The Vampire's Redemption, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #3) by S.J. Wright Page B

settled next to her.
    “Michael said something that set me off. It was beyond rude. So I slapped him and told him to get off the property.”
    “You think that was wise?”
    I grunted, “Probably not. But he stepped over the line.”
    A half grimace crossed her face as she considered my words. She tightened her fingers around my waist and leaned against me. “Honey, I think that emotions on both sides were probably running high when that happened. I know that you both care about each other.”
    “If you had heard what he said, you wouldn’t be saying that. Trust me.” I gave her a quick squeeze in return and glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m going to go out and check on Lenny before bed. He didn’t eat much of his hay earlier.”
    “Did you know that Jackson has been riding Messenger?”
    I turned and stared at Nelly, my mouth open.
    She grinned and picked up her reading glasses before beginning her nightly crossword puzzle.
    “Why would he do that?” I sputtered.
    Nelly chuckled lightly. “He’s a cowboy, honey. He probably missed riding every day.”
    “Well, he could have had the decency to at least ask me first. She’s my horse.”
    Messenger definitely did belong to me. But I had never ridden her. As far as I knew, Jackson was the only person who had been up on her since she came to the farm. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to ride a horse. I was just a chicken shit.
    When my Dad’s cancer diagnosis was first made, something changed inside me. I tried to ride Lenny a few times but found that I was terrified of moving beyond a walk with him. I kept imagining myself falling and hurting myself. I was sure that Lenny would shy at any little thing and that I would hit the ground hard. Hard enough to make me useless. I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to physically do my job and take care of Dad during his illness. It made me sick to my stomach to imagine Katie having to drop out of school and come home to take care of her injured sister and the father who had always been our rock.
    The fear of falling didn’t go away when Dad brought Messenger home. I loved her dearly. But her energy was twice as frightening to me as Lenny’s. She was ten years younger than he was and black as coal all over. She had an amazing mane that draped down to her shoulders and gleamed like the night sky. As stunningly beautiful as she was, I still couldn’t gather the courage I needed to climb up onto her back.
    To know that Jackson had made that leap before me made me feel sad instead of angry. Nelly let me think it over instead of calling me on it. It was one of the many things I appreciated about her. But before I left the room, she did say something that caught me by surprise.
    “That boy is the real deal , Sarah.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She had that look on her face that she sometimes got when she was absolutely positive about her opinion. From experience, I knew to take it seriously. She’d had a bad feeling about Trevor Kincaid when she first met him. And that time, her instincts had been right on the nose.
    Her eyes were twinkling. “He has a place here. He was meant to come here. You’ll see what I mean before long.”
    She went back to her puzzle. I contemplated her words and thought about the night Jackson had played Dad’s old records. I remembered how hard it was to look away from him and how irritated I’d been when my sister and Michael had walked in. My feelings for him were entirely different than anything I’d felt before. He made me feel safe.
    As I was making my way out to the barn to check on Lenny, the cell phone in my coat pocket rang.
    “You’ve managed to create quite a stir inside the Council, my dear.”
    “Doctor Fleming?” I pulled open the barn door and found that the lights were already on. I heard Jackson murmuring something to one of the horses and saw him inside Lenny’s stall, stroking the gelding’s long neck.
    “Letting Michael out of the containment