Filed to story: My Life with the Walter Boys Book (I & II) PDF Free
Except for the soft rustle of the horses, it was silent. It felt like one of those romantic movie moments when a guy and a girl are standing close together, just taking each other in. The room goes silent in an electrifying way, and then he starts to lean in, hesitating for a second to build the suspense. Then, in one quick moment, he closes the gap between their lips and sweeps the girl off her feet. Standing next to Cole was just like that, except for the kissing part.
“Oww!” I yelped, as an abrupt pain stung my foot. “What the hell?”
Cole looked disoriented from our near kiss, blinking at me in confusion as I hopped away from him, but when a dog with floppy ears emerged from the hay, Cole started laughing again.
“That’s Bruno—mighty hunter of mismatched socks and smelly tennis shoes.”
“He bit me,” I said, looking down at the dog. In reality, it was more of a nibble, something that didn’t hurt, but the sudden nip had been so unexpected that my heart was thumping away.
“You’re joking, right?” Cole said, squatting down to scratch the mutt behind his ear. “Bruno wouldn’t hurt a fly. Probably just thought your foot was an old shoe.”
On further inspection, Bruno did look quite harmless. He was a brown dog, yet the fur on his muzzle was white with old age. He was probably a grandpa in doggy years.
“He’d be sorta cute if I wasn’t allergic,” I said, backing away as Bruno looked up at me, tongue hanging out of his mouth.
Standing up, Cole took my hand and led me over to a section of stalls that I hadn’t noticed before because they were tucked away in the farthest corner of the stables. They were much bigger, and so were the animals within. “Are you allergic to horses?” he asked, stopping in front of a stall with a stunning gray horse. Under the light of the stables, its hair almost looked blue.
“Not that I know of,” I replied and took a step back as Cole unhooked the latch. “What’s his name?”
“You mean her name,” he corrected, stepping inside. “Athena is a girl.” At the sound of her name, Athena shook out her mane before nuzzling Cole’s forehead.
“She’s so…huge.” Now I was inching away as stealthily as I could. Growing up in the city, I didn’t have much experience with animals, but I didn’t want to admit that I was frightened of Athena.
Cole didn’t notice. “You wanna go for a ride?” he asked, his voice jumping up. He didn’t wait for a response; he was already pulling a saddle off the wall.
“No way!” I was backed up against the opposite wall, as far away as I could get. Nothing could get me on that thing—not even a super-cute boy.
“Jackie,” he said as he arranged the saddle on Athena’s back. “Remember what I said about living a little?”
“Yeah,” I shot back. “Remember what I said about hating you?”
It took a bit of coaxing, but Cole succeeded in getting me on his horse. I was so set in my refusal that Cole attempted to trade five of his morning bathroom minutes to me, but I told him there was nothing that could entice me onto Athena. I, of course, was wrong. There was something worth the uncomfortable feeling of sweaty palms and a jittering heart. After promising that he would get Jack and Jordan to stop following me around with their video camera, I let Cole boost me into the saddle.
For the first ten minutes, I kept my eyes shut tight. My every nerve was prickling, and all I could focus on was the horse moving below me. But then I started to notice other things, like the feeling of Cole’s body pressed against mine and the warm spring sun on my face.
Cole took things slowly. He walked Athena through the fields, and the wind rippled the grass around us. I was finally settling in, enjoying Cole’s arms around me as he gripped the reins, when the meadow met up with the forest, the long, waving grass transforming into strong trees. Giving the reins a quick tug, Cole slid out of the saddle. After tying Athena to the nearest tree, he helped me down and we started into the forest, following a well-trodden path.
“You’re going to like this,” he said. Glancing back over his shoulder at me, his face lit up with excitement.
And he was right.
It only took five minutes to reach the clearing, but I knew when we were there. The world around me belonged in a fairy tale. Above us, a forest river ended in a tiny waterfall, the pool at the bottom forming a crystal-clear swimming hole. The sun shone down on the water, making it glimmer like glass, and the greenery around the edge was covered in water droplets sparkling like little emeralds.
The Walters had created a beach entrance with pure white sand, and the water lapped at the shoreline like we were at the ocean. There were two blue beach chairs pushed into the sand, positioned just so, and behind them, a picnic table in the shade. A tree near the water’s edge had wooden planks nailed into it so people could climb to the thick branch that hung over the water. Cole smiled, took off his shirt, and shuffled up the tree like a little boy.
“Now what are you doing?” I asked him, even though I knew.
Cole let out a holler, which was followed by a splash as he cannonballed into the water. “How’d I do?” he asked when he resurfaced.
I shrugged. “Eh, I’d give it a four and a half.”
“Out of five?”
“Ten,” I replied, watching him tread the water.
“Fine, Simon Cowell,” he said, sloshing back up onto the beach. “Let’s see you do better.”
Kicking off my sandals, I dipped my feet in the water to test the temperature, only to hop back instantly. “Are you crazy?” I asked, surprised there wasn’t a thin sheet of ice over the pool.
An alarming grin crept onto Cole’s face. “Maybe a little,” he admitted, before darting forward and locking his arms around my waist.
“Cole! Cole, no!” I shouted, kicking my legs wildly, but he scooped me up in one swift motion and tossed me into the water.
It took less than three seconds for the whole thing to happen, but my body reacted instantly, all of my muscles tensing up in preparation as I soared through the air. At first, when I hit the surface, I felt nothing. An instant later, as my body plunged into the icy pond, the pins-and-needles feeling rushed up my limbs like a chain reaction. I was so caught off guard by the whole thing that I managed to suck down a mouthful of water. I came up coughing, my lungs feeling as if they were frozen solid.
“Your entry was shaky,” I heard Cole saying. “I’ll give you a two, and that’s me being generous.”
“I hhate you!” My teeth were chattering so badly that I nearly bit my tongue.
“Yes,” he agreed, nodding his head. “I think you’ve already pointed that out today.”
If I wasn’t shivering in big, violent jerks, I wouldn’t have let his cheekiness go unchecked, but I could literarily only concentrate on one thing: “This water is freezing!”
“Yeah,” said Cole as he floated on his back, his hands sculling back and forth to stay afloat, as if he were in the Caribbean. “But it’s great during the summer when it’s piping hot.”
“Really?” I said, not believing him. “I feel like I’m going to get hypothermia.”
“Stop being a baby,” Cole said before diving under the water like a penguin. The Walters must have polar bear DNA, I thought as I took a few strokes toward land. I was positive that I was turning blue.
A hand wrapped around my ankle, and I was yanked under the water. I let myself sink for a second before returning to the surface, choking up more water.
“You okay, New York?” Cole asked, laughing. “Or are you going to need some mouth-to-mouth?”
“That was not funny,
Colorado.”