Page 62 of The Heir

He smiled with his large grin and gave me a nod.

“Now, just let me lock up.” I walked over and set the alarm and locked the back door. As we left, I locked the front door and stood under the overhang of the shop. The rain had paused for a moment, I noticed, as Shad walked in front of me. He reached back for my arm, and I let him take it.

I didn’t speak as he pulled me around, behind the shop. I was aware that there was a trail back there, but I hadn't been down that path in a long time. We continued to walk in silence as more rain began to fall. I watched the rain fall down Shad’s back as he guided me forward. Even with the coat, I was soaked through right away, as was he. Still, it was pleasant; I felt cleanand new, almost as if I had been reborn. On that path, with that rain, and within that cold darkness, somehow, I found my peace. We walked down the main path a bit longer, and then veered off to the right and onto another less traveled path. I looked intently at everything around me as if seeing clearly for the first time. Though my vision was blurred from the splattering rain, I still could see that the world looked different than it ever had before. How could I explain it?I couldn’t. I only knew that things were different; things shifted, as if I was suddenly looking at the world with new eyes. As I took everything in, I felt something wet and sticky all over my legs. I looked down to see that I was in a puddle, a huge puddle, and not only that, I was completely soaked. I was completely covered in brown, muddy earth. Shad had been in front of me and turned to look at me, right as it happened. I looked down at my pants, my feet, and Shad’s jacket–yep, all covered in mud. I put my hands on my face to feel that it, too, was also splattered. At that moment, in the pouring rain, Shad laughed. Not an I’m-making-fun-of-you laugh, but a joyful laugh. I couldn’t help but laugh, too, feeling how wonderful it was to release one loud laugh after another. Eventually, we stopped laughing, and he reached for my hand. I gave it to him. As he pulled me out of the puddle, I fell into him. I was surprised that he didn’t pull away from me—I was drenched in mud, after all. He lifted his free hand and wiped the mud from my cheek and forehead. I could barely breathe.Why does his touch make me so crazy?I stared at his lips, and I wanted to feel his lips against my own, and I begged him with everything inside me to kiss me.

“You are a bit of a mess, are you not, darling?” His hot breath sent chills through me, and I didn’t know if he really understood how deeply true those words were both inside and out. He smiled, and I watched as rain brushed against his cheeks and fell from his chin. I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t smile, I couldn’t doanything then, but just look at him and take him all in. I heard the rain, felt his warmth around me, saw how his eyes looked into me, into my soul, my song playing in the background, humming from within me. Once he was done wiping my face clean, he turned and started to walk again. I walked the rest of the way down the muddy trail in the rain with Shad’s hand in mine.

After a few more minutes, the path led us to a small creek. The sun was just beginning to shine as we reached the water. We stepped onto a small cobblestone bridge that must have been over a hundred years old. Shad guided me over it, and I willingly followed.

He turned around to face me.

“Are you ready?” he smiled.

“Ready for what?”

He turned me around and placed his hands on my shoulders and rested his head on one of his hands. Joy bounced around inside me at his touch.

Ryker has never made me feel this way.I pushed away the thought ofhim.

“This—” and suddenly, I saw it.

The water sparkled in the sunlight, and rainbows glittered through the water. Rays of light bounced off of the rain as it fell. Tiny drops created electric patterns in the quickly moving water. I stood, mesmerized by its simple, glowing, glittering, colorful beauty. The trees with their autumn orange leaves glowed like fire in the sunlight. Just as it had come, it went, and just like that, the rain and the sun were gone. It was as if I had blinked, I would have missed it. It reminded me of another one of my mother’s stories, and the entire experience seemed too fantastical to be real, but it was real, because there we stood. Shad let go of my shoulder and took off his hood, and he looked up at the sky. I watched him.

“How, how does that happen—how did you know?” I whispered. “I have never seen anything like that before.” Not wanting to affect the beautiful scene, I spoke ever so softly.

“Did you like it? I saw it when I was walking out here one evening. It reminds me of a place near the home where I grew up.” He must have been waiting for my approval.

“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

He smiled as if in triumph. I followed him onto the other side of the bridge and down to the bank by the water. He reached down and picked up a rock and reached for my hand and placed something cold in my palm–the rock, I assumed. When I looked, I didn’t see just a rock. It was no bigger than a pebble, clear and jagged. It was a crystal, and as I lifted it up to the sun’s light, I twirled it between my fingers, looking at the reflections and rainbows it created.

“It’s beautiful!” I gasped.

“It’s a crystal.”

I looked at him as he smiled while bending over to pick up a different rock to throw across the creek.

He looked at the clouds. “We better go; it is going to rain again, and you might step in another puddle.”

“Shad, why did you bring me here?” I asked, not turning around to look at him.

“Because I thought you would like it,” he said softly.

“Thank you.”

“I wanted you to know, Emma, that even on the darkest days, when the sky cries and the clouds barricade the sunlight from your view, that there isstilllight—that even in the darkness, there are pieces—rays of light, and we only have to search for them, and then they will light up our souls.”

I smiled, unable to do anything else. I turned and looked at the river, leaned over, and observed the many tiny crystalized rocks in the water. I reached down and picked up a crystal, needing totouch one again to help me memorialize that moment. I let the crystal fall back into the water and quickly followed after Shad as he placed the crystal that he had found inside his pocket. We walked back in silence. I didn't know what else to say.

As The Rose Village’s store lights came into view, I realized that I didn’t want to leave him. It was something that always seemed to happen whenever I spent time with him. He slowed down and waited for me to catch up. Our hands moved together, and swayed mockingly beside one another. He didn't reach for my hand, and I wondered why. Ryker and I used to hold hands so easily,and I want that with Shad, too. I want him to always hold my hand, not just when I need his strength, but always.I tried to push that thought away. Suddenly, his fingers were bending around mine, and I felt my face grow warm. I felt my heart beat faster. I thought that I must have been easy to read because he always seemed in tune with what I wanted. I searched for something to say.

Shad pulled my hand up to his mouth. He looked at our hands for a brief moment, and then he looked at me. As his lips touched the skin on my hand, I felt as though my heart would break through my chest.

“Something happens when I am around you. Ifeelthings,” I said again, immediately wishing that I had kept my mouth closed.

He moved our clasped hands away from his lips. I watched as a small smile made its way onto his face. “Youfeelthings?Imake you feel these things?” he asked with that alluring smirk upon his face, which made me want to kiss him. He was becoming more playful with me the more time we spent together. I liked it, but I didn’t understand why he had to be playful atthatmoment?

“Shad, I am serious,” I said.

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