corral with the loading chute.
The top of the chute came to Jamison’s chest, and as they passed it, something screamed out of the darkness at him. His fast reflexes kept him from getting side-swiped by Geraldo, Kenneth's mean-spirited cat, but still he held on to Skye's hand, as if his life depended on it.
He raised her hand and kissed it, then pulled her around the corner, down past the spent garden planted smack dab between the two large corrals. There were no cars parked this far back, but they could get to the cornfields, out past the windbreak trees.
Skye was a little surprised. As bundled up as Jamison always seemed to be, she would have thought him too cold to want to remain outside, but then she remembered how hot people seemed to get when they were...holding each other. Maybe he hoped to get warm that way.
Maybe he'd be taking her back to her car a lot sooner than he expected.
A breeze nudged the wind chimes on Kenneth's back porch and Skye paused, looking back at the unusually dark yard. She caught sight of Kenneth's pick-up parked under the awning of the west shed. Jamison’s car was parked just beyond that, west of the house. His mom's car was gone.
“Jamison?” She didn't know why she whispered. No one seemed to be around.
“What?”
“How did you get to the school tonight?”
“I got a ride.”
“Why?” What was she missing?
“Long story. I'll tell you later.”
He started pulling her along. When she resisted a little, hoping he would slow down enough to let her think, he turned back to her, his eyes dark and intense. He stepped close and bent his head, to kiss her again, but she covered his lips with her gloved fingers.
“Who gave you a ride?” She moved her hand so he could answer.
“Miss Rachel Phillips.” He grinned. “Jealous?”
She frowned. “Of course not. I was just curious. She doesn't live out here, does she?”
“I don't know. I wasn't interested enough to ask. Then I thought if I hitched a ride in, I could beg a ride back from you.”
That sounded good. She'd buy that.
“Then I decided a nice walk might cool me off. But it didn't.”
He bent and kissed her then, and she imagined the temperature of his lips would be much higher than 98.6. Before she opened her eyes, she was being dragged away again.
They stopped under the tree house where Jamison finally released her hand. He collected the ends of ropes dangling from branches high above their heads.
“Clever boy.”
“You think so?”
“We won't need a ladder to clear the fence, we can just use the ropes.”
“Clear the fence?” He looked at the wall of boards behind him. “What are you talking about?”
“We aren't going into the cornfield?”
He looked genuinely shocked at the idea.
“What for?”
Oh, she was getting very good at blushing, even in the dark.
“To be...um.”
“Alone?” He was grinning. “No. I had a better idea, actually.” He looked up into the darkness. “Ever been inside a real bona fide tree house before?”
He was expecting her to be afraid. Of course a mortal girl might be, so she’d play the part.
“Are you kidding? Do you know how high up that thing is?” Actually, she'd been dying to see the clubhouse since Lucas and Jonathan had spent an afternoon talking about it. They seemed to think it was pretty safe in spite of its age. The climb up sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, for mortals anyway.
“Is Miss Somerled afraid?” Jamison taunted, swinging the end of a rope in a circle.
“Yes, she is. Unless you have an elevator, I'm not going up there, let alone in the dark.”
“Your wish is my command, Miss.” He walked behind the tree and carried out a wood pallet. Ropes were tied to each corner then jumbled together where the end of one rope led up into the sky. “If you sit right in the center and keep yourself balanced, this is your very high-tech elevator.”
She laughed.
“Oh, come on. Try it. I've used it, just this morning, to take up wood for the windows. Lucas helped me.”
“He did?” What was Lucas up to? Why had he not mentioned it to her?
“Yeah. We made a very efficient team.”
“Lucas is nothing if not efficient.”
“So, will you try it?”
“Can't we wait until daylight, Jamison? What if I fall?”
“I'll tell you what. If you haven't got the hang of it by the time I get you four feet off the ground, I'll lower you back down and take you to your