AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A jubilant cry across the lake broke into his question.
Jo Ellen was never so disappointed yet relieved to see her brother-in-law hop up and down, exclaiming he had a fish hooked on his line while Emma Leigh tried to calm him down enough to talk him through the process of reeling it in.
Forgetting his conversation with Jo Ellen, Cooper sprang to his feet and raced around the edge of the bank to assist the new fisherman.
Chapter Fourteen
By the time they stopped fishing for the day, dusk coated the countryside. At final tally, Jo Ellen had caught two fish and the married couple had snagged five between the two of them—Emma Leigh being kind enough to let an over-zealous Branson reel in the crappie that found her bait. Cooper had been so busy helping everyone else that he’d missed the one time anything had nibbled at his line. He came away from the evening empty handed.
As their party made its way back to the house, Emma Leigh was in a rush to get home to her baby. “We’ll see you,” she called to Jo Ellen as she shut her door and Bran started their car.
Jo Ellen waved them off but dallied by her Kia, loath to climb in it just yet. Entranced by the sunset, she wandered a few feet to the nearby white picket fence lining Cooper’s driveway. Crossing her arms over the top rail, she breathed in the summer air, taking in the scent of sweet corn and wildflowers.
The taillights of Em’s car glowed red in the distance before they disappeared and still, Jo Ellen lingered, exhaling a silent sigh of relief and excitement and fear when Cooper joined her at the fence.
Finally. They were alone.
Her heart beat heavily in her chest. She knew she should go; she could never put enough faith in him to trust him with her heart. But the temptation to draw closer to him was too heady to resist.
Maybe…
Maybe a short meaningless fling would do her good, maybe boost her self-confidence.
“Pretty amazing scenery, huh?” His low voice sent a tremor of nerves through her.
She nodded. “It’s beautiful. This is what I miss most about Tommy Creek…besides my family.”
“When I was a kid, I used to camp out every night during the summer and bunk up in the hayloft so I could fall asleep to the setting of the sun. There’s a great view of the entire farm up there.”
Jo Ellen bit her lip before glancing at him. “Can I see it?” She rushed the words, all the while wondering what the heck she was doing, inviting disaster this way. Yet deep inside, she didn’t regret her request in the least, was even eager to have it all play out.
Cooper glanced sharply at her. “You…you mean the hayloft?”
“The view from the hayloft,” she corrected, barely managing to hide a smile. But he looked so startled, so hopeful, her insides turned to liquid mush, preparing for what her body already knew was to come.
He opened his mouth a good five seconds before his answer came, and when it did, the word, “Sure,” sounded like it’d been slathered in a thick coat of rust.
He turned toward the barn and she followed. When he slowed his pace for her to stroll next to him, she glanced over and smiled. He returned the glance but not the smile. It killed her, not knowing what he was thinking. But he hadn’t rejected this, so she didn’t back out either.
“Watch your step. I’d flip on a light, but you can’t see the sunset quite as well with it on and there’s no switch up there.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find my way.” When he took her hand to help her
locate the ladder, she held his warm fingers a second longer than necessary. Then she climbed. Once she reached the top, she paused in the dark, waiting for him.
He took her hand when he joined her and led her to the opened loft door, where he regretfully let go. Her fingers felt chilled without his large, rough flesh wrapped around hers. Their knees almost touched as they dangled their legs out the opening of the hayloft and stared out at the moon and stars. Well, Cooper stared at the moon; Jo Ellen couldn’t take her eyes off their bare hands. A scant inch separated their pinkies as they both clutched the edge of the barn wall.
Wishing he’d make a move, she suddenly realized why the term nice guys finish last was so typically true. With a total jerk, at least she knew whether he was or wasn’t interested in her. With a perfect gentleman like Cooper, however, he was too polite to press his suit. She figured he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable or insult her in any way; he wouldn’t pressure her where he wasn’t completely sure she wanted to be pressured.
He cleared his throat. “See that beam sticking out up there with the cables on it?”
Confused by the question, she squinted through the dim night, focusing on what he’d pointed to above them, dangling from the outmost tip of the barn roof. “Yeah. What is that thing?”
“It’s an old horse-drawn track system, or in other words, an old-fashioned hay bale elevator. The track runs the length of the barn and to the back of the loft. And a wheel, called a trolley, would roll back and forth along those cables to move the bales. You’d lever four hooks into the hay bale and have a horse down on the ground draw the line forward, making the trolley move, and pulling the bale up off the ground into the loft.”
Jo Ellen glanced back into the dark recesses of the barn, envisioning the picture he described. She could see a lot of hard-working men, sweat streaming down their sunburned faces managing to get such a job done, one on the ground to hook the bale and another to lead the horse back and forth with two in the loft to catch and unhook. Sending a sideways grin to Cooper, she chuckled. “I didn’t realize I’d get a history lesson when I came up here.”
She could actually see him blush through the dark. He ducked his head. “Sorry, I—”
