Love is Silent

Chapter 15

I slid my right leg back behind the girth and squeezed. Justice immediately leaped into a canter and I couldn’t keep the smile from breaking out across my face. This was my first day trying the faster gait, and the familiar rocking motion was strangely comforting. I kept it up for three circuits of the arena and then slowed him down, the grin still plastered on my face. I brought Justice to a halt near Chase. “What did you think?”

            “I think you’re crazy for wanting to go that fast on a horse,” he remarked wryly. “But you also looked like you were having a lot of fun up there.”

            “It’s an amazing feeling,” I gushed, sliding off of Justice. I removed my helmet, shaking my hair out of my eyes. “I think we’ll be ready to start jumping soon.”

            He shuddered. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch you do that.”

            I slid a glance over to him as we walked down the barn aisle towards Justice’s stall. “Aw, do you worry about me?”

            “Of course I do. I love you.”

            My heart stuttered and I leaned into him when he put his arm around my waist. “I love you too.” We untacked Justice in companionable silence. When we were finished, we left the stables to go up to the house. “Jesus, it’s freezing out here!” I wrapped my coat tighter around me, trying to block out the bitter wind.

            “I think it dropped about ten degrees while we were in there,” Chase said in agreement.

            “It’s times like this that I wish I could still run. At least- ack!” my musings were cut off when Chase scooped me into his arms and sprinted the rest of the distance up to the house. I was laughing by the time we got to the door and he put me back on my feet. “Well, that’s one way to get out of the cold quicker,” I told him.

            He grinned down at me while I opened the door. “I didn’t want to stay out there any longer and I wasn’t exactly going to leave you out there to fend for yourself.”

            I wrinkled my nose at him. “You can be so cute sometimes.”

            He rolled his eyes and moved into the kitchen to make us some hot chocolate. “Where are your parents?”

            “Out for the night,” I replied. “They went to the Christmas party that one of the boarders here throws every year.”

            “You didn’t want to go?” he asked.

            I shook my head. “No. I’m not ready for stuff like that yet.”

            He nodded and continued making the hot chocolate. I loved that he understood me so well. I never had to explain my feelings to him, which made it so much easier to be around him. When the drinks were ready, we brought them into the living room so we could watch a movie while we drank them. I let Chase choose the movie, but instantly regretted it when I realized he’d chosen a scary one. “I hate horror movies,” I whined.