Whitney smiled as she finished sketching Seth. It was only a little after sunrise, the light coming in from the open window just enough for her to see enough to trace her pencil along the paper. He was tousled, shirt off, the sheets twisted around him. His chest rose and fell slowly in rhythmic sleep. Since that kiss the night before, she'd been looking for a way to evasively flirt with him. Thanks to Jesse, she now had it. Drawing, sketching, painting had always interested her, but she had never had a subject quite like Seth before. Never anything like him at all in fact.
He shifted, ruining the position she was sketching. She was basically finished with it anyway. Putting on the last details, she stood from the chair and closed the door behind her as he stirred.
Seth opened his eyes a second too late. The door was already closed. He frowned, then stood. Pulling his shirt back on, he realized that the chair that was next to the small round table wasn't tucked away in the corner anymore. A simple touch of it told him it was warm; someone had been watching him. It was too early for Yuri or Wind to be up, wasn't it? And teenagers always sleep till noon? He opened the door back, his heart quickening.
Had Whitney's stalker been watching in his room? Why? He couldn't know, but the mere fact that someone had been there, and he didn't know who that someone was, sent adrenaline straight through his system. He stepped quietly from the room and down the hall. He gently shoved open the door next to his. Jesse was still in bed. He didn't dare inspect the others, though, so he moved back down the hall and into the living room. It was empty. As was the kitchen. The back door was open, though, the screen door the only barrier, letting in a bit of breeze.
Whitney still hadn't put away her notebooks and journals; they were still scattered on the kitchen table. Walking past them to the screen door, he saw Whitney in the barn, tossing a bale of hay. He frowned again and stepped back out of her view, then headed back to his room for his shoes.
And stopped.
There, on the top of the pile of books and sketch journals, was a sketch of...him. Seth stared at the sketch. The date was today. The window behind the bed he was tangled in told him the angle from which it had been drawn: the warmed chair.
Then his mind registered what he was seeing with... everything. Whoa. Being inexperienced in most everything to do with females, he didn't know if this sketch was a good thing or a bad thing... Which should it be? Oh, boy. He picked it up to turn it, studying the way she used shadowing techniques to make it look 3d.
He suddenly smiled and put the notepad back on the stack. He headed out to the barn without his shoes, but stopped himself from humming. He found her in the barn, still, as she tossed another bale of hay around.
"Good morning," she smiled.
"Morning." He shoved his hands into his jean pockets.
"You're up early,"
"I'm a light sleeper."
"Meaning you don't sleep much?"
"Meaning I wake easily,"
"Uh-hu. And what, prey tell, woke you this morning?"
"A certain artist,"
"An artist?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
"A certain artist I would like to pay a compliment to."
"Oh, really?"
"You're a wonderful artist, Whitney,"
She actually blushed as her eyelashes covered her eyes. The feeling of having been the cause of the blush made him swoon.
"Why do you say that?"
"You were the one in my room, not ten minutes ago."
"Oh...that. Well, I just did that because I knew you wouldn't let me, even if I'd asked."
He raised his eyebrows. "So, you sketched a vivid picture of me to annoy me?"
"Precisely. Oh, and I'd like to go riding this morning."
Seth chuckled. Then he yawned.
"You should go get dressed." She said, jumping down from the raised platform. "You're supposed to be my body guard, remember?"
An hour later, Whitney and Seth were ready to go riding on Fire and Rose Marie. Jesse had taken his bicycle and headed on down the road to his best friend's house. Whitney had already mounted as she waited for Seth to finish up with his lead squad member. John nodded and said something else, then pointed out to the woods where they would be headed. Seth nodded, then motioned to the woods, too, then pointed to the map. John nodded again and walked away. Seth turned and headed toward her. He mounted Rose Marie and followed her into the woods. They were silent for a long while.
"Whitney?"
"Yes?"
"...Will you tell me about Aaron?"
She was quite for a long moment.
"I met him about nine years ago...He was a good flirt, and I was lonely," Her eyes were on the woods around them, even though Seth mentally begged her to look at him. The pain laced her voice, and even though he wanted—needed—to know who Aaron was, he knew it was hurting her. "I was afraid to get to know him...but he was very good at being there when I needed someone to talk to. I liked to think that I'd fallen in love with him...but I don't think I ever did. That's what he wanted, though, so I went along with it. But about the time he started realizing that we wouldn't work the way he wanted, I inherited the ranch. It was my mother's... she died,"
Seth only watched her. "I'm sorry."
She shook her head, then rushed to continue. "Aaron started to get frustrated with me, then with Jesse, then with everything. He... he slowly became violent. He never hit Jesse, though. I finally told him that I couldn't take him anymore and he left. He's called a few times every year. I don't think he's getting any better, though."
"You can't help him, Whitney. People like that have to find themselves by themselves."
"I know,"
Silence engulfed them again and Seth let it linger. She needed time to regroup and he needed time to think. The way she described it, Aaron seemed to have left her alone when she'd dumped him; he seemed to keep his distance. But he couldn't know that, not yet. He defiantly was not a welcome factor, to himself or to Whitt. He'd have to continue the background check when he got the chance. He might be better off to ask Marcus to do it...
"Whitney?"
Seth turned Rose Maria, started by the familiar voice.
"Hey, Quinn."
Quinn and Lisa were riding, too. They were separated by a line of trees, but the paths they were following collided only about a half mile.
"Meet you guys down the road?" Quinn asked through the trees.
"Yeah, sure." Whitney called back, and then slowly continued on the way they had been going.
Seth followed her. He had known that Quinn's ranch touched boarders with Whitney's, but somehow it had never crossed his mind that they might know each other. The half mile melted away. Quinn and Lisa were waiting for them when they got there.
"Kate said you had a new assignment," Lisa said. "Quinn didn't tell me it was our neighbor, though." She elbowed him as she spoke.
"I didn't know!" Quinn insisted.
"Seth told Kate. Kate would have told Marcus. Marcus would have told you or me! Come on, Quinn, you're messing up the family grapevine."
"Lisa... is this a bad thing?" Seth asked.
Lisa smiled at him. "Of course it's a bad thing. Then we can't know what you're up to."
Seth sighed. He looked to his other side to Whitney, his smile fading. She was scowling, focused on the woods to her left.
"Whitney?"
She was silent. Seth moved his horse next to hers, scanning the area. He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. The situation was wrong when she saw something and he didn't.
"Whitney? What do you see?"
"Nothing." The word was flat, and her eyes remained fixed on apparently nothing. "Nothing," She turned to him, forcing a small smile. "I just thought I saw something." She looked back to Quinn and Lisa. "You guys want to have lunch at my place? Jesse is back from camp. He was reading a romance novel his morning."
Quinn asked Lisa with his eyes and she nodded. "Sure. Thanks,"
Whitney nodded and led them back to her house.
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I didn't get any reviews for the last chapter... Where'd everybody go?