Read Online Never Let You Go by Emma Carlson Berne - Free Book Online

some time.
    “Are you excited for your baby?” she murmured to Rosie to distract herself. “You’re going to be a mama.”
    The horse flicked an ear at the sound of her voice. Megan worked her way along the horse’s back, and Rosie leaned against her hand as if appreciating the massage. Megan scratched her around the base of the tail, which her dog always used to like, and then started brushing her flanks.
    Her reverie was broken by a splash and Anna’s squeal from the next stall.
    “Jesus, I’m sorry,” Jordan said.
    Megan stuck her head over the half door. Anna and Jordan stood just outside Darryl’s stall. Anna was holding the water bucket, and the front of her T-shirt was soaked with water.
    “I’m so sorry,” Jordan repeated. “I didn’t realize you were trying to take it from me and—”
    “No, it’s my fault,” Anna interrupted. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I have another shirt on underneath.”
    She set down the water bucket and slowly, as if she were in a movie, peeled off her T-shirt, revealing a strappy pink camisole that barely concealed her lacy cream bra. Jordan watched, mesmerized, his mouth open a little, while Anna shook out her hair.
    From Anna’s triumphant look, Megan knew that the water spill had been no accident. She felt a surge of jealousy, knowing that she herself would never have the nerve to try a move like that, but she quickly squashed the feeling. It didn’t matter what Anna did around Jordan, Megan told herself fiercely. She was Anna’s friend and that was all. She owed it to Anna to help her get Jordan.
    Jordan swallowed hard then and glanced at Megan as if suddenly aware of her presence. “Um, hey, should we clean the stalls now?” He addressed the wall between the two of them.
    “Sure,” Anna replied, still smiling. “I’ll just take these guys out to the pasture.”
    Megan and Jordan watched in silence as Anna walked thehorses down the wide barn aisle, one lead rope in each hand. The donkey trotted closely behind.
    Megan looked at Jordan, wondering if he liked watching Anna walk away in her damp camisole. She caught him glancing at her at the same moment. He rolled his eyes a little as if to say, What was that?
    Megan smiled. Jordan grabbed a pitchfork leaning against the wall and handed it to her, then took one for himself. Together, they started lifting out piles of manure and wet bedding from Darryl’s stall. It was weird, Megan thought, how she’d barely talked to Jordan since meeting him yesterday, but she felt like she’d known him for years. Like he was an old friend, someone you knew so well, you didn’t have to talk all the time when you were together. She watched him work quickly, efficiently, hurling forkfuls of dirty bedding into the wheelbarrow with a quick flick of his wrist. Suddenly, she laughed in spite of herself. He looked up.
    “What?”
    “It’s just that you look like you’ve done that before. Did you grow up on a farm or what?”
    Jordan laughed a little. “Sort of. My parents have some land near a little town by the Michigan border.”
    “Which one?” Megan worked her fork under a particularly intimidating pile of manure.
    “Lodi? It’s this little place—”
    Megan straightened up. “I totally know Lodi! My mom used to go up to the outlet malls there all the time on our way to Detroit.”
    “Oh, yeah, I forgot about those.” Jordan scraped at some wet bedding stuck to the stall floor. “We’re even farther off the highway. Most people who go up to the outlets don’t make it into Lodi itself. I mean, I don’t know why you would if you didn’t live there.” He sent her a sideways look. “How about you? You’re from Cleveland, right?”
    “Yeah, unfortunately.” Megan tried to keep the loaded fork steady.
    “Why unfortunately?”
    “Oh . . .” Megan laughed a little. “My area is all ugly subdivisions, very suburban, very plastic. You know the kind of place. The Lakes of Crystal Pointe, that sort of