Free Reclaimed by Jennifer Rodewald

as well. But it seemed that they hadn’t been. Not until she moved in.
    Troubles, indeed. They could lie, for now.
    Riding with Paul offered a reprieve. From everything. Her mother stayed locked away from her mind; the taste of bitterness didn’t rise to her tongue. Grief didn’t lodge in her throat. Anger didn’t lurk near the surface of all that she did, all that she said. Suzanna held on to that relief; she’d keep it for as long as possible.
    Standing in her stirrups, she let her gaze follow the movement of the creek. The sun glittered off the rippling water, and a soft gurgle harmonized with the rustling leaves. She soaked in the serenity—an unfamiliar feeling.
    “Such a pretty secret,” she whispered.
    “I haven’t been here in years.” Crossing his arms against the saddle horn, Paul let his reins go slack, and the mare wandered to the edge of the pool. “Since I was a kid.”
    Bronco followed the other horse until the pair stood with their noses in the spring.
    “Since you pulled dandelions for Mrs. Hawkins?” Suzanna unlatched her helmet.
    “You know about that, do you?”
    “Andrea.”
    His smile came easy. It seemed to be a natural part of his expression. “Actually, Dre did most of the pulling. I weaseled out of work every chance I got.”
    “Yes, you were hinting you were quite a devil. Did you plan on finishing that story, or were you going to leave it as an overture?”
    “Not really a great story, Suz. You’ve already had a bad opinion of me. But...” He reached for a water bottle he’d packed in his saddlebag. After a long swig, he wiped his mouth and passed it to her.
    She accepted the offer, squelching the paranoid germ-a-phobia she’d acquired from hospital sanitation standards. “But?”
    “If you promise not to hold my rebellion against me....”
    Swallowing the cool water, Suzanna nodded.
    “I was a horrible brother. I don’t know why Dre is so good to me now because I wasn’t any good to her when we were growing up. But it wasn’t just her. I failed school my senior year. Hard to pass classes when you don’t show up. I came long enough to stay eligible for football, and after the season ended, I found trouble. Plenty of trouble. I’ll spare you the details, but I ended up on a short stay with the state juvenile system. Have you ever heard of Boys Town?”
    Suzanna shook her head.
    “It’s in Omaha. It’s kind of like a crisis-intervention boarding school. I spent four months there.”
    “Why?”
    “My parents didn’t know what else to do with me. I’d been in legal trouble for underage drinking more than once, and then my dad caught me high in their basement. I had a record of being destructive, irresponsible, and disrespectful, and they’d had it. Dad said if I couldn’t live with their rules, I couldn’t live with them. He meant it.”
    Suzanna felt shock contort her face. Paul Rustin? The neighbor who had been kind to her even when she’d been horrible to him? She studied him, unable to picture him as anything other than the gentleman he’d shown himself to be.
    Warmth shaded his complexion crimson. “See, not a very good story, right?”
    “Why?”
    “Why did I do those things?”
    She pressed her lips together, wondering why she pushed him but nodded anyway.
    “I don’t really know, Suz. I was just angry, and I’m not even sure why. I didn’t want to live here, I didn’t want to be nothin’, and I couldn’t see anything beyond myself. I didn’t have a real reason.”
    “What happened?”
    Paul’s eyes softened, and a smile crept over his features again. “I didn’t graduate from Rock Creek—I went to Boys Town in March of my senior year. My grandpa came to Omaha to visit me in April with a proposal. If I studied and got my GED, I could come out and live with them. I would have to work like a ranch hand, but they’d keep me on until I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.
    “It wasn’t the out I was looking for. I didn’t want to