Credence

the threshold and immediately smell the familiar scent of the animals. It’s a
stable.
He heads down to the third stall, and I hang back as he opens it,
bringing out a brown mare with some paint markings down her snout and
on her legs from the knees to the heels. She’s already saddled, and I look
down at my flats, frosted with mud around the sole of the shoes. I have
sneakers in my room, but if I stay, I’ll need to get some work boots in town.
And soon.
Taking the reins, he leads the horse out of the stable, and I follow,
seeing Noah walk up to us and toss a couple of shovels into a pile next to
the barn.
“Oh, my God, are you okay?” he blurts out, looking at me worried.
“Was there an animal attack I didn’t know about?”
What?
And then I see his bewildered stare drop, and I follow his gaze, seeing
the purposeful tears and shreds of my designer skinny jeans that my
family’s personal shopper put in my closet a few weeks ago.
Slices of thigh peer out between shreds of dark-washed material, and
Jake laughs under his breath as I look back up to see a lopsided smile on
Noah’s cocky face.
I lock my jaw and look away.
He’s teasing. I’m just not in the mood.
Of course, I haven’t been in the mood for years, so I guess this is who I
am now.
I tuck my hair behind my ear, and he eventually passes, his lips tight
with the laugh he’s holding in.
“Tiernan,” Jake calls.
I walk over to where my uncle stands on the other side of the horse and
follow his lead as he holds the stirrup toward me. Reaching up, I fist the
reins in one hand and grab hold of the saddle in the other, slipping my left
foot into the stirrup. Hoisting myself up, I swing my leg over and straddle
the horse, fitting my other shoe into the right stirrup. It’s a perfect fit. I
don’t need him to adjust anything. I haven’t asked what we’re doing or
where we’re going, knowing it doesn’t really matter. I won’t argue.
I look around for his horse, but then, all of a sudden, he’s pulling
himself up and plopping down right behind me.
What is he doing?