that he’d been able to catch her unguarded The split second before she had glanced up at him had reassured him that the real Deziree was still alive somewhere.
She was so different this year. The changes had really started, he’d realized, a long time ago. She’d started dating Justin and then she’d started wearing the clothes he liked, the make-up thick like he wanted it. She’d become a totally different person. When he hugged her now, though he didn’t do it often, she usually didn’t smell like horses and vanilla like she’d smelled before. She wore the expensive perfume that Justin had bought her on her seventeenth birthday.
But when he caught her with one of her horses, she was the girl he’d grown up with, the Dez he knew.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to rush you, but Greg’s extra impatient today. He says that you need to ‘move faster’,” he told her, using Greg’s exact words.
She smiled shyly and was again nudged aside when Dancer moved forward to get affection from James. “Yeah, he’s been pretty pushy lately. And then he gets a phone call from someone and he’s happy and normal again.” She frowned, cute little lines creasing her forehead and wrinkling her nose. “But I can never figure out who he’s talking to.”
He smiled conspicuously. “And you’ve never checked his recent calls list?” She frowned at him when he fed her mare a carrot. Dez was so adorable and sweet that she couldn’t pull off the disapproving mother look with him.
She grinned back and stepped into the hallway when he again held open the door for her. “I’ve attempted to, but he sleeps with that stupid phone under his pillow. And the cell bills are what he takes care of.”
James shrugged his shoulders before putting an arm around hers, out of ideas, though he had a pretty good idea of who Greg would be on the phone with all the time.
Grabbing her bag, she walked next to James down the hall, but beat him to the door. “Ha!” she cried, and he smiled, pinching her side and making her squeal when he passed through the open door.
“And you shouldn’t feed Dancer so many carrots. She’ll get spoiled!” she exclaimed, pushing playfully against his shoulder as they climbed into Greg’s running ’79 Corvette.
James laughed, buckling himself into the backseat. “Oh, so you’re saying that she’s not already spoiled?” he asked, watching her try to conceal the smile that was escaping.
“No,” she said primly, sitting extra straight in the passenger’s seat. “She’s not spoiled; she’s just pampered and loved a lot.”
When James laughed again, that stomach deep, rolling laugh, she couldn’t help but join in. It was common knowledge that Sun Dancer was spoiled. It was where her bad habits had come from.
He watched the laughter make her eyes shine and her skin glow before catching a glare from the rearview mirror. Looking up, he found Greg was watching him with narrowed, suspicious eyes. James shrugged nonchalantly and looked out the window.
She didn’t blink, or really react at all when her history teacher handed back the classes’ first chapter test.
“Congratulations to our first and only perfect score receiver, Ms.-”
Before the instructor could announce her name to the whole class and bring attention her way, the dismissal bell rang out and she jumped out of her seat. The rest of the class followed her out into the hallway, most of them wondering what they did wrong or needed to do better. She, on the other hand, was just trying to shove the papers into her book bag.
Thankfully, history was her last class of the day. She didn’t know just how much more she could take.
Today was Thursday; she kept reminding herself. On Thursdays she didn’t have to deal with whatever was bothering him. She didn’t see him at all during the day on Thursdays, only for a few brief minutes during the morning before school. He always had to be precisely on time to his classes on Thursdays, as all of them always had tests or quizzes on that day. It was an obsession of his, one she was actually very grateful for.
Smiling, she opened her locker and grabbed her homework. She was sick of school already and it was only the second week.
~~~~
Thank you to those who read this and read the Prologue! I really appreciate the reviews and critiques, but please, if/when you do critique, be nice about it.
