Page 10

C laire looked up at her bedroom door, waiting. Not because she wanted the door to open, but because pretending it wouldn’t was hopeless. She pressed pause on the tape deck, snatched her current read off her nightstand, and braced for the onslaught from Hurricane Lala.

Lala had only just come into the house, but based on the stomping across the plank flooring and the heavy thud of a bag — or something like it — her cousin (well, step-cousin) was definitely angry.

Then again, Lala was always mad at someone — or something — whenever the world didn’t spin her way.

Precisely at seven a.m. that morning, Lala had announced to the house that she was going horseback riding.

Maybe Starlight had thrown her again. The first and last time Claire had gone riding with Lala, she had sworn never to go with her again.

The girl mentally abused that poor horse.

If Starlight began a slight gallop — even when approaching a hill, and the horse knew she needed the momentum — Lala would yank on the reins, screaming, “ Whoa !” It wasn’t the throw that kept Claire from riding with Lala; it was how she never listened.

Claire had tried to explain that Starlight knew the track, remembered where she needed to gain momentum.

Starlight had more patience than Claire ever would.

Not that it affected Claire’s riding time.

Today had been the first day in months that Lala had ridden her horse, whereas Claire visited her baby every chance she got.

When she’d seen how beautiful it was outside, Claire knew Lala would want to go.

So instead, Claire made it a climbing day, which was her other favorite pastime.

Since no one used the barn anymore, she had turned the area into her own climbing center, mounting carved wooden grips and bolt-on handholds she’d ordered through the REI catalog.

To Grams’s distaste, she’d even rigged up a rappelling station.

The only way she would be able to get on a search-and-rescue team was if she proved her worth, and she would. Someday…

“Ugh!” The bedroom door burst open, and Lala stormed in among a cloud of Charlie perfume.

Poor Starlight must choke when Lala showed up for her once-a-month ride.

Lala flopped dramatically onto Claire’s bed with a heavy sigh.

She was waiting for Claire to ask what was wrong, but if the girl didn’t start a conversation, she certainly wasn’t going to.

Pretending she was reading, Claire looked up at Lala without lifting her head. The girl was so dramatic. Anything that went wrong qualified as the end of the world, especially now, since she had to waste her life away in Alaska.

Not that life wasn’t more interesting with Lala living under the same roof, but Claire got tired of hearing how everything was better in California. Everything except Lala’s stepfather, apparently.

According to Grams, who barely tolerated her step-granddaughter, Lala’s stepfather had caught Lala sneaking out of the house for the last time.

A little more than two years ago, right before Claire had to move in with her grandmother, Lala’s stepfather had threatened to send her to a girls-only school for troubled teens.

As an alternative, Lala’s mother had shipped her up here to live with her grandfather.

Lala flattened her palm over the book Claire wasn’t really reading. “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m so late — and angry?”

“Why are you so late… and angry?” Claire asked as deadpan as she could muster.

Jumping up, Lala sighed dramatically. “See! Nobody cares up here! I hate Alaska! I had friends in California!” She stormed toward the door. “I should just leave. Hitchhike to —”

Claire suppressed a groan, surprised Lala didn’t threaten to kill herself again.

“I’m sorry, Lala. I do care. I don’t want you hitchhiking anywhere, either.

Didn’t you hear about that freak who just escaped?

They’re pretty sure he was the one who murdered those college girls near Seattle.

” Claire tugged Lala toward the bed. “I’m just tired.

You weren’t around, so I spent the whole day climbing. ”

Lala pulled free. “How can you do that all day!” With an obnoxious gagging sound, she plopped onto the mattress.

“So! You’ll never guess who just showed up.

Out of nowhere.” She waved her hands at the ceiling.

“After nearly two years, he just shows up like he’s the king of…

” She rocked a hand back and forth. “… whatever kings do.”

Claire sat across from her, waiting. Was that rhetorical? Or was she actually supposed to guess?

Lala gave her a knowing head bob.

Yeah, she expected her to guess. “I give up. Who?”

“Thomas!”

“Thomas?” Claire blinked. “Thomas Belgarde?” Her heart stuttered — not for Thomas, of course. Thomas had been a couple of years older than Claire; she barely knew him. But Adam… She’d known Adam since kindergarten. Adam’s father had even trained her horse, Buttercup.

Adam had always been around — quiet, respectful, watching as he worked in the barn like her own Westley from The Princess Bride . One time, when Adam had come back from a ride, and she was waiting on Buttercup, she’d teased, “ Hey, Stableboy, how about saddling up my horse ?”

He had simply smiled and said, “ As you wish .”

Her jaw had practically dropped. Adam just smiled and proceeded to show her how to saddle her horse.

They never got to talk about her favorite book — or whether he even knew what that line meant.

Not long after, her parents died, and she’d been shipped off to her grandmother’s.

Two hours and a whole world away, nothing had been the same.

Lala snapped her fingers in front of Claire’s face. “Are you listening to me, Claire-belle? Always in dreamland.”

Lala called her Claire-belle as if the nickname were somehow offensive. Maybe she didn’t know belle meant beautiful. Or perhaps she was calling her Claire- bell ? Either way, Claire didn’t care. Telling Lala something bothered her would just make her cousin say it more.

“Yeah, you know me, always off in another world far, far away,” Claire said.

Lala didn’t know her at all. But without her, Claire wouldn’t know anyone.

Lala had even been the one who’d introduced her to Boyd.

Boyd ! She flashed a look at the clock radio.

“We’re going to be late!” Lately, Boyd got frustrated over the tiniest things, so the last thing she wanted was for him to sulk all evening.

Not that she would admit it to Lala, but she really wanted to see this movie.

Long before Saturday Night Fever had come out, she’d been enamored watching Adam jump up in Thomas’s truck bed and dance to You Should Be Dancing .

Lala had swooned listening to Thomas sing that Lynard Skynyrd song, but then chastised his brother for dancing.

Thankfully, Thomas had stopped her from changing the station.

Thomas had looked proud to see his fourteen-year-old brother dance.

Lala flopped backward on the bed. “I’m not going out tonight.”

Claire jumped off the bed. “What do you mean? It was your idea. I can’t stand up Boyd.”

Lala rolled to her side, shrugging. She fingered the book’s pages. “Sure you can. We’ll tell them it’s that time.”

“Gross. Why would you mention that?”

Her cousin rolled her eyes. “Because if Roger’s not going to get to third base, he won’t want to go out.”

Claire dropped to her knees, shushing her outspoken cousin. “Have you guys… you know?” she whispered.

Lala shrugged and rolled over to a seated position, grabbing Claire and pulling her down beside her. “You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said, have you? Thomas is back. Why would I want Roger when Thomas is back?”

Claire stared up at her much taller cousin; even sitting, Lala was nearly a head taller. “I don’t know, Lala. Because you’re mad at him… because he hasn’t called you in two years?” Her voice rose with each question.

Unlike Claire and Adam — who’d never dated, just been two kids who’d been friends — Thomas and Lala had been dating for months. He had a truck. He could’ve shown up. Said something. Anything. He didn’t have to disappear without a trace — like Claire had.

Lala shrugged. “Maybe he was just busy. You know how busy the ranch gets. He and his brother didn’t stop working —”

Claire’s head spun. “The ranch? Wait — his brother?”

Lala sighed long and deep. “Honestly, Claire-belle, you’re supposed to be the smart one. Yes, the ranch. Thomas was riding that wild Mustang that always kicks the stall doors. It was crazy. He was racing along the fence —”

“Thomas was riding Prince?”

“I guess so. I don’t know all the horse’s names. Just Starlight because she’s the prettiest.”

Claire resisted sighing. Prettiest . Only Lala would choose a horse based on how it looked.

Claire’s mother had always said “ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but how did one even decide if a horse was pretty?

To Claire, all horses were beautiful. She circled back to Prince.

Something didn’t add up. She’d recognized him the moment he arrived at Clara Mae’s ranch.

Rusty — one of the few hands she trusted — had told her Clara Mae had bought the horse back, which shocked Claire.

Storm-born Prince was Adam’s horse. He’d gotten him around the same time Claire had gotten Buttercup.

She remembered it clearly — Adam riding the wild mustang bareback the day she and her father picked up her horse.

Her father had tsked at the recklessness.

She’d never seen Thomas on a horse.

If Lala didn’t want to go out, maybe Claire could borrow her truck and swing by the ranch. It was still light out.

“You know what?” Lala said, jumping up. “Maybe I will go out tonight. Since Thomas is in Wasilla, he might go to The Pitts.”

“No,” Claire said. “I’m not going to The Pitts. We’re supposed to go to the drive-in.”