Page 14 of Stolen Dreams

“Hey, Lilah, you didn’t come and get your ride in today,” he notes, and I shake my head.

“I went to ride Juliet,” I tell him, “but I’ll see about going out with Rosy today on my lunch break.”He nods at me before he rushes out to the other barn.

“Okay, let’s start here,” I state, looking at the horse in the last stall.“Do you remember what I told you yesterday?”I ask, and she nods.“Of course you do.You’re a smart girl.”I wink at her, and she smiles at me.I put my hand in the stall and she does the same as me.“We’ll let him smell us and then go in and say good morning,” I say of the horse that was a bit testy yesterday.He walks up to us and is not sure if he’s going to like us or not.“Sometimes it takes him a bit of time to decide whether he’s going to like us or not,” I say, and she looks at me and then at the horse.

“So how old are you, Lucy?”I ask, wondering if she’s going to talk to me.I wait a couple of seconds, and when she doesn’t answer me, I smile big at her.“Are you fifteen?”She laughs now.“Okay, is it higher?”I tease her, and she shakes her head.I move my head side to side, thinking of what to say.“Okay, four?”She shakes her head.“Maybe five?”

“No,” she says in the most angelic voice I’ve ever heard, “I’m eight.”

“That was my next guess.”I try not to be in shock that she actually spoke to me.Instead of bombarding her with more questions, I stop talking for a bit.It isn’t awkward since the horse comes and tries to lick our hands, making her pull her hand out and wipe it on the back of her jeans.“Let’s go to the next one.”I pull my hand out as we walk over to the next stall.

We get to Coffee’s stall.“Hi, Coffee,” I say, opening the stall and stepping in with Lucy behind me.“Lucy and I came to say good morning,” I tell Coffee, who gives a huff as if he is talking to us.

“That’s him saying good morning.”I smile over my shoulder at her.“So what grade are you in, Lucy?”I ask, sticking my hand out for Coffee and watching her follow my actions.This time, she doesn’t back away when he comes at her.

I wait to see if she’ll talk to me or retreat again, but with her focusing on Coffee, she speaks to me, forgetting that she hasn’t really spoken to me at all.“I just finished third,” she answers.“I’m going into fourth.”I nod at her.

“Oh, cool.”I react as if her voice isn’t warming my soul.“Do you like school?”I ask, and she nods.I now see I have to ask her questions that don’t have a yes or no answer.

“What’s your favorite subject?”I ask, and she watches Coffee walk to her as he sniffs her hand.

“I like math and reading,” she says.

“I loved reading.I have a book club with just me and my best friend, Sierra,” I say.“My favorite story in fourth grade wasCharlotte’s Web,” I share with her, and she looks at me.“It was my favorite, and I wanted to get a pet pig,” I admit, and she smiles, “but then my parents refused.I didn’t talk to them for two days.”I shake my head.“I also went searching for spiderwebs all over my house, thinking they were secretly writing words for me.”She laughs at me.“They weren’t.”

“My favorite book isSleepover Princess Diaries.It’s a fun one.”

“Oh, really?What’s it about?”

“It’s about a princess who doesn’t go to school, so she has no friends since she has to be in her castle all day long,” she tells me about the story.“Every night, she writes in her journal about what she would do if she was at a sleepover.Every night is a new adventure for her with her four best friends—her cat, dog, hamster, and goldfish.”

“That sounds like a good group of friends,” I say, turning and walking out of the stall with her nodding.“What are the names of her friends?”

“There is Blue, the cat, even though he’s black,” she rambles as we walk to the next stall, “and then Buster, the dog, who doesn’t like the cat.Humblepie is the hamster, and the goldfish is called Jaws.”

I laugh at the last name, and she laughs with me as we open the stall for Rosy.“That’s a funny name for a goldfish,” I say.“Good morning, Rosy.”

“One adventure,” she says as she holds out her hand before mine for Rosy, “is that it rains gumballs.”

“Ouch, that must hurt.”I wince but then look at her shyly.“But then I’d eat all the yellow ones.”

“I like the red ones,” she whispers.

My phone beeps from my back pocket, and I pull it out to see it’s Courtney.

Courtney: Hey there, stranger.It’s been over a week, and you were supposed to call me right back.Want to catch a movie this weekend?

I’m about to answer when Sierra texts me.

Sierra: Want to do an impromptu book club meeting on Saturday night?

I’m about to answer her when I get a message alert from one of my social media accounts, and my heart stops when I see who is trying to message me.The back of my neck feels like it’s on fire when I read the name.Derek Honeywell wants to send you a message.I can only see the first sentence of the message before I almost drop my phone.

I put the phone away in my back pocket, trying to control my breathing, when I look over at Lucy watching me.Her eyes fill with worry, probably taking in the panicked look on my face at the same time as I try to control the way my body shakes.“I’m fine,” I try to tell her, but she doesn’t say anything.Instead, she walks over to me and slides her hand in mine.Exactly like I did to her yesterday when she was scared.

I’m about to say something else to her when I hear boots coming our way.“Yeah, she might like that,” Emmett says.Then I see Charlie and him walk by the stall and stop when they see us.

“There they are,” Charlie announces with a smile.“Hi, Lucy,” he says, but Lucy doesn’t say anything to him.“I was looking for you.Autumn is going to go to the park with baby Landon, or, as we call him, Billy, and was wondering if you wanted to go with her?”

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