Horse Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

should stop because I want to kiss you, and it’s very hard to kiss a girl who’s talking.”
    Lisa stopped talking.
    Tec took a small step toward her and pulled her to him. Still holding her right hand with his left, he put his right hand on her shoulder and slid it around her back, drawing her closer still. Then he leaned down, looking uncertainly into her eyes. Lisa couldn’t help smiling at him. All uncertainty left his face. He smiled back. And then, as their lips met, she closed her eyes. All her senses became one, and they all focused on Tec Morrison.
    Lisa had no idea how long they stood there, locked in that kiss. Even later, she couldn’t have said if it had been four seconds or an hour. It seemed an eternity, and it changed everything.
    And then they walked along the beach in pleasant silence for a while. Soon, they began talking again.
    “So,” Lisa said. “What would you be doing if you were home now?”
    “I think I’d be working on my lines,” Tec said.
    “Lines?”
    “A play. I’m in the spring play at the high school. I’m Artful Dodger.”
    “In
Oliver!
?” she asked.
    “Right. You know the play?”
    “Well, I’ve seen it done. But I’ve never been in it. The last play I was in was
Annie
.”
    “You starred, I bet.”
    It was true. She had. “Well …”
    “I can see you with a shaved head, playing Daddy Warbucks.”
    Lisa laughed. “That’s my part!” He smiled at her. Oh, those dimples! “It was just community theater,” she said. “But it was fun. I really loved it.”
    “I do, too,” Tec said. “The way an audience reacts when you do it right for them—it’s like a drug.”
    “I never thought of it that way,” said Lisa. “I just love the music and dancing—you know, the smell of the greasepaint. The whole thing. Isn’t it cool that we both love the same thing?”
    “It just seems right,” he said, squeezing her hand.
    “I guess we have a lot in common. I don’t suppose you ride horses, do you?”
    “It’s the next thing on my list to take lessons in,” said Tec.
    “Really?”
    “Really,” he said.
    “Well, you know they’ve got a stable here. I’ve signed up for a trail ride tomorrow. Would you like to come along? I could teach you.”
    “That would be great. What time?”
    “How about eight o’clock?” she suggested. “The trail ride leaves at eight-forty-five.”
    Tec glanced at his watch, which made Lisa look at hers. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was after one o’clock in the morning! She and Tec had been walking and talking—and kissing—for over five hours, and she could have sworn it was little more than half an hour. The time had simply flown.
    “Could we make that eight-thirty?” he asked. “I think I could make it by then, but I’m not positive.”
    “Sure,” she said. “I’ll meet you at the stable then, if you can make it and if we don’t see each other at breakfast first.”
    “What would I need to wear?” he asked.
    She told him that he’d need long pants and some shoes with a heel. “See, if you don’t have a heel on your shoes, you run the risk of having your foot slip through the stirrup, and that can be really bad. They probably have hard hats, so you don’t have to worry about that. I guess it’s already pretty warm here by eight-thirty in the morning, so you won’t need a jacket. They’ll have ridingcrops, too, and you can probably choose between English and Western. If you’re a totally new rider, Western may be better for you because the saddle is easier to sit in and, even though it’s bad form, you can hold on to the pommel if you need to.”
    “That’s what the rope goes on?”
    “Yes, on a Western saddle. All modern pleasure riding saddles have evolved from working saddles. The English saddle we use today is a cousin of the saddles that were used on battlefields in the past. They are light so that the horse doesn’t have to carry any extra weight. The Western saddle is more substantial,