Love Lift Me by Synthia St. Claire

my mind.
    When
we reached the end of the meadow, I pulled easy on the rein and he obeyed by
turning left and hugging the next fence to come back around. Just as I reached
the top of the meadow and prepared to take another fast ride back down, I caught
the sight of a familiar gray and white truck pulling up into the small lot
beside the stables. The door opened, reflecting the sunlight like a signal in
the window, and Hale hopped out.
    “Whoa,”
I whispered to Zip, and gave the reins a tug. The horse still wanted to go,
hungry to race down the meadow again, but he stopped in place at my command and
began rooting through the tall grass with his nose.
    “I
didn’t know your Daddy kept that horse after you left,” Hale said over the
sound of his boots crunching in the gravel. As he came nearer he continued,
“Look how big he’s gotten. This fella could be a race horse if you wanted.”
When Hale reached the split rail fence he stuck one hand through, giving Zip a
few long strokes down the side of his neck.
    “We
don’t,” I answered flatly. “What do you want, Hale?”
    He
tipped the cowboy hat he was wearing and peered up at me with emerald eyes.
“Just being friendly, s’all. I had to come up here to check out the heaters and
the generator for the horse stable, and I saw you ridin’.”
    “Don’t
think you’re fooling anybody, Hale. I know why you’re here, and it isn’t to get
in the good graces of my father.”
    “What
else am I supposed to do, Kat? I tried to tell you I was sorry, but you
wouldn’t listen. Do you know why I couldn’t pick you up that day? Do you even
care?”
    My
expression remained stony, but inside my pulse was racing. Here comes the
excuse. What will it be this time?
    Hale
slapped the pair of gloves he was holding against the fence and looked away
painfully, down towards the other end of the meadow. “Naw, you don’t care, look
at you. Ain’t never known you to be so cold.”
    “What
do you expect?” I felt my voice grow louder. “Cold is how I’ve been treated by
you ever since I left for school. Hell, even before that. But I let you string
me along, didn’t I? Little Katty Atwater, Mr. Hale Ellis’s long-suffering
girlfriend, that lets him treat her like mud.”
    “It
won’t like that, and you know it.”
    “It
wasn’t? What about the time you ditched me at June’s place, saying how you were
all sick, only to find out later you were out on a date with that…that slut from Durham?”
    “Kat,
we didn’t do nothin’, and you know it. Me and you had only started goin’ out
when that happened, anyway.”
    “Yeah,
for a year,” I shot back. “You always put me in second place, whether it was
going out drinking with your friends or spending all your time working on that
stupid truck. You hardly ever came to visit me in school, and acted like I
didn’t exist when I’d come home for a visit.”
    Hale
shook his head and gave me an angry stare. The vibrant green in his eyes shone
with a fire I’d never seen before. “Kat, you-“
    “I
was there all alone, Hale. That whole time, I never knew what you were up to,
but now I do. Word travels fast in a small town.”
    “I
wasn’t up to nothing . You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, girl.”
    I
tried to laugh, but the tears that had started running down my cheeks made it
impossible. “I know…Cindy told me…”
    Hale
sighed and pushed himself back away from the fence, holding out his hands in
surrender. The spark I’d seen in his eyes grew even brighter once he heard her
name. “Whatever she said is a…a damned lie.”
    “And
I’m just supposed to believe you after all your lying. Is that it? It doesn’t
work like that, Hale.”
    “She
was just tryin’ to rile you up, is all. You gonna believe her over me?”
    I
twisted the leather rein in my hand and said, “I don’t know what to believe
anymore.”
    Zip
neighed softly and tamped one hoof. He was getting restless and he’d barely had
a chance to