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Thursday morning, they were lying on a grassy hill some distance behind the barn. Her horse was grazing a few yards away, a rope trailing from his halter. The air was crisp, but the sun warmed her cheeks, making her drowsy. She didn’t want to close her eyes, in case there was any chance she’d open them to find out it was still Sunday morning, that this week was just a dream.
The horse snorted at a butterfly, but then went back to grazing.
Gabriel turned his head to look at her. “Why doesn’t he run away?”
Layne gave a short laugh. “I keep asking myself the same thing about you.”
He rolled up onto one elbow to look down at her. It put the sun behind him and made his hair fall into his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”
o;Hmm.” He looked rueful. “And she probably shouldn’t know I’m here.”
Her cheeks flamed. “No. She’d tell ”
“I get it.” But he smiled and gave her another quick kiss, before dropping to fish his sweatshirt off the ground. “I’ll see you in school.”
Her entire body felt flushed. Her lips felt raw, swollen. Anyone would know she’d been making out.
Right?
She didn’t want him to leave, but her body felt like gelatin.
Gabriel kissed her again, and she caught his face in her hands, holding him there.
He laughed, softly, gently, a sound just for her. “I don’t want you to get banned from the farm,” he whispered.
Layne nodded. He drew back.
But then he stopped. “I forgot. I actually came to thank you.”
“You mean there’s more?”
Now he laughed for real, and she loved how it stole the tension from his eyes. “Later. No, seriously. For this.” He dug a piece of folded notebook paper from his sweatshirt pocket, and she took it.
Then he was sprinting out of the barn, yanking his hoodie over his head as he went.
Layne touched a finger to her lips. She unfolded the notebook paper, wondering what he’d written. Her heart fluttered again.
A note?
No, better. His math homework. He’d done the last two questions. Struggled, clearly, based on the eraser marks.
But he’d done them.
And he’d gotten them both right.
Gabriel shoveled cafeteria macaroni and cheese into his mouth, but he didn’t really taste it.
Hunter was watching him with a disgusted expression. They were the only two people at the table. “I don’t know how you can eat that crap.”
“I’m hungry.”
Hunter sliced into the piece of grilled chicken in front of him.
He was the only guy Gabriel had ever seen use a plastic knife in the cafeteria. “And you can slow down. I promise I’m not going to steal it from you.”
“Are you going to bitch at me for talking with my mouth full next?”
“I just don’t get what the big rush is.” Hunter speared a piece of broccoli. Gabriel hadn’t even known the cafeteria sold broccoli.
