Free Shattered Hearts ePub by Pen Name

pajama pants and sneakers, a bottle of beer in one hand and a folded up newspaper in the other.
    He took a swig of beer, oblivious to my presence.  Then he looked up and saw me a short distance away perched on top of Penny.  A look of sheer panic was on his face as dropped everything.  I could hear the glass shatter as the bottle hit the porch.  Then he leapt off the front steps and ran toward me, never taking his eyes off me.
    At first I thought he was going to inadvertently spook Penny in his haste to reach us, but then he regained his senses and slowed down some.  Even so, the urgency in his pace was evident.
    “Amanda, what are you doing?” he hissed, sounding terrified.  “Get down from there.”
    “I’m fine,” I reassured him, wanting the moment to last as long as possible.  “It’s okay.”
    “No, seriously,” he insisted, edging closer and closer until he stood at the edge of the fence.  “Get down from there right now before you get hurt.”
    His tone was stern now, like he meant business.  It set something off inside me.  I was still very much on edge after my nightmare.  Dreams about my ex always left me feeling violated, like he’d somehow managed to worm his way into my subconscious and was still controlling me.  So when Nate tried to tell me what to do, I snapped.  I knew he only had my well-being in mind, but I didn’t care. 
    “You don’t get to tell me what to do!  I make my own decisions, understand?” I informed Nate icily before guiding Penny away from the fence – and away from him. 
    He shouted something after me, but it was lost in the wind.  I didn’t want to hear whatever he was saying anyway.  What Nate wanted me to do didn’t matter.  When I left my ex, I vowed that no man was ever going to control me again.  It was a promise that I intended to keep.
    Penny and I raced through the night.  I could tell she was having the time of her life.  I could feel Nate watching me disapprovingly from across the pasture, but I didn’t care.  Let him disapprove.  He wasn’t going to tell me what to do.  And besides, Penny and I understood each other.  She wasn’t afraid of me, so I wasn’t in danger.
    No sooner than that thought crossed my mind, I felt a jolt beneath me.  Penny broke her stride and my eyes widened as I tried to figure out why.  Then she let out a distressed whinny and in that instant, I knew she was about to rear.  There was no time to try to calm her down and there was no rewind button.  All I could do was try to relax my body as I was violently bucked from her back and thrown into the air. 
    The fall happened quickly, but to me it felt like it was all taking place in slow motion.  When I landed, in that millisecond before the pain traveled through my nerve endings to my brain, I somehow managed to roll out of the way so Penny’s hooves wouldn’t come crashing down on me.  Then I laid there motionless, the wind completely knocked out of me.
    “Amanda!” Nate shouted.  I was dimly aware of him leaping over the fence and running to my side.  I’d never seen anyone move so fast in my life.  And when he fell to the ground beside me, kneeling over me and peering into my face, I’d never seen anyone look so concerned in my life.
    “Don’t try to move,” he advised.  “I’ll go get help.”
    “Don’t.”  It took every bit of strength I had to get that one word out. 
    “Are you sure?” Nate asked anxiously.  He was more shaken up than I was, I noted in awe.
    “I think I’m okay,” I managed to choke out once I was able to take in and release a few ragged breaths.  I reached out for Nate, my hand trembling, and he took it, squeezing tight.  Then, acting as though I was as delicate as glass, he carefully helped me sit up.
    Nate sat behind me, using his own body to support my back.  I leaned against him heavily and concentrated on breathing.  In and out...in and out... I repeated the mantra in my head and bit by bit,