Wild Card (North Ridge #1)

“My grandpa says ravens are good luck,” Shane says. He reaches for me and brushes my long black hair over my shoulder. I nearly freeze at his touch even as shivers cascade down my spine. “You have hair like raven wings. I should call you Raven.”

I smile. I like that. I don’t want to be Rachel Waters when I’m around him, daughter of the police chief, a girl that should be invisible. I want to be Raven and fly. I want Shane to keep staring at me like he’s doing right now, as if I’m some wondrous mystical creature.

“Okay,” I say. I think my voice is shaking.

He starts to move toward me, leaning in, and for a moment I think he’s going to kiss me.

Holy…

But then he just tugs playfully at the ends of my hair and says, “Let’s go inside.”

He leads the way, and I follow close behind. I’m not even sure this place is safe to be in.

He pokes his head in through the crooked doorway and peers inside. The whole building is at a slant, looking like it could collapse at any moment. This is the farthest we’ve ever gone before. We’ve never gone inside.

I wait at his back, watching his breath rise and fall. He’s nervous too. It just seems so dark and scary.

But then he breathes in deep and steps inside.

I watch as he disappears around the corner.

“Shane?” I whisper.

“This is so cool,” he says, unseen. “Come on in here. Careful, the floorboards are weak.”

“Are there any spiders?”

“Oh come on, ravens aren’t afraid of spiders. They aren’t afraid of anything.”

I wish that were true. But I go inside anyway.

It’s dark at first, but then as I walk into the barn, I can see the details more. There’s an old rusted stove in the corner, and a three-legged chair. A stack of rotting crates. A bale of hay covered in rat poo and mold. An old lantern hangs from the rafters, the glass cracked. In the far corner of the building, where a bunch of beams have fallen to the ground, Shane disappears.

“Be careful,” I cry out after him.

He doesn’t respond.

“Shane?”

No response. He has disappeared and become one with the shadows.

“Shane?” I call out, my voice getting sucked up with the dust.

Slowly I creep past the fallen beams. My whole body feels like it’s being poked by needles, I’m so afraid. It’s so dark here, with only a little bit of grey light punching through a hole in the sagging ceiling. I think I see a shape moving in the corner, or maybe it’s my eyes. There’s a sound of something scurrying.

I’m about to call for him again when a hand touches my shoulder.

I scream, whirling around, and start punching wildly.

I strike something.

“Ow!’ Shane cries out, his figure appearing in front of me.

“Oh my god!” I put my hand to my chest, as if it can keep my heart from leaping out. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he says, and in the dimness, I can see him grabbing the side of his jaw.

I reach out and touch his face, expecting him to flinch and move away, but he doesn’t.

This is the first time I’ve ever touched his face.

It’s softer than I thought it would be.

My fingers linger at his jaw, not sure where to go or what to do but I know I don’t want to take my hand away. “You’re a jerk. You tried to scare me,” I whisper.

“I know, I thought it would be funny,” he says. He puts his hand on top of my fingers and holds them there. “I thought you’d laugh. I’m sorry.”

His hand drops away but he takes my fingers with it, holding on to them tight.

I feel like I can’t breathe. Waves of electricity travel up my arm to my heart, making it feel light and fizzy.

“It’s okay,” I say, but I’m not even sure the words come out. There’s something happening in this space between us—it’s like the world is turning around us faster and faster and we’re staying still.

Shane leans in and my breath catches in my lungs.

He squeezes my hand with one hand as the other goes to my face, cupping my chin.

Then his lips press against mine.

And my world spins and melts and my heart flies out of my chest on raven wings.

He’s kissing me.

My first kiss.

Shane is my first kiss.

I’m so in love with this boy.

Oh my god…I’m actually in love.

The way I feel about him…it now has a name.

I don’t even know how to move my lips back, and for a moment I am completely still on the outside even though I’m a whirlwind on the inside. Then I find the strength, the will to kiss him back, our mouths open just enough that I can taste the orange juice he had earlier.

Finally, we both pull away from each other and it’s only then that I feel like I can breathe.

But I no longer feel like the same person I was five minutes ago.

In the dark reaches of my heart, I feel an impossible hope.

A seedling that Shane planted with his lips.

We stare at each other in the darkness. He’s still holding on to my hand. I think he’s smiling. I’m smiling.

Then there’s a flash of light and the air explodes with a loud BOOM that shakes the whole building, causing something to fall over in the corner.

Thunder.

“Holy shit that was close,” Shane swears. “We have to get out of here.”

He pulls me around the fallen beams toward the door just as it sounds like the building is being pelted with rocks. Hail!

We peek outside as round, white hail, the size of dice, comes raining down, bouncing on the grass. Lightning slices across the sky, making me yelp again. I sound like a silly girl, but I can’t help it.

Moonshine is scared too, even more than me. Spooked, he rears up, the reins attached to the post snapping in half.

“Moonshine!” Shane yells, about to run after the horse but I pull him back into the doorway and we watch as Moonshine gallops into the pines the way we came. Thankfully Teddy is totally unfazed by all of this and remains where he is, even as the hail bounces off of him.

Another lightning strike happens down by the river, the boom of thunder making me cover my ears.

“It’s okay,” Shane says, grabbing my hand again and squeezing it hard. “It will pass.”

“What if it hits the building?”

“We’ll be fine, I promise,” he says. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

And I believe him. Because it’s Shane.

Just like he says, the lightning and thunder move on and the hail stops.

“Wow,” he says, looking around at the white studded landscape. “That was kind of cool.”

I nod. I’m not sure what I’m still hung up on—the storm or the fact that he kissed me.

He kissed me.

“Come on,” he says. “We’ll ride Teddy back.” He unties Teddy and climbs on, holding his arm out for me. “I’ll pull you up.”

Teddy isn’t a tall horse, but even so I’m wary about trying to get on this way. I take Shane’s hand and he pulls me up. It’s awkward, but I manage to sit right behind him in the saddle, my legs pressed against his, my chest against his back. I know we just kissed but this feels even more intimate.

“So much for ravens being good luck,” I say as we start to ride into the trees and back down the mountain. I tighten my arms around his flat stomach.