Double Jinx (Wattys2017)

Chapter 11

Ace and I sat in that open field for hours. Ginger grazed quietly nearby, every now and then wandering over to sniff Ace's hair to nuzzle his head. But she never lingered too long. I liked her, alot. She was a gentle creature that seemed to understand my limitations more than most people did.

"So let me get this straight, you still love baseball but you hate pickles and ketchup? What happened? That used to be your favorite snack." Ace laid in the grass, his hands folded under his head as he looked up at me. I sat over him, playing with a blade of grass I plucked nearly two hours ago.

I shrugged, "I don't know. I ate it one day and it just didn't taste the same."

Ace chuckled, "How about your obsession with books, is that still intact at least?"

"Yep, you should see my bookshelf." I informed him, smiling at the memory of how many countless books were littered around my room. But Ace knew that, he'd seen them when he came to the house Tuesday night.

Ace nodded, moving his leg sideways until it pressed against my shin, "Good. I always liked your obsession with books." He saw the way my breath caught and it brought a smirk to his face, "But it made you a total nerd."

I rolled my eyes, shoving his leg playfully ... but not hard enough to push him away. Ace laughed, "Just kidding. But in all seriousness, what's up with the damn candles Gen?"

I buried my face in my hands, trying to hide the flush entering my cheeks, "That's a recently new development if you must know." A second later Ace tapped my knee, a sign I had come to realize meant he wanted me to look at him. He's been doing it all day, training me in a way, to make eye contact with him. I said it before and I'll say it again, Ace liked eye contact. I moved my gaze back towards his and shot him a grin of my own, "Well what about you huh?"

"What about me?"

"A horse? Like where did that come from?" I asked, watching Ginger tear a patch of grass from the earth. Ace watched her too, for a long time, his neck craned upward from where he laid. He loved her, that much was obvious, but I couldn't figure out where that affection came from.

Nearly five minutes later, Ace let out a long breath, "She was a replacement. For you."

That caught me off guard, like really off guard, "What?"

He rolled his lips into his mouth then finally looked back towards me, "It had been about three years since that night. My dad was particularly irritated and Creston was out of town so I just started walking to get away from it all. I didn't want to be in my house but I had nowhere else to go. Somehow I found myself here. I heard someone shouting from the barn and I thought maybe they needed help. But all I found was Bobby, elbow deep in a horse's birthing canal."

Ace broke into a loud laughter when he saw the look on my face. That was one image I never needed stuck in my brain. The sound of Ace laughing helped distract me though, it was a sweet sound, a welcomed sound. I used to love hearing Ace laugh, but only when it was genuine because he had one of those laughs that was simply contagious.

When Ace was finally able to compose himself, he placed a hand on my knee, "Your face was priceless, Bunny. Oh God. But seriously, that's how I met Bobby. He said that his mare was giving birth but the foal was stuck. His wife had died the year before and he had to let go of his farm staff because he couldn't afford to pay them so I was quite literally all he had."

Poor Bobby, he seemed too kind to deserve such hardships.

I became extremely aware of the way Ace's thumb rubbed over the skin on my knee, sending goosebumps up the length of my leg, "So what happened?"