Chestnut Hill by Lauren Brooke

Chestnut Hill: Heart of Gold

Chestnut Hill Book #3: Heart of Gold

Honey Harper heaved her suitcase onto her bed and looked around the dorm room. “Hey, where is everyone? I can’t believe I’m the first one here.”

“Do you want me to stay until your roommates arrive? I don’t mind,” her dad offered.

Honey unzipped her case and lifted back the lid. “I’m all right, thanks,” she said, making an effort to actually sound that way as she scooped out an armful of sweaters and T-shirts. She used her foot to gently open the bottom drawer of her dresser and placed the stack inside.

“Really?”

“Honestly.” Honey ran her hand over the top sweater to even out a crease and turned around. “I survived the first part of term. I think I can handle a little unpacking.”

“I get the message. It’s not cool to have your dad in your dorm room!” Her dad laughed, ruffling the top of her head.

“Dad!” Honey protested. She smoothed away the static so her blonde hair framed her heart-shaped face again.

“Since when did you get too old for you dad to mess up your hair?”

Honey detected the familiar teasing tone.

“Since I was about six years old!” she told him, giving him a gentle shove toward the door. “Go! I’m fine, really.”

But when Mr. Harper paused to put his arms around her and give her a hug, Honey squeezed him back like she never wanted to let go. It felt as if everything changed over the Thanksgiving weekend, and suddenly the thought of being apart from her family until Christmas made Honey want to go straight home.

“I’ll call as soon as we get any news,” he promised, untangling from her. “Come on, it’s not like you go to all wobbly on me!”

Go all wobbly. Honey hadn’t heard him use that phrase since he had first announced to the family that they’d be leaving England so he could take a faculty position at a university in the States. That move seemed like such a minor issue now. I have to get a grip, she told herself. The last thing I want is to give Dad a guilt trip. “I’ll keep my phone on,” she said with a nod.

Her dad gave her one last hug. “That’s my brave girl,” he whispered into her hair.

As soon as he had left the room, Honey abandoned her packing. She sank down on her bed and opened her bedside drawer to pull out the album she kept there. A wave of homesickness ~ for her family, for her old home, for her pony, Rocky ~ prompted a need to look at pictures of her life before they came to Virginia.

“Hi, Honey, I’m home!”

The door flew open, and Honey shoved her photo album back into the nightstand as her roommate entered.

“Did you have a good holiday? I think Thanksgiving has got to be my favorite. The food is just out of control! I really miss mom’s cooking.” Dylan Walsh dropped her bags on her bed before coming over to hug Honey. “But it’s sooo great to be back, even though these are going to be the most manic three weeks ever. I’ll have to ride Morello day and night to get ready for the league competition.” She paused and ran her hands through her shoulder-length red hair. “Well, maybe practicing at night isn’t such a great idea.”

Definitely not,” Honey agreed, knowing full well what her roommate meant. Dylan had been banned from riding for two weeks after she’d tried to take Morello around a course of jumps in the middle of the night. It was all because of a simple game of truth-or-dare, and it had been Dylan and Honey’s third roommate, Lynsey, who had proposed the midnight ride. For weeks they didn’t know how Dylan had been caught, and it seemed as if she had put the memory of her riding suspension in the past. But just before the Thanksgiving break, they’d overheard Patience Duvall, one of the other girls from Adams House, confess to telling housemother. Honey knew there hadn’t been any time for Dylan to confront Patience before everyone left for the long weekend, and she was certain that Dylan wasn’t going to just forgive and forget.

Before they had a chance to discuss the matter of revenge, Lynsey Harrison, the final resident in Room Two, appeared in the doorway carrying a bunch of leaflets and looking totally stressed.

“What’s up with you? You’re supposed to have just had a break,” Honey reminded her.

Lynsey raised her thinly plucked eyebrows. “Some vacation. I spent the weekend designing leaflets for the school auction. The I had to come back early to make color copies in the newspaper office.”

She’s still putting one hundred and then percent in her student council role, Honey thought. Lynsey had thrown herself into organizing the Halloween party to secure votes in the council elections, but now that she was officially a class representative, she seemed just as committed.
“Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t get any R and R,” Dylan said as she clipped a plaid skirt to a wooden hanger.

“I’ll have plenty of time to rest and relax once I’m dead,” Lynsey retorted without a trace of humor in her voice.

Honey winced, before the other noticed her reaction, she snatched up a think woolen sweater and tried pushing it into a drawer that was already crammed with clothes.

“Honey, do you have something against that sweater?” Dylan joked, coming over to give her a hand. “Usually you’re like the queen of the well-organized wardrobe.”

Honey quickly refolded the argyle vest and put it in the net drawer down.

There was a triple rap at the door. “ The girls are back in the house!” Lani cheered as and Malory burst into the room.

“Lani, people like you should come with a volume control,” Lynsey snapped. “Do you want to get us all detention the first day back?”

Lani shot her a broad smile. “Hey I missed you, too, Lynsey!”

“We were wondering if you guys wanted to come down to the barn with us,” Malory said.

“I’ll be down later,” Lynsey told them, even though the invite had not been directed at her.

“The barn sounds like a great idea,” Honey said, grabbing her jacket and scarf. The temperature had hovered around freezing over the last few days, and even though Honey was sure the barn would be amply heated, she liked to be prepared.

“Excellent,” Lani said. “And on the way down, we can catch up on all the news.”

“Yeah like any interesting e-mails from a certain cute guy?” Dylan raised her eyebrows meaningfully at Malory. “Perhaps one from Saint Kits?”

Malory blushed bright red as she became the focus of every pair of eyes in the room. Caleb, one of the Saint Kits team riders, had asked Malory out on a date at the practice jumping meet just before the holiday break. “Look, what’s more important around her ~ horses or boys?” she joked as she ducked out of the door, her long dark hair bouncing on her shoulders. “Both!” Lani enthused.

“Well, right now there is a guy I really want to see,” Malory confessed.
“Is he dark handsome with sweet but mischievous eyes?” Dylan asked, putting on her quilted barn coat. She smiled at Lani as they followed Malory out of the room.

“And long legs?” Lani continued. “Maybe four of them?”

“I’m right behind you!” Honey called as she pulled her gloves from her suitcase. She couldn’t wait to escape to the stables ~ and not just so she could hear about whether Caleb had been in touch with Malory. Everything always seemed less complicated around horses.

          

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