I threw myself into training. Now that I had remembered that Luke had saved my life, I had even more reason to want to be ready for this show. I rode Justice almost every night, only giving us one night off a week. My leg became a lot stronger, but I still needed my cane. I didn’t let that bother me though; I was just happy that I was improving.

            Chase came with me to the barn whenever he could. I gave him lessons at least three nights a week, and he started getting pretty good. He became more comfortable on horses and he really seemed to like riding Autumn.

            The weather improved over the next three months, and I finally started riding during the day again, so that I could work with Justice outside. I usually only rode when no one else was around still, but sometimes people would see me and stop to watch. I knew my parents must have talked to everyone though, because no one ever questioned me.

            On a beautiful day in early May, I met Chase down at the barn. We were going to go on our first trail ride today, and I had packed a picnic lunch for us, which was currently in the backpack I had on. We got Justice and Autumn ready to go, and then mounted up and headed out.

            “So the show’s next weekend. How are you feeling?” Chase asked me.

            “Nervous,” I admitted. “But I think we’re ready.”

            He glanced over at me. “Well, I’m not an expert, but the two of you look more than ready to me.”

            I smiled. “We do seem to work well together. I’m more worried about seeing all the people at the show than actually riding in it.”

            “Do you think any of them will bug you?”

            I shook my head. “No; it’ll just be strange, that’s all. I haven’t seen any of them in a year and it’s a pretty close knit group of people for the most part. I don’t really know what to expect.”

            “I’ll be with you the whole time,” he promised.

            “I know, and that makes it all a little less nerve-wracking,” I told him. “Come on, let’s trot a little bit.”

            We followed one of my favorite trails and eventually ended up in a clearing that was filled with wildflowers. We got off the horses and tied them up before settling on the ground. I opened my backpack and started pulling food out. Chase’s eyebrows rose when he saw how much I had packed. “Are we expecting company out here or something?”

            I gave him a sheepish look. “No, I just kind of went a little crazy when I was making food. I was excited about coming out here today.”

            He laughed and helped me unpack the rest. “Well we won’t starve, that’s for sure,” he teased me.

            I stuck my tongue out at him. “Just shut up and eat,” I said.

            We dug into the food, eating as much of it as we could. When we were done, we packed it back up and then stretched out on the ground. I laid my head on Chase’s chest and gazed out over the field. “Luke and I used to come here every year the weekend before this show. It helped remind us that showing and winning isn’t everything. The moments spent out here with our horses are more important than any ribbons we may win.”

            “You used to trail ride with him a lot?”

            “Yeah, every other weekend when the weather was nice if we could. We’d usually bring a lunch like we did today, and we’d sit out here and tell each other anything that was going on in our lives. It was on a day like this that I first told him that Adam asked me out.”

            “What did he say?”

            I chuckled a little. “He wasn’t entirely impressed by the idea. The three of us had kind of been friends for a few years, and Luke was a little pissed that Adam would do that. He was relieved when I told him that I’d turned Adam down.”

            “And what was Luke’s reaction when you finally said yes?”

            “He was actually okay with it. I guess he had talked to Adam about it, and after some crazy threats on my brother’s part, they came to an understanding. I don’t know if Luke was ever entirely comfortable with it, but he never bugged me about it.” I paused. “Well, not too much anyways.”

            Chase ran his fingers through my hair. “Do you think he would have liked me?”

            I thought about it for a few minutes. “I don’t know,” I said slowly. “He would’ve liked you as a person, I think. But if he saw how close you and I were, he might have had a problem with it. He once told me that part of the reason he didn’t mind me being with Adam was because he knew it would likely only be a teenager thing.” I smiled a little. “I got really mad at him for saying that. At that time, I believed that I would be with Adam forever. Now I know that it wouldn’t have lasted, but that’s not the point. The point is, I think Luke would know that this is a lot different. He’d probably have more of a problem with it, because he’d be afraid of losing me.”

            “I never would have taken you away from him,” Chase protested.

            I shifted so I could look at his face. “Not intentionally, you wouldn’t have. But Luke was always a little jealous when I spent time with someone away from him. I was the same way. I hated it when he would go out with friends without me.”

            “Really? Why?”

            I sighed. “It’s hard to explain. Luke and I always had to be near each other. We couldn’t spend more than a couple of days apart without feeling sick. I think it was an ingrained fear that every time one of us went out with someone, it would take us away from each other. Does that make sense?”

            “I think so,” Chase replied. “Maybe that’s another reason Luke didn’t mind you being with Adam. If you were all friends, he knew you’d be able to hang out together.”

            I considered it. “I never thought about it like that, but you might be right.”

            “Did he ever have any girlfriends?”

            I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Luke didn’t do ‘girlfriends’. He always said that he had too much love to give out to settle on just one girl. He always had girls flocking around him, so he could have had his pick. But he preferred to just have casual flings and nothing else.”

            “Sounds like every teenage boy’s hero,” Chase said. When I raised an eyebrow, he smiled charmingly. “Aside from myself, of course.”

            “Oh yeah, of course,” I replied dryly. I glanced at my watch. “Let’s head back. It’s getting late and we promised Hailey and Blake that we would have dinner with them, remember?”

            “I remember. They’re still planning on coming to the show, right?”

            “Yeah, Hailey seems really excited about it. I don’t know if Blake is looking forward to it or not, though. He’s kind of hard to read sometimes.”

            “He is,” Chase agreed. “But I like him.”

            “So do I.” I got to my feet. “Let’s get going.”

            The night before we would be leaving for the show, I was watching a movie with Chase. He was staying the night tonight, since we were planning on leaving early in the morning. Normally we would be leaving in the evening, but my parents wanted to get there before the rush, so we were taking the day off of school tomorrow.

            While we were curled up on the couch, I suddenly got the feeling someone else was in the room, but when I looked around, no one was there. I sat up straight when I realized that this was exactly like how I’d felt the first time I went down to see Justice after the accident. As soon as I was sitting up straight, I felt that tugging at my soul again and I got to my feet.

            “Dana? What are you doing?” Chase asked me.

            “Luke wants me to do something.”

            Most people would have looked at me like I was nuts, but Chase just got to his feet as well. “Okay, what is it?”

            I started moving forward until I got to the bottom of the stairs in the hallway. I looked over at Chase. “Give me a ride up?”

            Instead of giving me a piggy back ride like he usually did, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me to the top. “Now where?” he wanted to know, keeping me in his arms.

            I looked down at the end of the hallway, and a slight feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “I think I’m supposed to go in his room.”

            Chase hesitated only briefly before carrying me to the room I’d indicated and setting me down in front of it. “Do you want me to stay out here?”

            I shook my head. “No, I want you to come in with me.” I reached forward and grasped the doorknob. I let out a long breath and then slowly opened the door.

            Everything looked the same as it had a year ago when I’d been in here. The bed was unmade, with one of the pillows thrown on the floor. His bedside table was cluttered with random things, but the picture of me and him was still there. There were a few articles of clothing scattered around on the floor, but I ignored all of that as I cautiously went inside. The tugging urged me over to his dresser, and there sitting on top of it was his lucky stock pin.

            I gazed down at the horse-shaped piece of gold, and remembered when I had given it to him when we were ten. I had saved up my allowance for months so I could buy it for him for our birthday. He’d been so happy when he opened it that I’d decided it was worth all the ice cream I’d missed being able to buy.

            A tear tracked down my cheek as I reached down and picked up the pin. “This was his lucky stock pin,” I told Chase in a low voice. “I bought it for him when we were ten. He wore it to every single show and any time he won he said it was because of this pin. If he didn’t win, he would say it was because he hadn’t believed in the power of the pin.” I smiled a little. “I always told him that he was nuts, but he refused to show if he didn’t have this with him.”

            “What are you going to do with it?”

            I turned around to face him, closing my fist around the pin. “I’m going to wear it this weekend.”

            “Did he have it with him at that last show?”

            I nodded. “He did. I wonder how it ended up back on his dresser. My parents never told me that they still had it; I think they would’ve given it to me if they did.”

            Chase slid his arms around my waist and pulled me in for a hug. “Maybe Luke didn’t want it to be found until now.”

            I rested my cheek against his heart. “Maybe you’re right.” The pin was warm in my hand, and I smiled a little. I knew that my brother was wishing me luck at the show, and I was determined to believe in the power of the pin, just like he always did.

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Only one chapter left! And the epilogue, of course. This chapter flowed out really well, which I'm happy about. It was incredibly easy to write. I'm thinking the next one should be easy to write as well, so hopefully I'll have it up in a couple of days.

For those of you who are wondering, there WILL be one more installment in the "Love is" series. I only have a very rough idea about it though, so it'll be awhile until it's up. After this book is done, I'll let you all know what my plans are for future stories.

I posted the R-rated part of chapter 15. Go to my profile and click on it if you want to read it. It's for mature audiences only, so don't read it if you don't like that kind of stuff :-).

My question for this chapter is a little different than my other ones. What "scene" from this story would you like to read from Chase's POV? I won't do the R-rated version in his POV, so don't ask for that one. But if enough people who want to read a different part of the book from his eyes, then I'll try and write it. A few of my ideas were: When they first meet; their first date; Chase talking to Carson about Dana's Chritsmas present; or Chase and Adam talking after they worked on the project. I'm open to hearing other ideas as well.

Vote and comment to let me know what you thought!