Sweet Iced Tea

Chapter 5

Monday, May 26th

It shouldn't have been weird to ride home with Josh and Bailey. But it was.

You know, if I could turn back time, and make Josh not ask me out, I would. He ruined our perfectly good friendship with seven little words, and now everything is awkward.

Words kill the soul, I am convinced.

Right now I'm sitting with my mom on her bed as she combs my hair with her fingers and we talk. She understands my problems for the most part, or rephrase that. She understands all of the ones that I share.

People say that I look just like her, and even though I don't like to own it, its true. Our faces are shaped the same, I have her big eyes, except mine are plain brown while hers are a bright blue. Full lips, little noses, arched eyebrows. We look a lot alike.

We are both a bit rebellious, but her rebellion is tamed out while mine is still in the raw. We have big mouths, big opinions, and much to my dismay, big hands and big feet.

Once I've poured my heart out to my lookalike about my boy problems, I go to my room. Nothing like a little momma therapy, as I always say. And I'm completely serious.

I sit down on my bed next to Jonah. He's running a little toy dump truck up and down the pillows, making soft little car noises.

"What are you playing?"

"Trucks."

"Do you wanna go on a walk?"

He nods.

"Well then, let's go." I take his hand and we skip out of the room.

Grace catches my other hand as we go through the kitchen. "I'm coming too." She says.

I know where we're going. I figured out last night that if I cut through the woods behind our house, it isn't quite a mile to Josh's house. It's time to test my theory.

My heart thuds painfully at the sight of Dad's old shed, but I manage to stay composed as we pass it. We stop at the edge of the treeline, and look into the underbrush before I lead them to the faint path that winds into the trees.

"Where are we going, Lee-yuh?"

"We are going to ride Josh's horses." I say. Actually, I need to talk to him. Tell him that my mom isn't okay with us going anywhere together without a third-wheel.

Grace giggles. "We're gonna go ride horses?"

"Yep." I swing their hands as we walk along, and our bare feet follow the path. We always go barefoot when it's warn enough, so almost all year round, because here in Oklahoma there is only like two months of actual 'cold'.

The birds and cicadas are loud, you forget how loud they are when you aren't underneath the trees all the time.

Jonah starts to whine after a while.

"Come on buddy," I pick him up and settle him on my hip, "We aren't there yet."

I can see the trees up ahead disappearing into sun-lit pastures, and in a rush to be done walking I put Grace on my other hip.

I now have two sets of sweaty hands on my neck, and I step out from the trees.

It seems my calculations might have been a bit off.

There is no house or barn or even horse in sight, and the empty, humid wind whistles in my ears.

"Let's go." I say, mostly to myself. His house could be right on the other side of this hill, and I don't care to admit defeat.

As soon as I crest the top of the hill I feel like my walk is redeemed.

There is a barn, just a few hundred yards away, and I can see someone lunging a horse in a round pen.

I can only hope that it is actually him. It could be awkward to be caught trespassing by say, his dad.

I try my best to approach the pen without faltering, and upon closer inspection, I see that it is Josh.

Thank goodness.

"Stay away from the horse until he says you can pet it." I say to my siblings as I put them down.Upon lack of children, my back begins to ache.

"Hi!" My 'date' raises a gloved hand in greeting, and stops the horse, a very pretty little chestnut-paint filly. I think the markings pattern was Overo.

"Hi!"

She walks up to him and puts her head under his arm like a puppy, peering curiously at us from under his armpit.

He laughs and gives her nose a playful shove. "Shoo, baby girl."

He turns his attention back to us. "What are you doing here, Leah?"

"I came so Grace and Jonah could ride the horses."

"How did you get here then?"

I nod behind me. "We walked. You know, its less than a mile when you cut through the woods."

He nods. "Oh, okay. Really?"

"Yeah." I lift Jonah up so that he stands on the top bar of the fence.

He points at the little mare. "I wanna ride the horse."

Joshua picks him up and sets him on the mare's back, keeping ahold of her lead rope.

Jonah pets her wide back and laughs with glee.

Josh sets Grace on her back too.

I stroke her soft, velvety nose, and slowly bring my eyes up to face Joshua. "I need to tell you something."

"What would that be?" He smiles, and strokes her neck.

"Mom wasn't okay with me going to the bucking with you."

"Oh?"

"She said next time, if there is a next time, we have to have a third party."

He grins. "Who?"

"My sister, Cora.