Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniel Page B

manicured grass.Her shoes would be a mess, but at the moment she didn’t care. If it were warmer, she’d take off her shoes and feel the sharpness of the turf on her bare feet.
    She stopped in the center of the field, stretched out her arms and lifted her face to the moon. Its light had swallowed the dimmer light of distant stars. Her mind tumbled over thoughts like water over stones—Kelli, their friendship, the promise ring, her college dreams, her future with Trent. She held out her arms like a worshipper, letting the moonlight wash over her. She closed her eyes, hoping to wash away the jumble of confusion rolling through her.
    She stopped when she heard somebody clapping over near the bleachers. Her eyes popped open and she saw Roth coming toward her across the field, dressed in black—boots, jeans, hoodie. “What are you doing out here?” she asked, shocked by his sudden brooding appearance. She wasn’t afraid of him. She felt infringed upon, but not afraid. He stopped in front of her, his hands shoved into the kangaroo pocket of his sweatshirt.
    “Watching you in the moonlight.”
    A preposterous answer, but still it made her pulse quicken. “Did you come to the dance?”
    “I don’t dance.”
    “And yet you’re here.”
    “Nothing else to do tonight.” He tipped his head to one side, pulled the hood off his head. His rumpled hair made him look darkly sexy. “So what brings you outside?”
    She owed him no explanations, but she wondered as much herself. Had she somehow sensed his presence?“Fresh air. Trent went off with his friends, but he’ll be back soon.”
    Roth grinned. “Is that a warning for me to get lost?”
    “It’s a free country.” His emergence from the bleachers disconcerted her. In the moonlight, he made her feel off balance, out of kilter. She didn’t understand why he had this effect on her, especially when she was in love with Trent. And yet he did. Roth seemed edged with danger, forbidden and, therefore, compelling in her well-thought-out and ordered world.
    He touched her crystal earring, made it swing. “You look pretty.”
    She swallowed, unable to take her gaze from his face.
    “Your hair’s up. It’s pretty, but I like it better down.” He took his hand from her earring to behind her head and touched the twisted hair, sending chills up her spine. “May I?” he asked.
    Morgan could scarcely breathe. Her body felt lighter than smoke and about as substantial. And despite the trip to the salon, the hour enduring a beautician messing with her hair until her scalp hurt, plus endless squirts of hair spray, she nodded.
    It took him only minutes to pull out the hairpins, untwist the knot of her hair, fluff it all around her shoulders. He dropped the pins onto the grass. “That’s better,” he said.
    She shook her hair, untangled it with her fingers. He helped by dragging his fingers behind hers, which caused her heart to thud harder.
    Inevitably his fingers touched the ring. He caught herhand, held it up and studied the ring. He rubbed the pearl with his thumb and watched it glow. “He has good taste in all things.”
    Agitated, unnerved, feeling unsure and misplaced in this new universe of confused and clashing emotions, she whispered, “I—I love Trent.”
    He stared down at her for a long time, holding her in place with a look she couldn’t read but couldn’t break free of either. “Then why are you out here with me and he’s nowhere around? I would never have left you alone.”
    She had no answers for him. Her teeth began to chatter. “I—I’m cold.”
    “Then you’d better go back inside while you can.”
    She didn’t need another prompt. Morgan turned and hustled off the field as quickly as her troublesome heels would allow her. Like a jackrabbit chased by a wolf, she moved toward the hulking form of the gym and to the safety of feelings she could control.
    “Hey, I’ve been looking for you,” Trent said when she hurried into the gym. The heated air