Read Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series) for Free Online

said simply and turned to the door.  Though I knew she was only baiting me, my stomach turned over when she mentioned other girls being interested in Grey.  It surprised me how much it bothered me.
    “Autumn,” Tess said, and I stopped, my hand on the door and my back to her.
    “Yeah?” I said, after a pause to steady my voice.
    “If you do decide to come tonight, wear something green.  It makes your eyes sparkle.”
    Minutes later, I cantered Snicket down the middle of Main Street, straining to hold her back from a full-on gallop.  She was restless, pulling on the bit in her mouth, and her usually steadfast legs felt like coiled springs of pent-up energy under me.  The street was busy for that time of night, and the lights from stores spilled out in yellow puddles.
    The windstorm blew itself out just in time for everyone to attend the first ever social event in Hoover’s short history, and people in various states of dress hurried between buildings.  A few men in dirty coveralls stood in line for the public shower, the lettering across their backs showing they worked at the energy plant inside the dam.  Three girls in dresses hurried into Sweet Sweet Su’s to look at the display of oatmeal cupcakes and cookies.
    Electricity flowed through the dirt streets tonight, though it wasn’t quite excitement.  It was like the quiet drawing in of a breath before a scream, or the silence before the crash of an ocean wave.  Like there was something large looming nearby.
    Ben would say it was just the desert aggravating the agoraphobic tendencies I’d developed after The Plague.  Another reason to stay home, I thought, my eyes flickering over the various clusters of excited Hoover residents as Snicket and I passed.
    I yanked hard on Snicket’s reins suddenly, pulling her to a dead stop in the shadows between a couple buildings.  She danced sideways and tossed her head in protest.
    Lit like a glowing beehive, the window of Ash’s Laundromat across the street was a perfect frame for the man standing at the counter.  Every curve of his profile was familiar to me, the tilt of his head, even his stance.  How anyone could believe Grey was a teenager was beyond me.  He looked physically nineteen or twenty, but his mind was roughly three hundred years old, and he had lived through two centuries of our history, experiencing the rise and fall of empires, world wars, revolutions and the modernization of the entire planet.
    Giggling broke my concentration, and I looked around for the source, hoping no one had caught me ogling.  Three girls dressed for the dance clustered next to the open door to the laundromat.   All three were obviously enjoying the same view I was.  Two of them pushed the third toward the door, and they all started giggling again.  To my shock, the girl adjusted her skirt so it was shorter, then slipped into the laundromat to lean against the counter next to Grey.
    I leaned forward in the saddle, straining to hear.  Surely he wouldn’t be interested.  Not that I should care, but my eyes didn’t leave the pair until he exited with a pressed shirt on a hanger, scattering the two waiting girls like birds.  He was smiling.
    Smiling.  A brick materialized in my stomach.  Tess’ taunting words echoed in my mind.  He’ll be off the market again soon...
    I slumped in the saddle, bewildered at the green sprig of jealousy sprouting through the thick layer of unease and paranoia that had accumulated in my brain over the past nine weeks.
    I kicked Snicket into a steady canter.  My mind was made up by the time I rode into the front yard.  I tied her to the front porch and dashed inside and down the hall to the bathroom, unhooking the straps of my overalls as I went.
    Common sense told me to ignore the possessive streak surging through me as I turned on the shower as hot as it would go and ran across the hallway to my bedroom.  I stripped off my dusty overalls and stared at my mostly empty closet.