Taking The Reins - Book 1 of The Rosewoods (teen romance)

Love Rekindled

“I don’t know what I was nervous about, but you were right, Brooklyn: it was fine. No. It was better than fine, it was amazing! Dave is amazing.”

It was the sixth time Emmie’d used the word amazing since she’d returned from her stables rendezvous, kicked off her shoes and threw herself onto her bed, almost two and a half minutes before. It was tempting to point out that she was going to qualify for the ‘overused word drinking game’ if she wasn’t careful, but her excitement was infectious, so I just let her ride it out. Realizing I wasn’t going to get back to reading my textbook anytime soon, I wondered if I’d get any work done this year with Emmie as my roommate. I might have to figure out somewhere else to study for exams, but for now, before the workload got too heavy, I didn’t mind.

And I loved her energy; I hoped maybe some would wear off on me.

She bounced a little on her bed. “He looks even better than I remembered, since his hair’s grown out. I mean, you just can’t see it on Skype, you know? And it’s so soft and he smells exactly how I remembered; clean and masculine and kind of like leather and just pure goodness, you know?”

I nodded, getting the feeling if I opened my mouth, she’d just talk over me anyway.

“And the kissing,” she said, fluttering her lashes, her fingers rising to touch her lips. My face heated up as I guiltily remembered hearing them making out, but she didn’t seem to notice and went on. “He is such a good kisser. I think I may have missed that more than anything else. Although, the talking was nice. Not that we talked about much of anything.” She giggled sheepishly. “But hearing his voice first hand while he was touching me…” she trailed off, all swoony.

“So, you’re breaking up then?” I asked, joking.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course. I’m pretty much done with him; you can have him next.”

I laughed, but didn’t say anything. I mean, Dave sounded perfect; nice and good-smelling and of course, the good kisser part, but secretly, I was still thinking about Will.

“And, the best part? I’m going to get to work with him through my CSA—he’s doing school liaison, too. How lucky is that?”

I wasn’t sure luck had much to do with it, but I was happy for her and hoped that if I ever got a boyfriend, that she’d be happy for me if we got extra opportunities to be together.

“Oh no!” she said suddenly. “Wait! Your guy. I completely forgot to ask about him.” It was like she’d been reading my mind, or maybe I had a neon sign on my face or something.

But compared to her real relationship, my little flirtation with Will seemed stupid and insignificant now, at least out loud. I waved her off. “It’s no big deal. He was just a cute guy who helped me with my luggage, that’s all. I’m sure it was nothing.” Because it was going to amount to nothing, if my past history with guys was any sort of indicator. But he had smelled good, and his hair looked soft and I would have loved to have found out if he was a good kisser, too.

She gave me a look. “What? What’s going on with you?”

I avoided her eyes, smoothing out my bedspread over my legs and picking at the corner of the textbook I’d put down when she’d burst into the room. “Nothing.”

“What happened at the stables? You seem…I don’t know, different.”

I told her about the equestrian team conflict, but when I was done, she frowned at me.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s not it,” she said. “Something…you’re unsettled or something.”