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Her gaze flew to mine.“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Honestly?I still don’t quite believe it actually happened.Plus, I was so surprised when you kissed me that everything felt sort of unreal.”
“Yeah.”I scuffed my boot against the dirt.“Should I apologize?”
“For kissing me?I’m not mad about it.”
Her directness made me feel off-kilter.“Are you…happy about it?”
“I’m mostly confused about it,” she said.“I thought—when we were on the porch of my dad’s house, I thought—but then you pulled away.So I figured, okay, he’s not interested.Then I get here and you’re obviously pissed to see me, and then you kiss me in front of your whole family?Make it make sense.”
“How about you get up on that horse?”I countered.“Once you get used to riding, I’ll take you somewhere that you’re going to want to see.And I’ll explain.Okay?”
She stared at me for a long moment.“Okay.”
Within ten minutes, Edie was riding Betty at a gentle trot around the ring with a huge smile on her face.“You’re a natural,” I called to her as she executed a wide turn.
“This is so weird!”she called back.
I laughed, then slowly exhaled to relieve the pressure in my chest.Watching her go from hesitant to delighted had made my heart swell.She could learn to love it here.And if she loved it here, maybe leaving her life behind for me wouldn’t seem like such a poor trade.
“I think you’re ready to hit the trails,” I said.When I turned to the gate, I saw Dylan there waiting.His arms were folded on the top rail like he’d been watching awhile.He straightened and undid the latch, holding the gate opened wide.“Where y’all headed?”
My first instinct was to lie.How often had I been lying, that it came that easily to me?It was a basic safety precaution to tell someone where we were going, but I wanted to keep this trip private.My family knew I’d be telling her about our kind, but I knew they’d object to where we’d start.I glanced back, gauging that Edie was still far enough back that she wouldn’t overhear.“We’re going to the Old Tree.”
Dylan’s eyebrows came up.“Shit,” he said.
I knew him, so I heard all the layers of surprise in the word.“I promised I’d tell her about us.What better place to start?”
“That’s clan land.”
Again, I heard what he didn’t say.“We’ll go the long way around, nowhere near the houses.No one will see us.And if they do…I mean, she’s my mate, Dylan.”
“What’s that?”Edie said, coming up behind me.
I widened my eyes at Dylan.He hadn’t been there when I told my family to back off, but I trusted that Micah or someone else had filled him in.That was the positive aspect of constantly having my family in my business.“I was just asking him to get the gate,” I said.
Lying again.
But it wasn’t like I wanted to lie.And I would tell her everything, when she was ready to hear it.Soon, if I did this right, I could shout from the mountaintops that she was my mate, and tell her every day how glad I was that fate had given me the gift of her.
But not yet.
We ambled away from the paddock, down the well-worn trail that ran alongside the river.We usually took tour groups down about a mile, then back around through a field where there was a spectacular view of a high mountain lake.Instead, I turned us off the trail.“Careful through here,” I said, pushing aside a curtain of branches.
“Should I be doing something?”
“Betty knows the way,” I said.Instead of taking the path that would lead us directly to the village, I led her through an uninhabited section of the woods.There were a couple of summer houses tucked into the trees, including the house Flint had been building for the last few months, but I cut our trail to avoid them.The woods were peaceful, but I kept a sharp ear out.
“So, this is nice and all, but can we maybe take a break soon?”Edie said.“My butt is not used to this.”
“We’re almost there,” I said.The magnetic pull of the tree would have led me to it, even I hadn’t known where I was going.“It’s worth the wait.”
“I was promised sandwiches,” she complained.
“You’ll get them.We’ll let the horses graze and have a nice little picnic…here,” I said as we emerged from the trees.
