Abruptly, Aelissm pulled away. For a brief second, confusion hazed Pat’s eyes, but it fled quickly as realization struck.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That shouldn’t have happened.”
“No,” Aelissm replied. But it did. And I enjoyed it.
Neither of them moved away.
“We’re not….”
“I…” he started. “It won’t happen again.”
“You’re right. Let’s not complicate things. Neither of us needs any more pain.”
Aelissm turned away and grabbed her helmet from the hooks behind the door and tossed her father’s helmet to Pat. “We’d better head down to Nick’s. And you’d better be a greenhorn.”
“Don’t worry; I am. Unless you’re talking about the dirt bikes. I’ve been on a few of those before.”
“I was talking about horses.” She started out the door, then turned around again to face him. “Oh, and Pat?”
“Hmm?”
