Chloe's Secret by Shelley K. Wall Page B

from the thermos. “You didn’t spike that, did you?”
    He laughed and handed it to me, then climbed up and flicked Bullwhip into action. I wrapped my fingers around the cup and sipped. It had to be the epitome of singlehood to ride around in a carriage alone three days before a holiday. I didn’t care. Mr. Scott was charming. How on earth had he and Colton come from the same gene pool?
    Okay, maybe I was a little hard on the guy. He had tried to be nice, even laughed at me. Maybe that was the thing—he’d laughed at me. And in our last conversation, I’m fairly certain he thought I was hallucinating. Of course, that was before he got pissed off.
    My anger at my boss had dissipated though—somewhere between the twinkling carriage lights, the smell of steamy cocoa, and the laugh of an old man that couldn’t stop talking about his wife and son. Maybe Colton had a problem with his dad but I thought he was—nice. And quite the gentleman, as I waved at him when I pulled from the darkness of the garage to drive home.
    They all seemed to have only one thing in common and that was those horses.
    Tuesday morning, I donned my jeans and layered on two shirts and a bomber jacket before hitting the garage button. I intended to try a new path through some farmland that Mr. Scott had mentioned. I tucked my phone into the side pouch of the motorcycle as the door rose. Two legs stood outside hovering. I panicked. Someone was waiting to enter my house!
    “I have a gun.” I called as the door rose further, a noisy creak accompanying it.
    “You wouldn’t shoot me just because I laughed at you, would you?” The door cleared broad shoulders just as I recognized Colton’s voice.
    “I might.”
    “Well, then it was a good thing you were bluffing.” He had shaved since I saw him in the hospital and I found myself disappointed. The roughness of that look suited him. Maybe not the tired lines around his eyes, but the rest was—hot.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “My dad said you wanted me to go riding with you today. Something about showing you the McCrary Creek run?”
    Hmmm. His dad said that? And Mona said Chloe was a meddler.
    I just stared. A few days ago, he had thought me crazy, even insulting. Now, he shows up at my garage and wants to go with me?
    “Your dad is messing with you. I said no such thing. I am going riding, but I didn’t say anything about you. ”
    He furrowed his brows. “Oh. I get it.”
    “He’s nice, by the way. I don’t know what’s going on between you, but I like him.”
    “As opposed to me, hmmm?” He walked toward his bike that sat in my drive. I hadn’t heard it drive up so I wondered how long he’d been there.
    “I didn’t say that either.” I watched him straddle the bike, realizing he intended to leave. Okay, maybe riding alone wasn’t all that great. After all, the safety class he’d taught said not to. “You told me not to ride alone remember?”
    “Huh?”
    “In class, that’s what you taught us.” I shrugged. “I guess it would be safer if you came along. If you want to, that is. In case something goes wrong.”
    His lip quirked a bit. “What could go wrong?”

Chapter 11
    Checking the weather before leaving would have been a good idea. We left my neighborhood, and ventured south on a road that eventually wound corner after corner and turned to single lane, then gravel. The gravel was difficult, causing the bike to sporadically careen. I had to stay concentrated on the bike, the road, and the man’s backside that I followed. Unfortunately the latter caused me to poorly perform the former.
    Colton glanced over his shoulder, making sure I hadn’t disappeared, and kept moving. I had no choice but to stay close. I was lost; returning home would be impossible without him. I wouldn’t dare admit it though and I didn’t care. The hillside was beautiful, the air so crisp my breath floated on it like clouds. The smells of the city turned into country fragrance over time,