The riders begin to line up. They will trek through the forest in pairs, with a five minute gap between them to keep from overlap. Each target is being observed through cameras to determine who shoots what and with what accuracy.Miles lines up in the lead. His father declined attending the event, b
I roll out of the way in the last minute, as the boar charges past.“Esther!” Cynthia calls. She’s steadied her horse somewhat, several yards down the trail. Sparkle Heart, already upset from earlier, continues to run.“Go! Keep riding!” I shout to her. “Get help!”“I can’t just leave you!” Her hors
“Oh, God, I don’t want to die.”I’ve wasted the past ten years of my life with a man who doesn’t – maybe never – loved me. I don’t want to waste another second. If I survive, I want to pursue a life of happiness and love.Unbidden, my thoughts slip to Miles. Of his mischievous smile. Of the strength
“Put your arms around my shoulders,” Miles says. When I comply, he wraps his arms around me and lifts me. He begins carrying me back the way he came. Over his shoulder, I glance once more at the dead boar that so nearly killed me.And at Miles’s weapon that he left sitting in the dirt.“Your gun…” I
“Back off, Amber,” Miles says before I can even think to open my mouth in defense of myself. “She’s obviously injured.”“She should be on her own horse,” Amber says to him, even as her sneering gaze stays on me.“Hers is that spooked horse than ran all the way up the path. Maybe you’d like to go get
“Esther,” Mr. Carver says, returning into the tent. He blocks my view of Miles and Amber, but maybe that’s for the best. Watching them was giving me strange feelings in my stomach that I’m nowhere near ready to face, let alone put a name to.“Yes, Mr. Carver?”By now the medical professionals have f
“I’ll be fine,” I tell Cynthia.Cynthia doesn’t seem particularly worried about leaving me alone with Amber. She knows I can hold my own. She’s more annoyed, I think, by the interruption.“We will be talking later,” Cynthia says as she stands. Yeah, that’s a threat.She doesn’t say a word to Amber o
But the point, I suppose, is that she does have to wait for all of that to happen. Whereas for me, that is my present reality.“As a mature woman,” Amber continues, “you should know better than to think you actually stand a chance of tempting Miles. You’d never be able to satisfy him.”He was well s