Free Star Catcher by Kimber Vale

twenty questions.
    “What is that called?” He pointed to plants as they slowly wound around the base of a small mountain range. Stella identified Mexican hat, Indian paintbrush, and mullein, but got stumped on a vibrant blue flower. She pulled her horse to a stop and slid down beside the bloom. Noth reined his stallion in and joined her to scrutinize the orchid-like blossoms set atop a two-foot spire. Stella leaned in to give it a sniff, as if its scent would jog her memory.
    “What the heck is that one?” She shook her head. “I know it’s poisonous… Shoot! It’s on the tip of my tongue!”
    Noth’s shot a hand out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her to face him, and Stella let out a startled squeak.
    “Spit it out!” His voice cracked with authority.
    “What? I can’t remember what it’s called!” Stella shook her head at him, at a complete loss. She was even a sliver frightened by his vehemence. Was it really that important he know what monkshood was? Monkshood!
    Stella was about to tell him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Noth’s fingers gripped her cheeks. Faster than a racehorse out of the gates, he squeezed and pulled her chin down so her mouth gaped wide. She could only stare, dumbfounded, as he seemed to inspect her dental work.
    “I do not see it! Did you swallow it?” he yelled in her face while he peered inside her mouth, his other hand ready to reach down her throat, by the looks of it.
    “Hah! Hah!” Stella yelped a laugh with her jaw still held open by her knight in shining armor. Noth released her, clearly shaken and baffled by her reaction. Stella massaged her cheeks with her fingertips as she tried to explain the mix-up.
    “No. I didn’t swallow it. It was never in my mouth. It’s just an expression, you big silly.”
    His eyes narrowed. “An expression?”
    “A common phrase. If something is on the tip of your tongue, it means you can’t quite remember it. Like, you want to say it, but you can’t.”
    She watched his dazed demeanor unravel as understanding emerged, and his fantastic smile slowly lit up his face.
    “I am sorry. Did I hurt you, Stella?”
    “No. I’m fine. I’ll just have to be careful what I say around you.” She grinned up at him, and Noth reached toward her face once again. This time he smoothed a thumb over her cheek. Stella turned to place a kiss on his palm. Goliath stamped his foot impatiently behind him, but Noth’s eyes became focused on a point past Stella’s shoulder and she turned to find the object of his interest. He walked past her, off the rock-rutted path and through a clump of mesquite, only to return with a picked flower.
    “And the name of this one?”
    “Those are cosmos. One of my favorites.” She fingered the fuchsia petals.
    “Are they poisonous?”
    “Nope.”
    Noth tucked the bloom behind her ear. Stella reached up to feel the flower poking out beneath her baseball cap. She probably looked ridiculous.
    “Beautiful,” Noth said and placed a kiss on her nose that managed to steal her breath away.
    “Come on,” she said. “I want to get to that abandoned mine town before we run out of time.” Stella pulled her map out of her back pocket and pointed. “Right here. Looks like a good place for linner.”
    “Linner?”
    “A meal between lunch and dinner, of course.”
    They mounted their animals again. “You … Americans have some odd expressions,” Noth mumbled.
    “Bet your ass,” Stella returned. Noth rolled his eyes at that, and they urged their horses into a trot.
    The small mining settlement was nestled near the base of the Rough and Ready Hills. Stella wasn’t sure what she expected, but the forlorn feeling of the abandoned homestead had her thinking they should have eaten elsewhere. It felt like a place only ghosts visited anymore.
    They spread the towel over thatches of patchy grass, and Stella set the food out. Noth was intrigued by the corkscrew and examined it after the bottle popped open. He was still