If There's Something

Chapter 12

  The next day, Levi begged me to ride Pepper for a while after lunch as he fed the other horses and cleaned their sheds.

"She won't let anyone ride her," he told me. "Ever since mom died. It was a miracle that she even ate or came out of her stable to the arena."

"I can try but what makes you think she's going to let me ride her?" I asked as I helped him put the saddle pad, saddle and bridle.

"Call it a hunch," he smiled. "Should I help you up?"

I stuck my foot into the stirrup and tried to hoist myself up. I was almost there when Pepper neighed loudly and stepped back, making me lose balance. I think I let out a stupid girly scream as I fell back. Levi caught me but we both ended up going down. Well, I didn't really get hurt because I landed on Levi. I looked at him as he groaned in pain, worried. He sat up quickly, pulling me up with him and I ended up saddling him instead. He rubbed his head and opened his eyes to look at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked and I nodded quickly.

"I should be asking you that," I told him. "So much for your hunch."

"She's scared is all," he told me and I reached to remove the straw from his hair. He caught my hand as I took out the last piece of straw and we stared at each other for several seconds. I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

Everyone had known about Levi's feelings for me but I was sure that they had faded over the years so why was he looking at me the way he was? I had always been running behind Rush that I had ignored Levi's feelings all together but the warmth and intensity of his stare was getting me flustered all of a sudden. Yes, he was extremely well built and definitely good looking and he was nice, too. Maybe it was a good thing that he was getting my heart racing or maybe it was just attraction and he would end up getting hurt. Levi leaned forward and for a second, I even thought about kissing him but the moment was gone before I knew it.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Rush's voice came from behind Levi.

My cheeks flushed different shades of pink as I scrambled to get off Levi. I dusted off my shorts as Levi got up and dusted his jeans and t-shirt.

"Falling off horses," Levi replied coolly and I really commended him for being able to talk as if Rush hadn't just caught us in an awkward moment. He turned back to me. "Try again."

I nodded and turned back to Pepper. I was glad for the diversion. I didn't want to see the look on Rush's face. Seeing Micah kiss me was one thing but seeing his brother kiss me the next day wasn't going to make things any better. Plus, I had avoided the topic of Micah kissing me the whole day anyway, I didn't want any of them bringing it up again.

I put my foot in the stirrup again and hoisted myself up. This time Levi held onto the bridle to steady Pepper and used his other hand to help me up. I tried hard to ignore the fact that Levi had his hand on my butt, even though it was to help me and what made it worse was that Rush was still standing there and watching us.

Pepper shifted a little as I tried to center myself on the saddle.

"See? I told you!" Levi exclaimed. "That horse has been torture. She'll only let you or mom ride her. I was right."

"That's because you guys never tried to ride her when we were kids either," I pointed out. "Your mom might have bought her for me but even when I was gone, she told me about how only she used to ride her."

Levi laughed nervously, running a hand through his hair and I finally got a look at Rush who's expression was unreadable.

"Stop talking about her like she's still here," was all he said before he walked away.