Their Paid Girl

Their Paid Girl - Part 19

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          I don’t know how I felt. The moment that Adam’s lips touched mine, my eyes instinctively fluttered closed, and I pressed my body even closer against his chest.

          But the kiss was over before I could feel more than that, and Adam pulled away. He cleared his throat as I stared at him, dazed.

          He didn’t look at me, but instead took my hand and began quickly leading me towards the direction of the mansion. Just like that. No explanation, no added touch, nothing. I stumbled after him and he slowed down so I could match his angry pace.

          His face was turned away from me but in the second he’d glanced back at me, he had seemed furious. I shrank away. I didn’t think that either of us had meant for the kiss to happen, but it did. Did he regret it? Was it a mistake? And how did I feel? My mind was really messed up. Somehow, the moment we’d shared as he held me after my fall had changed things between us.

          But what had it all meant? Was Adam angry with me? Was he wishing that he’d never been nice to me? Was the kiss my fault and had he thought that I’d crashed into him on purpose? The questions kept swirling in my mind and I anxiously worried the walk away.

          We didn’t say a word to each other until we were back. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell had been relaxing on the patio, enjoying the last warm days of fall. The moment we rounded the side of the house, my hand still in Adam’s, they both sat up off their chairs.

          “Shawna, are you all right, dear?” Mrs. Ferrell hurried towards me.

          Adam immediately let me go.

          “What happened, son?” Adam’s father asked in concern, also getting up.

          Both his parents looked at us with worry. We must have looked pretty bad for them to see so quickly that something was wrong. I snuck a glance at Adam’s face and cringed; he still looked angry – no wonder they knew something was wrong. And an angry Adam was not a good thing.

          “Ebony galloped Shawna across the field before crashing through the gate. She had a fright.”

          I didn’t know whether Adam was talking about me, or about the horse.

          “Nobody’s hurt, but I have to get the horses back to the stable and talk to Jerry about replacing the gate.”

          “I’ll come with you,” his father immediately offered. “Is the damage bad?”

          Adam was pretending like I wasn’t even there. I wished he would just look at me, even if it was to send me his familiar contemptuous scowl.

          “Gate is splintered to pieces. I put Ebony and Fireflyte into the paddock, but they can easily get out if we don’t take them back soon.”

          It suddenly occurred to me that all the ‘damage’ they were talking about was my fault. I should have listened better to what Adam had been yelling at me. Or, I should have just insisted on watching Adam gallop around the paddock instead of stupidly trying to impress him by getting on the horse and hiding how scared I was.

          “I’m sorry,” I said suddenly, and everyone stopped talking.

          “Whatever for?” Mr. Ferrell asked me in disbelief.

          I flushed and tried to hide my anxiety that Adam still hadn’t turned his head my way, but was instead clenching his jaw angrily.