Summerfield by Katie Miller Page A

son. Probably the last boy in the world Dad had
thought would make any kind of move on me. Someone he trusted. If I
was going to be with Ben it would have to secretly. I didn't like the
whole idea of sneaking around but it appeared as if I really have no
choice. Dad would never allow me to date Ben. He wouldn't allow me to
date, period.

"Belle?" Aunt Ella's groggy voice and sleepy voice questioned from next to me.

I turned my head back to glance at her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake
you up." I whispered, not totally sure why.

"It's fine." She said, waving it away with a smile. "Where have you been?"

I tried to look casual as I shrugged. "I was just on the porch."

Ella smiled. Even her eyes looked like they were smiling. "Your
mom use to love doing that too when it rained."

I smiled in remembrance. "Yeah." I turned back around, thinking the
conversation was over.

"So Belle," Ella said, I could tell she was grinning and her tone
was slightly amused and knowing. "When are you planning on telling me
about you and Ben?"

I laughed a bit to myself. Of course she knew. She always did. "I'll
tell you all about it in the morning."

"Okay. Belle?"

"Yeah?" I yawned.

"How was the kiss?"

I grinned. "Better than flying."

Chapter Five

I smiled as I strummed a rhythm with my guitar. It wasn't a song per
say, it was something that I'd been playing over in my head for about
the past ten minutes and I finally decided to try to play it out.

It sounded nice.

It sounded like it would be a good beginning to a song. A song I had
yet to write, but I figured that wouldn’t be too hard. After all, I did
have an all new inspiration now. Have for almost two weeks now and
every day I would only get more inspired.

I tried out a few various lyrics off the top of my head, trying to find something that had a good catch to it.

I sighed happily, writing down part of the verse in my song book.
"What do you think Buttercup?" I looked up smiling a Buttercup simply
stared down at me. I wonder why all animals always look at me like I'm
crazy? "Well, I liked it."

"So did I." Ben chuckled as he entered the stable, looking amused by
my sitting on the floor with a guitar and notebook, singing and
talking to a horse. Maybe I was crazy...

I stuck my tongue out childishly, but he did the same right back.
"Can't a girl sing a simple song for her horse?"

Ben laughed, glancing at Buttercup. "Lucky horse you."

I giggled and began to pick up my stuff. "What all do you have to do today?"

I bent down across from me, sitting a bit taller than I did. "I'm
taking Lace over there for a ride." Lace was Dad's favorite horse in
this stable. He was strong, big, and quite a beauty with a black,
silky coat to match. "Care to join?"

I glanced over his shoulder at Lace. I'd never really interacted much
with him before, because quite honestly, he scared me a bit. He was
about taller than I was. "But he might kill me." I pouted innocently.

He laughed, running a hand through my hair and going to lean in for a
kiss. I lifted up to meet him have way when we suddenly heard a man's
voice. We both jumped apart, me going back to my notebook like I'd
never looked away from it and Ben shot up quickly.

"Hey kids." Dad greeted as he entered the stable, totally oblivious.
Just the way I preferred him to be.

Since we had begun our relationship two weeks ago, Ben and I had
become quite a custom to being secretive and on the look out. We both
knew there would be major consequences if my dad found out.

"Hey Dad." I mimicked, smiling sweetly and hopefully looking as
innocent as possible. I brought my dark hair around my face, hoping to
hide the fact that I was blushing.

"What are you doing in here?"

I shrugged, trying to play it cool. That had never once worked well
for me. "Um, I was...singing to Buttercup." I blurted out, and I
noticed Ben was trying to hold back laughter.

"You were singing?" He asked slowly, his