{Chapter 22}

“Higher. Higher. Higher” Erik commanded.

“Erik! I can’t get my leg up that far!” Toni protested.

“If your hand gets to hurting, broken, or something like that, you’ll have to use your feet. Now try to kick me in the face” Erik told her.

“Er-i-i-k” Toni warned.

“Come on” Erik urged.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Pfft.”

Toni scowled at him and kicked toward his face, hitting his hands that were guarding it.

“There, see?” he smiled at her, rubbing his hands. “You can do it.”

“I hurt you, didn’t I?” Toni approached him slowly.

“Na,” Erik shook his head. “I’m a big boy.”

“Big boys get hurt, too. Let me see” Toni reached out to touch his hands.

Erik slapped at her hands. “Let me be. I’m fine, Toni. You couldn’t hit hard enough to hurt anyway.”

Toni drew back her fist and punched him on the shoulder. Erik clenched his jaw. He wished he hadn’t taught her how to punch. “I stand corrected," he winced.

Toni smiled and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Baby.”

Erik caught her arm and slung her across his back and onto the ground. She landed with a squeal.

“Focus, darling. Focus, focus, focus” Erik smiled and lingered over her.

“Lesson number one?”

“Yup.”

**********

Aubrey got back to the shack early that next day at Toni’s insisting that she was working to hard. She hadn’t argued with the woman because she was still sore from her escapade yesterday. She followed Jay into the shack and removed her hat from her head, coughing at the cloud of dust it gave off.

“There’s a note here,” Jay said, handing her a piece of paper he found on the table.

Aubrey took it and read it.

Go to the barn. Bring Jay.

She arched an eyebrow at the paper as if it were the one being so strange. Who would leave a note like that? Shrugging, she slapped her hat back on and motioned for Jay to follow her.

“Where we goin’?” Jay asked, picking up Sadie.

“To the barn” Aubrey answered.

“Why?”

“I have no idea.”

The barn didn’t look any different, except for the white note hanging on a nail by the door.

50 paces east

.

This sounded like a classic murder plot from a dime novel to Aubrey. Nonetheless, her curiosity got the best of her and she went fifty paces east. There, lying in the grass was yet another note.

Follow the trail.

Aubrey looked to her left to see a trail of flower petals going straight. She giggled and took Jay’s hand.

“What are we doing?” Jay asked, holding Sadie by his paws.

Aubrey positioned the puppy correctly in the boy’s arms and followed the trail over the next rise.

Just up ahead.

The next note said with an arrow pointing in front of them.

Aubrey looked up and saw an old, rundown cabin. She cocked her head and stared at it.

This was beginning to get weird.

She carefully stepped up to the door of the cabin and pushed open the door, keeping Jay behind her.

What she saw in front of her wasn’t what she had expected.

A picnic.

She stepped inside and arched an eyebrow.

“This is strange,” she murmured.

Then it came to her.

“It’s about time,” a voice said.

Aubrey turned to smile at Wade, who was leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe of another room.

“You did this?” she asked.

“No, some random person snuck on the ranch and posted notes everywhere. I’m just here on an impulse” Wade’s twinkling eyes told her he was kidding with her. “No, really this was mostly Katie. She wrote out the notes because my writing looks more like chicken scratch and handled the food and such. I’m not a good cook at all. My coffee tastes like water soaked in an old boot.”

“That was very sweet of her. This was your idea?” Aubrey looked around.

“Yeah, I figured we could all use a break” Wade smiled.

“How thoughtful.”

“What is this place?” Jay asked, looking through a gap in the wall.

“Just an old abandoned cabin I found. Even the Boss doesn’t know what it’s from” Wade looked up at the rickety ceiling. “But its sound, that’s all I know.”

**********

Aubrey leaned back on her hands. “I’m so stuffed I don’t know if I can even think of food ever again.”

Wade smiled at her. “Katie’s a good cook.”

She looked over at him.

“Not as good as you, though” he said quickly.

“Nice save” Aubrey giggled.

“Can I go explore?” Jay asked.

“Don’t go too far,” Wade cautioned.

“Take Sadie with you” Aubrey told him.

Jay patted his thigh, motioning for Sadie to follow him, and left out of the open doorway.

A moment of silence passed after Jay left.

“It’s a pretty day,” she said, looking out of a gap in the ceiling.

“Too pretty to spend semi-inside isn’t it?” Wade smiled, standing.

Aubrey sat up. “True.”

“Wanna go for a walk?”

“If I can move” Aubrey reached up and allowed him to help her up.

They walked out into the crisp air and Aubrey breathed deep. For once, she didn’t smell cow manure.

“That one looks like a star, doesn’t it?” Aubrey lay flat on her back next to Wade, looking at the clouds as they passed by.

“Sort of. It’s kinda lopsided” Wade cocked his head to the side.

“Well, clouds aren’t meant to be perfectly strait” Aubrey reasoned.

“Don’t guess they are. That one looks like a saddle,” Wade pointed up at another cloud.

“That’s a big blob of nothing I see, and you see a saddle. You’ve been working too hard” Aubrey smiled.

“It does. Look at it real hard” Wade urged her.

Aubrey studied the cloud. “Nah, it still looks like a blob.”

“Imagination, darling” Wade said next to her.

Aubrey shook her head. “Look at that one. Kinda looks like a horse’s head.”

“Now that I can see… sort of. Where’s his ears?”

“He doesn’t need ears, Wade. He’s a cloud.”

“I meant on this said horse. A horse has got to have ears.”

“Maybe the wind carried away his ears” Aubrey chuckled.

Wade laughed at her. “I’m sure that’s what happened.”

“Think about it. If the wind can move clouds, don’t you think it can separate them? Maybe that horse head was attached to a horse once upon a time.”

“Maybe my saddle was on him, too” Wade looked at her.

Aubrey sent him a look. “You mean that big blob?”

“It was a saddle.”

“Whatever you say, dearest.”

She looked up at the sky and still felt Wade’s eyes on her. Discovering that she didn’t find them creepy anymore, she looked back at him to make sure. Could she really be used to those eyes already? One look and she knew just the opposite.

Why did he have to make her feel so weird and tingly when she was with him? At least seven hours out of the day were spent away from him, yet he still had the same effect on her. Why was that so strange to her? Wade was the kindest, sweetest man she had ever know and she would have to be blind and heartless not to like him… maybe even love him.

Did she love him? No, it was too soon for that, wasn’t it?

In her confusion, Aubrey forgot that she was staring. Quickly diverting her eyes, she turned back to face the sky.

“No” Wade’s hand clasped around her cheek and turned her head to face him. “Don’t look away. It’s like I can see your heart when I look into your eyes.”

Aubrey wanted to look away because she knew what a jumbled mess her heart was. Sitting straight up, she looked out over the vast stretch of land.

“Wade, I…”

How could she voice what was in her soul? A million words she wanted to say, yet none came.

“I just…”

She fought with herself. Sometimes words just wouldn’t work. They betrayed her and every good intention she ever had. Wade sat up beside her.

“Just say it,” he urged.

“Say what? I don’t know what to say. My mind’s all jumbled and fuzzy and words won’t come out” Aubrey huffed and sat on her knees directly across from him. “There are so many things I want to say - to explain. You just have to understand that I’m just not that good with words.”
“Neither am I…”

“Yes you are” Aubrey smiled. “You’re perfect with words. Absolutely perfect.”

“Sometimes words are no good, Bree,” Wade told her, his eyes sparkling at her.

She studied that sparkle for a moment. “I agree,” she whispered.

They heard Jay’s voice carrying to them, and Aubrey seized the moment. She wouldn’t allow Jay to distract Wade again, so she took matters into her own hands. Grabbing a fist full of his shirt where it connected just below his throat, she pulled him forward and kissed him, not exactly how she envisioned her first kiss. Wade seemed stunned at first, then took her by the elbows and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. She melted into him, loving the feeling of his strong arms encircling her. She let go of his shirt and wrapped her arms around his shoulder. Then and there, she fell so hard and so fast in love with him that she felt dizzy. His hands rubbed her arms and sent sparks through them that burned a path clear to her heart.

Jay’s nearness caused them to pull apart long before they wanted to, but Aubrey felt deep down that the love in her heart for Wade Dylan had just been lit on fire.

Wade smiled at her before allowing Jay to lead him off to see something that he had found. That look in his eyes made Aubrey shiver and her face heat all at the same time.

Finally! Sorry guys I had a severe case of either writer's block or laziness... yeah, writer's block sounds better ;P

Hope you guys like this!

P.S.

YOU GUYS ARE ALL AWESOME!!!