Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (4 page)

“Have you seen anyone for
it?”

He laughed. “I’ve been staying out here
for the past week. I’m pretty sure it happened when I slipped into
the creek. I was trying to bring a fish in. Like I said, it’s
nothing.”

“My dad hurt his neck moving a bed into
the house a few years ago. It took about three days and then he
couldn’t move at all. I could rub it out for you if you want?” I
felt the blood rush to my face the instant the words made their way
out of my mouth.

He smiled. “Well, if it would make you
feel better.” He laughed. “I would hate to end up stuck here unable
to move.”

Dodge snorted and Jasper glanced up at
him.

I wagged a mental finger at myself and
moved to kneel behind him. “Just tilt your head
forward.”

He tensed a bit at the touch of my
fingers on his neck then relaxed and did like I had
asked.

I started out softly, scared to hit the
sore spot right away, then started to massage a bit harder. I found
a small knot where his neck attached to his shoulders and worked it
out, smiling at the little groan that escaped his
throat.

I was reluctant to take my hands off of
him when I was done and I realized I was quite turned on. It was
taking everything I had not to let my hands rub up his neck and run
through his curls. Geez! Hayden Carlson, get a grip!

I took a deep breath and stood up.
“Better?”

“Hmm hmm. Much better. Thank you.” He
stood and looked at me, his eyes burning into mine.

“Well, I better get going.” I
contradicted myself by standing still.

He smiled, but didn’t seem extremely
cheerful. “Alright. Will you come back?”

I grinned stupidly at the question.
“How long will you be camping out here?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure. A few more
days, for certain.”

I nodded. “Ok. I’ll come back
tomorrow.”

His smile lit up his whole face.
“Great!”

Dodge stomped a foot and I forced my
gaze away from his. “Alright, buddy. Let’s head home.”

I swung into the saddle. “What time
should I come?” I looked down at Jasper’s hand on my
knee.

He laughed. “Whenever. I’m not really
on a schedule here. I’ll find you.”

I nodded. “Ok. It will be after lunch
for sure.”

“Sounds good.”

We stood still, unable to look away
from each other.

Dodge snorted and Jasper blinked. “See
you then,” he said softly and smiled once more before turning and
disappearing into the woods.

I sat looking after him for a minute
then shook my head. “You probably just made a date with a serial
killer, Hayden,” I muttered to myself.

Dodge shook out his mane.

“Alright, Bud. Home time.”

We set off at a trot and as we stepped
back onto the main trail back to the barn I looked back to the top
of the hill. My heart jumped in my chest and my eyes widened then
narrowed. Had he been there watching? Impossible. There’s no way he
could have kept up to Dodge. I laughed at myself. It was time to
cut back on the imagination.

By the time I got back to the stables
all the horses were in the barn and having their supper. I gave
Dodge an extra scoop of oats and added some molasses like I had
promised him.

“Good night, Buddy. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

He nuzzled my face and went back to his
oats.

I waved at everyone in the cafeteria,
got into my truck and made my way home.

“Hey, honey.” My mom gave me a quick
kiss as I walked through the door.

“Hey, mom.”

She took a couple of binders off of the
couch and handed them to me. “Tara dropped these off for
you.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at her. I had always
thought my mom was the most beautiful woman alive. She had long
blond hair and green eyes. Though not the same green as mine. More
of an aqua color. She was also tall, a good four inches taller than
me. She made a great match for my dad who was six and a half feet.
His blond hair was slowly turning silver, but his grey eyes weren’t
losing any of their spark. I sometimes wondered what my real
parents had looked like, but really wasn’t interested in actually
finding out. As far as I was concerned, these two were my parents,
the two people who had raised me from the time I was a few months
old. Someone had definitely been watching over me the day my
adoption papers had been signed.

“Did you eat? Tara told me you guys had
to cancel, so I made enough for you.”

“No, I’m good, mom. I’m not really
hungry. I think I’ll just go upstairs and study.”

“Ok, Hun. It’s in the fridge if you
change your mind.”

“K.” I made my way upstairs and settled
myself at my desk with my genetics notes pulled out.

I stared at the papers for a good half
hour before I realized that the only thing on my mind was
Jasper.

“Geez, Hayden. You think you might be a
bit old for a high school crush?” I shook my head. “But he is
gorgeous. Good god, those eyes!”

I laughed at myself. Another thing I do
that tends to annoy me is talk to myself. It’s not such a bad thing
when I am alone, but I have gotten some strange looks from people
who have noticed me doing it.

I sighed and put my books away. My
alarm clock said nine and I shrugged. “Bed time.”

I changed and lay in bed, my covers
pulled up to my chin and fell asleep thinking of Jasper.

*****

It was impossible to fall asleep.
Jasper rolled over onto his stomach and lay his head in his arms.
He remembered the feel of her fingers on his neck; had noticed the
slight hesitation when she had been done rubbing out the knot. Had
loved how she had blushed when he had looked back at her and
smiled. It had taken every ounce of strength he had not lay her on
the ground. To take her right then and there. Was it possible she
didn’t know what she was doing to him?

“You have your orders, man”, he growled
to himself.

He looked up at the rustling in the
bushes ahead of him. A small grey rabbit made its way into the open
then bolted when it spotted him.

He shrugged and stood up. Since he
wasn’t able to sleep, he may as well go hunting.

*****

The following morning I jumped out of
bed and got dressed. My dad looked up in surprise as I ran down the
stairs and threw together a lunch.

“I’ll be gone all day dad! I’ll let you
know about supper.” I gave him a quick kiss and ran to the
entrance.

“What was that all about?” I heard my
mom asking.

“I’m not sure.”

“Bye!” I called back to them as I
closed the door.

I jumped into my truck and made my way
out of town. My heart was beating a bit more quickly than usual and
I shook my head. I thought of Jasper’s eyes and smiled. It had been
a while since I had felt anything like this, or let myself feel
anything like this. Maybe it was because he was a stranger. I was
pretty sure he wasn’t from around here. He had a bit of an accent
that I couldn’t place. Maybe deep down I thought a couple days of
fun would be safer than getting attached to someone again just to
have them crush me.

I pulled up to the arena and glanced to
the pens. Dodge was already outside. He perked his ears towards me
when he saw me heading towards him.

“Hey, Buddy.” I put his halter on and
led him to the barns.

“I brought my books so I can study,” I
made small talk with him as I saddled him. “I told Jasper after
lunch and I have no clue where his campsite is, so I thought we
could go hang out at that little waterfall for the morning.” I
wondered how Jasper would manage to find us. “I guess he’ll
probably look there first since that’s the only place I know up
there.”

Dodge snorted.

I went back to the truck and grabbed my
lunch, some blankets to sit on and my book bag full of books. Back
at Dodge’s stall, I grabbed my sweater out of the tack box. I put
that and my lunch into the saddlebags, rolled the blankets and tied
them behind my saddle, and pulled my backpack on.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

I glanced around outside as I swung
into the saddle. There was no one around. I was surprised when I
realized I was glad. The thought of having someone else along for
the ride today made me frown. Thankfully, I wasn’t going to have to
tell Tara or Shay that I didn’t want them to tag along. I was sure
it wouldn’t have gone over well.

I could just hear the conversation in
my head.

“Hey, Hayden, mind if we tag
along?”

“As a matter of fact, girls, I do. I’m
on my way to meet a gorgeous stranger out in the middle of nowhere
and no one will be able to hear me scream for help when he turns
out to be a serial killer.”

I laughed at myself. I could always try
to defend myself with my hoof pick.

“Ok, Dodge.”

I turned his head toward the trail and
silently wondered if the mystery trail would be there
today.

My stomach stayed in knots over the
thought until we passed the clearing. I took a deep breath and
smiled. It was there. Dodge seemed to know that was where we were
headed and made his way up the hill with no urging from
me.

I was amazed once again at how
beautiful the meadow was when we reached it. I guided Dodge to the
smaller trail by the creek and took a deep breath to calm the
butterflies in my stomach.

“Man. And to think this place has been
here all this time and I never knew about it.”

Dodge stopped by the pond and waited
patiently as I took everything off of him.

“Shit.”

Dodge stopped drinking and looked at
me.

“I forgot your hobbles. I put them with
Bertha’s harness thinking I was going to work her this
morning.”

He shook his head and went back to
drinking.

“I’ll just put your halter on. No funny
business, mister.”

I could never remember a time when
Dodge had ever wandered away from me and was fairly sure he
wouldn’t, but didn’t think that testing the theory this far out in
the woods was such a good idea. At least this way I could grab the
lead rope if he got a bit too far away.

I unrolled one of the blankets and
spread it out over the sand. I pulled one of my notebooks out of my
book bag then settled on my stomach.

I read all of the headings then skimmed
over the main points, muttering definitions and answers to
questions to myself.

“Live vaccines... killed vaccines...” I
took a break after the vaccines to grab an apple out of the saddle
bags. I took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.

“Intravenous...into the vein.
Intramuscular...into the muscle. Subcutaneous....under the
skin.”

I smiled as I studied and lost myself
in the definitions. Pharmacology was one of my favorite
classes.

I glanced up to make sure Dodge was
still close enough to catch. My eyes widened and I screamed in
surprise.

Jasper started to laugh. He stepped
away from the tree he had been leaning on and came towards me.
“Sorry. You were concentrating so hard I didn’t want to bother
you.”

I glared at him and tried to get my
heartbeats to slow down. “How long have you been standing
there?”

He smiled and sat beside me. “A few
minutes.”

As my breathing got back to normal my
irritation slowly dissipated. “Oh. Good god, don’t ever do that to
me again!” I smiled.

He laughed. “So what are you
doing?”

“Studying. I have finals this week.” I
lay my head down onto my arms and eased the tension in my
shoulders. “What time is it?”

“It’s after lunch.”

My stomach growled. “Hmm. So it would
seem. Did you eat? I brought a lunch.”

He shook his head. “I was fishing and
lost track of time. Do you like fish?”

“I love fish.”

He grinned. “I’ll make lunch. You can
study some more if you want.” He wandered into the woods and came
back out with sticks and some bigger dead branches.

“There’s a lighter in my saddlebags if
you need one.”

He shook his head and pulled two stones
out of his pocket. I watched in amazement as he struck the stones
together and a spark flew toward the sticks and dead grass he had
bunched under them. It took three more tries, but he soon had a
fair sized fire going.

“When you go camping, you really go
camping!”

Jasper looked up and smiled.

I had to catch my breath.

He went back into the woods and
reappeared with a handful of long green branches and a fish. After
tying the branches together he placed the fish on top of them and
held it over the flames.

I watched every move he made, unable to
look away.