Page 39 of Boundaries

My trainers pounded the ground as I kept on running. I made my way over two of our fields which had recently been fertilised, the smell was odourless to me as I’d lived with it my entire life.

The sun was angry, reflecting my mood.

I had been lied to, taken for an idiot and I felt used. Again, twice in the space of a week.

Slowing my pace, I weaved in and out of a cluster of trees and rounded the corner toward the meadow, the sound of the river in the distance was suddenly calming.

As I approached the space, I could see what appeared to be fencing which had been recently erected on our side of the river. Once it was fully built, it would stop us accessing the pool area. Annoyance poured into me like acid, stinging my insides.

So, the McKenna family had started to build a fence, to section the area as theirs. Therefore, underhandedly trying to claim the meadow and the pool. There were only around a dozen posts in the ground so far, and the wood looked fresh, so it must have been a recent thing. Thieves!

The thought increased my fury. How dared they! And whilst my parents were away. They had no right.

I needed something to take the edge off my anger and hurt and I stormed over and started to wiggle one of the posts. The cement which had been used to hold the last piece of wood hadn’t gone off yet, and I managed to bend the post but wasn’t strong enough to lift it out of the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the voice from my nightmares said from right behind me. His location suggested that he was on our side of the property.

Giving the post another push, it fell to the group and I turned and glared at Mason. He was alone.

His dark eyes narrowed as he looked behind me at the fallen post. He was wearing jeans and a tee and he had been sweating. The material clung to his chest. He was wearing a tool belt. Caught you red-handed motherfucker!

“Damaging other people’s property from the looks of it. Why am I not surprised,” he drawled, answering his own bloody question.

“The lumber is on our side Mason, which means we now own it,” I rasped before adding, “And you by the looks of it. Did you forget which side you’re on? You need to build your silly fence at the other side of the brook.”

He ignored the latter part of my question, “So, you think you own me now, do you, Amy?”

“Not personally. That would be way too much like hard work.”

Mason moved further toward me, his body tense like a coiled spring. This was a stand-off situation again and neither of us would give an inch.

A muscle flexed in his jaw, “Like you’d know what that looks like,” he shot down at me.

I rolled my eyes so hard; I was surprised they didn’t fall out of the back of my head, “I’ve been working all day for your information.” I delivered this in a ‘so there’ tone which was a bit childish, but I was past caring.

His dark eyes glittered, “Ah yes, Jenna said you worked at Kipling’s. I must admit, I was surprised.”

I planted my hands on my hips and shot him a contemptuous look, “Why would you be surprised?”

“Just can’t imagine you shovelling horse shit,” Mason replied.

My sneer was one hundred percent pure, “Well, you’d know exactly what that looks like, since you speak so much of it.”

Mason released a long, drawn-out sigh before dashing a hand down his face. He looked tired.

Shaking his head slowly from side to side he said, “Amy, Amy, Amy. You just don’t get it, do you?”

A twinge of regret stirred inside me, remembering what had happened the last time I prodded the beast.

Shoving that feeling to one side, I welcomed the second wind as I snapped, “Get what. That you’re a giant arsehole and I hate you.”

It was so fast I almost missed it, but I saw a flicker of unease pass across his features. Almost like the thought of my hatred, didn’t sit well with him. His next words confirmed that.

“You don’t hate me. You’d be bored to tears without our little chats. They bring you to life,” he said arrogantly. Like he knew me or something. It felt like a punch to the stomach.

Snorting, I barked, “More like choke the life out of me.”

I grinned at his scowl and darkness crept over his features, “Oh, I’ve had thoughts of that nature before, believe me.”

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