They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

“And ruin the surprise?” he said, backing away. “Come on, and did you bring the dog toys?”

At least he admitted to those to my face this time, all this entirely too weird for my liking. I told him I did, following him, but stopped. “Where are we going?”

He circulated the dingy truck, going around to the passenger side, and I followed him. He clicked it open. “We got to go deeper into the patch. We’ll take this. It’ll handle better than our cars in the mud out here.”

Dad would most assuredly kill me for ruining any of his cars, my sister’s included.

I really didn’t want to do this, get in any car with him at all.

“Is all this over after tonight, then?” I asked. “Me owing you or whatever?” I meant, would he keep quiet about Hershey, and when his lips pulled together, his nod firm, he gave me that.

I got inside the truck, then quick, he closed the door behind me. I held Hershey’s bag in my lap as Royal eased himself in, filling the truck’s cabin with his starkly cool scent. He smelled like aftershave and boy, a really good-smelling boy, and that had me thinking about things I didn’t want to think about. Things like how his hands felt on me and in my hair the night I puked my brains out in front of him. These were thoughts I definitely shouldn’t have considering he might be kidnapping me right now.

Royal put the truck into gear, the truck grunting forward, but it handled really well over the divots and bumps as we got going. All the rattling caused Hershey to bark inside my bag, though, and I unzipped it wide so she could pop her head out and see what was going on.

Royal laughed at the sight of her curiosity, a deep and reverent chuckle that played harsh at my insides with how nice it sounded. He didn’t laugh a lot, and the last time I’d seen him, he’d been getting lectured by his dad.

I hugged the bag. “What are we doing?”

“You’ll see, and don’t worry, you’ll like it. Both you and Hershey.”

I highly doubted that, hugging her closer. Royal had his lights on super bright, so she got a real good view of the entire ride, looking just as happy as Royal had only moments ago. The only one not here for this “fun time” was me, my anxiety through the goddamn roof. We stopped suddenly, jarringly, in the stick shift truck, and rather than waiting for Royal to play gentleman and let me out, I opened the door, and I hopped to the dirt myself.

“Where are the dog toys?” he asked once he joined me.

Minding Hershey, I grabbed a couple around her, handing them off to him. He took them, telling me to follow him. He had a couple tennis balls in his hands, ones that rattled when he shook them. He did that toward the cornstalks, and after he did, he just listened.

I stayed silent, a chill in the air, and really, I thought I was about to meet my maker. I was out in the middle of the perfect setting for a teen murder drama, out here with basically my arch enemy. Nothing about my history with this boy put me at any kind of ease.

Royal shook the toys again, then backed up toward me and Hershey. I opened my mouth to speak, but then…

Noses, lots of tiny noses, and yips touched the air, tiny barks that sounded so much like my little dog’s. They came out of the cornstalks, not one but several puppies, and what was crazy was they all looked like mine, miniature chocolate labs that bounded out of the maze.

Royal threw one of the balls, and no less than three went after it. He tossed the other. “Do you have the other toys?”

Blown completely frickin’ away about all this, I got more, and by then, Hershey was freaking out. She wanted to play too, and after giving Royal more dog toys, I fished her leash out of the bag. I hadn’t gotten to walk with her yet, but it was something Rosanna got for her with her initial puppy food. I stared in wonder at all the dogs. “Where did they all come from?” I asked.

Grinning, Royal tossed another toy, more dogs racing after them. He bent when a couple came back with the initial toys. He faced me. “They were born here. My cousin’

s one of the owners of the patch. His lab just had puppies a while back.”

My jaw slacked as I placed my puppy down, and the moment I did, the others descended on her. My heart leaped at first, but Hershey started wrestling with them and I laughed. I lowered, so many puppies playing and jumping on each other. I counted about eight, but really there could have been more.

Royal handed me a rope, and I played tug with one with a white-tipped tail. His grin widened. “They seem to like her.”

“Yeah,” I said, then had a thought. “You don’t think she’s one of them, do you? I didn’t see any other dogs when I found her. I found her in the boathouse that first day.”

His head lifted with that, and he turned, peering into the cornstalks. “It’s possible. I mean, we’re pretty far out from campus, but it’s kind of odd you just found what looks like a purebred Labrador retriever.”

One of Hershey’s potential brothers or sisters tugged at the rope, my tugs a little distracted. Especially when Hershey kept trying to jump on the puppy and play with them herself. I took the rope away, letting her, and watched the two be way too cute for my heart. It made me happy, but kind of sad too for some reason.

A shoulder touched mine, Royal’s when he lowered to his knees. He watched them play too as he touched a knee to the dirt.

“Should I leave her with them?” I asked him, finding his eyes. Too deep, they drowned me in their depths.

He wet his lips. “Up to you or maybe up to Hershey?” he stated, turning to the pup. His lips lifted at her. “My cousin isn’t getting rid of them. They’d live their lives here together.”

That thickened my throat more than it should have, and suddenly, I found myself moving away from him. This had been a part of his plan. He kept my secret about Hershey only to take her away from me after all.