Page 156 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

Furi’s smile was wide and sincere. “Absolutely, it smells great.”

Amelia blushed. “Breakfast is usually self-serve, but I’ll fix your plate as a first day guest courtesy. Now, if you’re here tomorrow morning, you betta get down here at six sharp, or else there’ll only be scraps.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Furi made his way to him and Syn pushed back the empty chair beside him in invitation.

Furi sat close enough that their knees touched under the table.

The contact was small, but he felt it all the way to his chest.

Furi’s gaze dropped to Syn’s plate before he picked up a piece of potato and ate it.

Across the table, Rid still stared.

Dale stared too, though he was trying harder to pretend he wasn’t.

Syn rolled his eyes. “Furi, this is Dale, Bull’s business partner and foreman. And that,” Syn pointed his fork toward Rid, “is Rid. He’s the stable manager. He was functioning like a normal human being before you walked in.”

Rid opened his mouth but no words came.

Furi smiled at them, gorgeous and polite enough to worsen Rid’s condition. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Rid nodded hard, several times. “Yeah,” he croaked. “You, nice. Me too. I mean, yes. Nice, meeting, here, you. I’m Rid.”

Dale turned his head slowly. “Seriously?”

Rid stared at his plate. “This is a lot of pressure, okay?”

“You better put that hair up, son,” Walker spoke out of nowhere, eyes never leaving his paper. “You don’t wanna get it caught in the hay baler. They’ll be plucking pieces of you out of the machine till Christmas.”

Bull burst out laughing.

Furi touched the end of his hair. “That sounds unpleasant.”

Amelia’s eyes gleamed. “Can I braid it?”

Furi looked surprised at first, then something vulnerable revealed itself in his smile. “Sure,” he said. “I’d like that.”

Amelia beamed as if she’d won one of the prizes on that game show she’d been watching earlier. “Good. I’ll do it after breakfast.”

Fox clapped his hands once and stood. “Speaking of dying by being shredded by a baler, we need to get moving Syn.”

“You got it.” Syn downed the last of his strong coffee.

Fox grinned at Furi. “You wanna learn too? I can squeeze in another lesson.”

Rid’s hand shot into the air as if someone had asked for audience volunteers at a David Copperfield show. “I can teach him.”

Dale turned on him so fast his chair almost tipped over. “I thought you were busy all day.”

Rid lowered his hand slowly. “I can rearrange a couple things.”

Fox folded over laughing, and Bull didn’t bother hiding his as he leaned against the counter, shoulders shaking.

Amelia glanced back and forth between them, then at Walker. “What are we missing?”

Walker glanced over his paper. “I have no clue, and I’m too old to care.”