Page 48 (1/2)

"Ride?" I whispered, not even able to summon the breath required totoward the barn "When you come back in town? I’ll take you out for a ride Think you can handle it bareback?"

Sweet merciful God

I never really understood what it meant when I read the term "my knees buckled" I no Luckily there was a cowboy to catch ers around led to findmy nostrils Sweat Sweet hay Heat Could a man smell like heat? He did

I took another hit--and sneezed But this tied to do it a little more daintily

He chuckled as he set me back on my feet, turned me clockwise, and with a tiny push sent me back toward the house "Hey, Clark," I heard Hank say with a self-satisfied voice behind me I floated on a puffy white cloud of dazed hor for me with a frown

"Hey, Clark," I echoed, as he held the door open for round

Still in a trance, I drifted over to the kitchen table, where I finally ca south ofa phanto a word that I never knew could be so sensual, so sexual, so full of pro it out in different ways

Bareback

Bareback

Bareback

"Horseshit"

"What?" I asked, ripped froain, pointing toward ht in it

"Da the tracks I’d made on the clean floor I started to hop toward the door, but on one through the screen door but for Clark, who caught ainst his chest,soap and paperback books Iht back to the scent of the library back home, that homey scent of sun-touched book spines and thick yellowed paper, a quiet afternoon in the stacks

He set , however, and helpedaway in the distance, and I set to wipingit around a few ti, studying ot itback for the porch

"Gross, huh?"