Love's Embers (Canon City Series) by Lauren Marie

plate and crackers to the kitchen table and saw the photo album that her Gran put together. After she put hot water in her cup, she carried it to the table and sat in front of the book. 
    She debated about looking at it and finally opened to the first pictures. She huffed and thought Where on earth did Gran get a baby picture of Charlie? She looked at the page with her and Charlie’s baby pictures side by side. Gran had pasted their names and birthdates under the pictures.
    As Lark flipped through the pictures, and found Gran took more of them than she remembered. Some of the shots she could remember and others, she couldn’t place. Gran marked the days on the pages to help remind her of the reason for the picture. She turned to the back of the album and the final pictures were taken on that great and terrible day.
    Charlie was celebrating the fact he was finally taller than Lark. He’d had a growth spurt over the summer. It was a week before their freshman year in high school started and they were both fifteen years old.
    They’d ridden their bikes out to Hirsh Ranch where Charlie’s horse, Fox, was kept. Lark packed a picnic lunch and they were going to ride Fox into the foothills to their favorite pasture and have a fun day. They’d brought a small, travel-size checkerboard with them and a deck of cards.
    Fox was a beautiful, big black horse that Charlie won as a prize when he was thirteen.
    He’d worked very hard throughout the year to be the best newspaper delivery boy on the planet. His customers on his route felt he’d done an outstanding job and the newspaper gave him the prize of a young, black colt. Charlie found the Hirsh Ranch to stable his horse and in trade, did work for them, cleaning stalls, grooming horses and making sure the horses got enough food. It was then that he decided to be a large animal veterinarian.
    They rode Fox into the mountains all the time, but this would be the last weekday they’d be able to do it until spring. Gran didn’t like for them to ride during the winter. She was afraid they’d get lost in the mountains and freeze to death.
    After eating lunch, they played a long game of War that seemed to go on and on. They laughed and threw cards at each other and then watched quietly as Fox made his way around the field finding grasses to munch on.
    Charlie leaned on Lark. “You know, I’m worried about starting ninth grade.”
    “Why?” Lark asked as she pulled apart an Aspen Daisy.
    “We’re going to be in different classes. There will be new people at the school from around the county.”
    “That doesn’t matter. We still have the same lunch hour and I’ll need your help with algebra. And, we live next door to each other. It’s not like you’ll never see me.” She threw the stem aside and looked down at him. “What’s going on, Ducky?”
    He brought his head up and looked her in the eye. “Lou, have you ever kissed a boy?”
    “What? No. Why?” She frowned and moved away from him. She remembered seeing something in his eyes and for the first time since they’d been friends, she found him cute. “Ducky, do you want to kiss me?”
    The color on his cheeks started to get rosy and he nodded. “I mean, if it’s okay with you. I just thought...we’ve been friends for so long and...We did talk about being boyfriend-girlfriend once. It’s just I think you’re pretty and you’ve always been right there...” he went silent and continued to watch her.
    “What kind of kiss do you mean?” she asked and saw a confused look on his face. “You know, like we see on TV? Do you want just a quick kiss, like you’re the husband leaving for work or one of those open mouth things we saw in that movie when the man and woman on the beach started kissing?”
    Charlie’s brow folded. “I don’t know. Which do you think would be best?”
    Lark thought for a minute. “We could do like Gran says and ‘play it by ear’.”
    “So, you wouldn’t mind?”
    She tilted her head