did have a crush on her. But it took me years to admit it or even realize why I acted the way I did around her. In my defense, I was just trying to look out for her like I would for any friend.
The fact that she happened to be a girl made everything a whole lot more complicated.
Chapter Four
Lila
“Jude McCallister, you are the bane of my existence,” I shouted, slipping into the barn and sliding the heavy wood door shut before he could reach me. Leaning my back against the door, I panted from the exertion of running. The only reason I’d beaten him was because he had a limp after getting hit with a foul ball. Served him right. He’d been too busy causing trouble for me to keep his eyes on the game. It wasn’t like him to get so distracted but when he took the pitcher’s mound he redeemed himself.
My gaze settled on Brody. “How come you weren’t at the game?”
“Had to clean out the barn.” He was chewing on a long piece of straw as he saddled up Whiskey Jack, the quarter horse he practiced barrel racing on.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He shrugged. In Brody speak that was a no. A few weeks ago, his mom had come back and caused a scene. Now she was fighting for custody. “What are you going to do?”
Another shrug of the shoulders followed my question. “Uncle Patrick told me to speak my own truth. But I don’t want to get her into trouble, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said, although I didn’t know. Not really. “Do you want to… I mean, do you want to live with your mom?”
He shook his head and my relief was instant. I didn’t want him to go, I didn’t want him to leave us. “I don’t want to go back to the way things were. But I want her to be okay.”
I nodded, not exactly sure what to say about that. Patrick said his sister was an unfit mother who didn’t deserve her son. I agreed. From what I’d overheard, she’d been a bad mother. She had locked Brody in a closet and left him there for days with no food or anything. He’d ended up in foster care and thankfully the social worker tracked down Patrick who went to get him. We didn’t know what all Shelby did to Brody but I guessed none of it was good because my mom sat me down and lectured me about drugs and how bad they were.
“What’s Jude done now?” he asked, making it clear he didn’t want to talk about his mom or the custody battle.
“Doesn’t matter.” It was nothing compared to what Brody was going through and it was good to remind myself that people had bigger problems than I did. I pushed off from the door and walked over to the stalls, sizing up the black and white Appaloosa, Raven. A wild horse if there ever was one. Brody had begged the McCallisters to buy this horse from the ranch owner and as payment he was doing extra chores.
“Mind if I ride with you?” I didn’t usually ask for permission, but ever since Shelby turned up, he’d been wanting more time alone and I didn’t want to intrude.
His eyes scanned my tank top, shorts, and Converse. “You need to put on some jeans.”
“I’ll be fine.” It wasn’t the first time I’d ridden in shorts.
“You can ride with me. I set up the barrels.”
I smiled at the invitation. “Yeah, I saw.”
He narrowed his eyes on me as I stroked Raven’s head. The horse’s eyes flared and he nickered, tossing his mane and showing his teeth. I dropped my hand to my side and took a step back. “Not that one, Lila.”
“I’m a good rider. I can handle him.”
“He gets mean and ornery. I’m the only one who can ride him.”
Normally, I’d argue if it weren’t for the fact that it was true. Kate called Brody a horse whisperer and said he had a gift.
“How’d you learn to be so good with horses?” Nobody could handle a horse like Brody could. At fourteen, he wasn’t that same scrawny kid I’d first met either. He was still lean and wiry but he had muscles now. And it didn’t go unnoticed by the girls at school either. Girls drooled over the McCallister boys. It annoyed me to no end.
“Dunno. Just comes naturally, I guess. Like Jude and ball sports.”
“Yeah.” I smiled, forgetting that just minutes ago I