Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 97

Pure Joy.

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We crested the hill slowly, Ruairi’s ears flicking at the wind. After a while, she tilted her head just enough that I could hear her voice over the breeze.

“What was it like?” she asked quietly. “Growing up here.”

I couldn’t help the grin that pulled at my mouth. “Oh? You’re telling me you don’t know everything about me, little ghost? I thought you were the woman with all the files and secrets.”

She stiffened just enough for me to feel her glare. “Don’t push it.”

I chuckled, kissing the crown of her head before giving in. “Alright, alright. It was… loud. Full of cousins and lads running about, Pa barking orders, Ma keeping the whole bloody mess from collapsing. Horses, dogs, chickens, everywhere you turned, something was alive and raising hell. If I wasn’t in the fields or the stables, I was getting cuffed on the back of the head for nicking bread from the kitchen.”

Her lips twitched, trying hard not to smile, as she looked back at me. I knew that look by now. “That actually sounds… good.”

“It was,” I admitted, my chest loosening as I said it. “Hard work, aye, but good. Pa made sure we knew how to fight, Ma made sure we knew how to live. It’s why the lads you’ve seen are loyal; they were raised on it, just like me. Fed well, treated fair, pushed hard.”

Sage was quiet for a long beat, just the sound of the horse carrying us forward. Then she murmured, “It’s nothing like what I knew.”

I tightened my arm around her waist, steadying her in the saddle. “Aye. You’ll know it now.”

She didn’t answer, but I felt the smallest shift in her posture, the tiniest lean back against me, and that was worth more than a dozen words.

I steered Ruairí down the slope, the grass softening into a narrow track that wound between hedgerows. Sage didn’t ask where we were going, but I felt the tension flicker through her shoulders again; she hated not knowing. I squeezed her waist, steady.

“Relax, little ghost. I want to show you something.”

We came through a break in the trees, and there it was, the lake, dark and glassy, ringed by tall reeds that whispered in the wind. On the far side, an oak leaned heavily over the water, its branches stretched wide, one of them thick with rope. At the end of it hung an old tyre, worn smooth from years of use, still swaying just enough to make me grin.

Sage sat up straighter, eyes narrowing. “What’s that?”

I swung off Ruairí, then helped her down, keeping my hand at her waist longer than necessary. “That,” I said, nodding toward the swing, “is the best spot in the world. When I was a lad, the others and I would spend summers here. We’d climb up, swing out, and drop into the lake screaming like fools. Broke an arm once, but it was worth it.”

Her brow arched. “You want me to jump in freezing water?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Not today. Today, I want you to feel it.”

I led her over, guiding her into the seat of the swing. She looked down at it like it might bite, then at me. She was suspicious, always suspicious.

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12:53 Mon, Oct 20

Pure Joy

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“Trust me,” I said, steadying the rope with one hand and brushing hair from her cheek with the other. “Just let go for once. I’ll keep

hold.”

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She sat stiffly at first, legs dangling, but when I pulled her back and let her glide forward, the slightest sound slipped from her, half gasp, half laugh. I grinned widely.

“There it is,” I murmured, giving her another push, harder this time. The tyre arced out, her hair flying, the water below catching the light. She held on tight, knuckles white, but when she swung back, there was something different in her face. Something brighter.

“See?” I said as she came back toward me. “Not all danger, not all fights. Sometimes it’s just… joy.”

And Christ, watching her, my girl, my storm, swinging over that lake, laughing despite herself, was better than any memory I had from my own childhood. She shot me a look over her shoulder, eyes sparking.

“Higher.”

I barked out a laugh. “Aye, I can do that.”

I pulled her back farther, let her fly, the rope groaning as she swung out over the lake. She squealed, an honest–to–God squeal, as her hair whipped behind her, the sound bursting out of her like she didn’t know how to stop it. When she swung back, her laughter followed, raw and bright, nothing like the guarded chuckles she gave when she was humouring me.

“Again!” she demanded, breathless.

So, I shoved her harder, and this time she let go. For a heartbeat, my chest seized as she sailed through the air, but her scream, sharp, delighted, tore the worry clean out of me. She hit the grass and tumbled into a heap, laughing so hard she could barely sit up. I just stood there, breath knocked out of me, watching her laugh like the world wasn’t built of shadows and knives. And I realised how rare this was for her, how special. That sound. That joy. It hit me like a blade to the gut. How many other things could I do with her, simple, stupid things like this that would draw that same laugh out of her chest? How many firsts had she been robbed of? How many could I give back?

I walked over, grinning like a fool, and offered her my hand. “That is not how you’re meant to swing, little ghost.”

“Your turn!” she said, eyes wide and wicked, scrambling up to her feet with grass still in her hair.

I’m sure the face I pulled said it all, fuck no. But she grabbed my hand before I could back away, tugging me toward the tyre.

“Sage,” I started.

“Nope,” she cut in, grinning like a child. “You’re not getting out of it. Sit.”

That giddy gleam in her eyes undid me. I sighed dramatically and wedged myself into the tyre. Or tried to. “Bloody hell,” I muttered, wiggling my hips until I was half folded over. “I swear this thing used to be bigger.”

Her laugh came sharp and unrestrained, the kind that made my chest go warm. “Maybe you were smaller.”

I shot her a look over my shoulder. “Careful, little ghost. That’s dangerous talk.”

She just grinned wider, then planted both hands on my back and shoved.

The swing lurched, the rope groaned, and my stomach dropped as I sailed out over the water. “Fuck!” I barked, the lake yawning beneath me. When I swung back, she was doubled over laughing, hands braced on her knees.

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“Not funny,” I grumbled, but my voice was already breaking into a laugh of its own.

She shoved again, harder this time, and my shoulders jammed against the tyre’s sides. “Christ almighty, Sage, you’ll break me in half!”

Her laughter carried out over the water, bright and wild, and I realised I’d never seen her look younger, freer, more alive.

Chapter Comments

Tanya Gordon

4 days ago

Just Beautiful

8