think anyone has ever called me a brat, outside of my mom.”
“Mom’s always right.”
“Touché,” he said, tapping his cup with one of the fingers that held it before he nodded over his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s ditch this place for a while.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“You don’t want to be here,” he reminded me. “And honestly, I’m bored out of my mind. There are some stables down by the creek. Let’s go for a midnight ride.”
“We can’t just ride someone else’s horses.”
“One of them is mine.”
That shut me up.
I shifted, tucking my hair behind my ears as I looked around us. People were already watching, whispering, wondering what in the world Ruby Grace Barnett was doing talking to a Becker boy.
“We can’t leave together,” I said, lowering my voice as I folded my arms back over my chest. “People will see.”
Noah furrowed his brows like he didn’t understand it, but when he followed my gaze, noticing the group of girls around my age with their eyes on us, he nodded in understanding.
“Ah,” he said, sliding his free hand back into his pocket as he took another drink of his beer. “I see. You still give a fuck what other people think of you.”
“No,” I said quickly, too quickly, blowing my faint attempt at nonchalance.
Yeah. Clearly he’ll believe that.
The truth was I did care — more than I wanted to admit. Our town loved to talk, and the last thing I wanted was to be the subject of anyone’s gossip.
“No, that’s not it,” I said again, voice more steady, though it was still a lie.
“Mm-hmm.”
“It’s not,” I argued again, like a child. “I don’t care what anyone in this town thinks of me.”
“Okay. Prove it, then,” he said, draining what was left of his beer before he tossed the cups in one of the trash cans nearby. He didn’t look over his shoulder to see if I was following him, just started off in the direction of the stables in the distance.
I bit my lip, looking back where Annie and Travis were — were being the big key word. They were gone, and when my phone pinged, I looked down to a text from her.
We’re heading out. Seriously, stay and have fun. Don’t let the old married couple drag down your night. Call me if you need a ride later. Love you!
I groaned, sliding my phone back in my pocket as I glanced back at Noah. He was already on the other side of the bonfire.
“Prove it,” I mocked, crossing my arms. “Whatever. I’m not a kid, I don’t need to prove anything to him.”
But even as the words rolled off my tongue, I knew they didn’t reflect what I actually felt. I wanted to prove him wrong, to prove to him and everyone watching and maybe even to myself that I could do whatever I wanted and it didn’t matter what anyone had to say about it.
Plus… I hadn’t gone riding since before I left for college. I used to love riding. That would be way more fun than sitting around drinking with a bunch of people I didn’t really care about… right?
I told myself that was the reason I went jogging after Noah, telling him to wait up. It wasn’t because I was being stubborn, or defiant, or because I wanted desperately to put my money where my mouth was and prove to Noah that he didn’t know everything about me like he thought he did. And it wasn’t because it was him, or because I wanted to be near him.
It was because I wanted an excuse to ditch that party and ride horses.
Noah chuckled when I caught up to him, my breath labored. He didn’t say a thing as we walked, and when the voices and music from the party were out of range, the familiar sound of the creek and the crickets chirping came to life, instead. I sighed, my breath steadying, tension seeping out of me like water through a leaky faucet.
“Better?” he asked when the sound from the party was completely muted by the sounds of Tennessee, instead.
I smiled, shoving him in lieu of admitting he was right. I blushed a little when my hand wrapped around his bicep before I pushed him away, because even that brief contact reminded me how stout he was, years of raising barrels building him into a specimen unlike any other.
He smirked, bouncing back from my shove easily before his eyes trailed down my legs. “Now, let’s see if you