My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) by Melissa Solis

was at the dinner table. He holds every door open for me along the way and I can tell where Sam gets his gentlemanly manners from.  
    “ Come on I’ll introduce you to the stable manager. He will be your supervisor.”
    “ I got the job?”
    “ I think you’ll do a fine job Brennen.” I would beg to differ, but Elijah promises he will teach me the ropes so no one will be the wiser.
    “ There are about six others in the rotation and two trainers, one for hunter jumper and the other for dressage, Sam works with the handicapped children. We work with the Autism Foundation mainly. There are eight paddocks, the horses get let out daily. We have a small breeding program with our Friesians and Quarter Horse.” He talks as he walks. I think equine vocabulary should be on the SAT, this world clearly has its own language all together. He stops finally and leads me into an office where a man is seated behind an old desk.
    “Mr. McCready, this is Brennen Hale, our new hand.” He introduces me to the much older gentleman. The man has a scant amount of white hair on the lower part of his head and a neatly trimmed white beard. I can’t help but scan through his memories and thoughts, it has become second nature for me to do so. He is kind and gentle in nature and I immediately warm to him.
    “ Liam, please. It’s good to have you with us Brennen.”
    “ Thank you Liam.”
    I agree to come in after school on Tuesday, Thursday and all day Saturday to help out with the daily routine.  Elijah talks horse the entire ride home. Apparently where he lives, horses are the second choice mode of transportation. I don’t mind listening. It’s taking my mind off of everything else.
    “Okay humiliating job, check. Now what should we do with the rest of this gorgeous day? I get the devastatingly handsome smile flashed at me. Must my stomach flip over every time he does that? You would think I’d be immune by now. 
    “ Let’s see, how about we do something really normal, like go see a movie and have dinner,” he suggests.
    “ Long as it’s not a horror film.”
    “ Definitely not a horror film. We’ve had way to much real horror scripted into our lives.” We head into Virginia Beach and decide a cheesy comedy is our best bet. Elijah and I take a seat in the theater with a tub of popcorn and a soda between us.
    “ I’ve never been to a movie theater with a guy before. Who wasn’t my dad I mean,” I whisper.
    “ No?” He considers this for a moment. He finally drapes an arm over my shoulder and I settle into him. I inhale his warm dark chocolate scent and it awakens the memories of the night we spent lounging at his house.  “Well I look forward to sharing many firsts with you one day.”  His dimples dig in when he says it and I’m turned into a ball of heat, the sun would envy the energy between the two of us.
    He takes a long drink of Coke as the lights dim. His blue eyes burn their magic into my heart and I let out a frustrated sigh. I wrap my lips around the straw his were just on. This is as close to the real thing as I can get. Every time our fingers graze each other in the popcorn or our thighs touch I’m reminded of how bad I’ve it for this man.
     
    Journal of EM              February 17 th 2013
    Resisting her is getting harder by the minute. If her finger’s brush mine one more time and send that wave of need through me entire body… I bite down on my fist to distract my body, who obviously has a mind of its own right now. Her honeysuckle scented perfume keeps finding its way over to my nose and its driving me crazy. I’ve got to keep it together. Every muscle in my body is pleading with me to give in and kiss her already.
    Her soft sweater rubs up against my arm and I can feel the heat of her skin through it. I swallow hard as I try and regain my senses. Focus on the future. Now is not our time. She is Sam’s future wife. Repeat this mantra for the duration of the movie. ~
    I stayed on my