Reap (The Harvest Saga Book 1) by Casey L. Bond Page A

He was openly staring, waiting for me to climb out. “Turn around, Crew!” My voice had risen an octave.
    “Fine.” He grumbled something else and then raised his hands out of the water in surrender and then turned around. I jumped onto the rock and ran to the tree where my clothing hung. Snatching it up, I ran into the woods and quickly dressed. “You’re so bashful, Abby! Not what I expected from tough as nails Kelley.”
    I wasn’t proud of what I did next. Oh, who was I kidding? I was proud. Very proud. I sauntered back to the rock and found his discarded clothing. “Hey, what are you doing with my clothes?”
    “We’ll see who the bashful one is, now!” I walked away giggling, his clothes neatly bundled under my arm.
    “Come on, Abby. Leave my clothes! Come on!” He splashed the water with both hands. His pleas faded into the darkness the closer to home I strode.
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Saturday evening after I completed the dreaded list from Mrs. Preston, or Mr. Preston or Zander—whoever wrote it, I hurried home to meet Laney. She was staying with me tonight and somehow I needed to let Kyan know. He’d been sleeping in Lulu’s room since she left. But, that was not going to happen tonight. Laney would freak if he climbed into bed with her. He was going to the bonfire, so I would have to try to steal a moment with him later. Discreetly. I knew Paige and her cronies would be there as well.
    Laney burst through my front door seconds after I had entered it myself. She nearly tackled me in a hug, squealing and then jumped up and down. “This is going to be so much fun. I’m so excited.” She squeezed my neck.
    “I can tell,” I eked out.
    “Oh, sorry.” She released my neck. In hardly any time, she squeezed me into a pair of her jeans, which were a little too tight for my taste, but she said made my butt look amazing. I was tucked into one of her button up flannel shirts, red and navy cross their ways across my body. Her shirt was a bit tight, too. But, she insisted and I had nothing clean anyway, so I relented.
    She tugged on an off-the-shoulder brown sweater which made her hair and eyes look amazing and a tight jean skirt that flirted delicately with her knees. She finger-combed her curls into submission and brushed my hair until it shone in all its mahogany glory. Before I knew it, Laney had painted my lips red and lashes black.
    She squealed in excitement taking me all in, making me do a twirl. I felt stupid, but I could tell it meant a lot to her. She painted her face on as well and then pulled me into the night, laughing happily. Freely. I even laughed, too. Something I hadn’t done since Lulu had been sent away.
    Crickets chirped happily in the tall hay beside us as we curved our way through the hayfields and thicker forest, away from the village. The park, as we called it, was just that. A forgotten relic that somehow still survived, hidden in the middle of the forest not too far from the village. It had been a childhood rite of passage to go there, to be scared out of your mind there. Dares had centered completely on the skeletal remains that the forest hid just beyond our reach.
    The moon was high and shone on the lake, like million silver fish scales dancing in the dark. The first trace of the park came along with that lake, complete with half sunken giant plastic swans, their eyes masked in faded black, contrasting with their once stark white bodies, now covered with algae and mold. One swan remained upright. One solitary swan.
    It had been that way since I was a child. Situated right at the shoreline, ensuring that it would probably remain upright until I was long gone. If one looked closely, the trails of snails and slugs carving through the green-gray algae glistened. Laney chattered on about how hot the guys from Cotton, Wheat, and Coal might be. I had to agree. Crew was the only male I had met from the other villages. If he was an example of what they all looked like, then they most