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"How did you just jus to birth control?" I have to ask
"Because that’s what happens, Reagan You jus to birth control It’s the natural order of things for h is hair "I was a twenty-one-year-old man once myself"
"That’s when you met Mom," I say, and I start to smile He looks uncomfortable So I have to press it "So you and Mos to birth control?" I ask I snapto stare into rins this time He nods his head toward the house "Go talk to your"TMI!" I turn to walk toward the house
"Reagan!" Dad calls I turn to face hiuy"
"We’re taking things slow, Dad," I say Heat floods oes back to work
"Take it slow," Link says
"I love you, Link," I call
"I love you, too," he calls back
I walk into the back door and finda cup of coffee "Pete still alive?" she asks h "We fell asleep Nothing happened, I swear" Well, not nothing But we didn’t do anything, really Nothing that didn’t rock ?" she asks "Because nothing happened?" She pats the table next to her "Co like a child, I know
"Sit," she says more forcefully I drop into a chair
"Was he kind?" she asks
I nod
"Was he considerate?"
I nod and draw ht a smile
"Was he careful?" She arches her brow at the last question
"God, Mo He just kissed ist if you want birth control," she says She looks atirl," she says on a sigh
Pete
I’ turns riding the horses around the ring The deaf kids tend towith some of the other kids at the camp I’ll have to see what I can do about that SinceI do know, and it’s that deaf kids don’t see themselves as handicapped They have a culture all their own, and they can function in society with little or no intervention But they do tend to clique up since sign language is so they all have in common
I’ve never spent much time around horses Or any, if I have to tell the truth They’re great, big, heavy beasts, and the one I’ainst my shoulder "Would you cut it out?" I ask, but she just makes a breathy noise and nuzzles the back of my head She knocks off my baseball cap, and I bend over to pick it up But when I do, she bumps me in the ass, and I fall onto my hands in the dirt
I dust off er call Tic Tac since I heard his story, is leading one of the other horses He snorts at ain" He chuckles, so I flip him the bird Edward looks over an walking toward us She one and taken a shower because her hair’s still da over her shoulders She’s wearing a T-shirt and a pair of cut-off jeans, and some brown leather boots that come upas she co you a hard time?" she asks She leans close to the horse’s ear and whispers to her The hair oninto Juliette shakes her head, and Reagan laughs Da a bucket "Where are you going?" I yell to her
She turns back, set Ro so ornery Her boyfriend is hanging out with the cows" She nods toward the pasture "Want to helpher al ever leaves her side Hell, I want to be a puppy and follow her, too I toss the lead rope of the horse I’rins and shakes his head He’s the one who called ht Yep I suppose I aan, who laughs as I catch up with her "You look really pretty today," I say I want to kiss her so badly I can taste it
She blushes "Thank you," she says, looking doard her feet
"I o," she reminds me Like I need it All I can think about is the way she felt in ainst my chest
"Was your dad mad?" I ask It matters It really does I want her parents to likeI’ve never irl’s parents before Never had any need to But with Reagan… Everything is different
She shrugs "A little" She laughs "We had a talk about how to knee you in the nuts, the fact that aveWow That’s a lot to take in "You talk with your dad about that stuff?"
She shrugs "Some of it He sent me to my et even rosier "The talk about birth control and all that stuff"
"Oh," I say I sound like an idiot But she just threw me for a loop She walks toward a fence and bends to duck between the rails I follow her, and Link does, too He’s in his oorld, and I think he’s singing a song But it’s so soft, I can’t tell "So, you’re…u about that kind of stuff, huh?"