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“I’m not grumpy,” he finally says, standing and walking over to me. He leans against the island and tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “Just a bit stressed, if I’m being honest.”
“I do prefer honesty.” I take a bite of bacon, and he reaches across me to grab a biscuit. I slap his hand away. “No, sir. You have your own breakfast coming. You can leave mine alone.”
He laughs and kisses me. “Talk later?”
I look into his dark honey eyes and decide I’m willing to hold off on talking about what’s happening, seeing as his kids are going to be at his house any minute. We have more to think about than just us. There are more people involved.
I nod.
“Maybe you can sneak over sometime this week after the kids have gone to bed.” He kisses the crook of my neck and slowly moves up until he takes the shell of my ear between his teeth.
“You’ll have to learn to be quiet,” I breathe.
He chuckles, his warm breath skating across my cheek before he kisses it.
“See you later, poppyseed.”
I shamelessly watch him walk away, because his ass in those jeans is porn. Straight up cowboy porn. And it’s getting logged into my brain for when he’s an ass to me next and I need to remind myself why I let him get in my pants.
The animals didn’t endup getting dropped off until later in the week because of a heat wave that’s sweeping through the area. It slowed down a lot of shit that needed to be done on the ranch and put deliveries behind because of people all over struggling to get stuff done.
So now it’s already Friday, and we’re just now getting to integrate the new dogs. Meanwhile, the goats and chickens are being taken care of by Rhett and a few of the other guys that work for him. At least, that’s what Wells has told me. I wouldn’t know what Rhett is doing because I haven’t heard from him since Sunday morning.
He’s avoiding me like the plague. I go to Katherine’s every morning, and every morning, she tells me he got an early start to avoid the heat. Wells and Hayes just roll their eyes and tell me he’s “just being Rhett.” Which does not make me feel any better.
I wasn’t asking for a damn marriage proposal, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to be ghosted. He promised we would talk. He suggested we’d be seeing each other. And yet, here we are.
“Heard from Rhett?” Hayes asks from where he’s sitting. He’s been coming over here all week, sitting with the dogs while he plays guitar for me and Wells.
“What do you think?”
I refuse to look at him because I know my emotions are all over my face. I feel stupid and embarrassed. Sweat is dripping down my back and into my eyes. I know my boob sweat is making puddles in my bra. Christ, even the backs of my knees are sweating. We have every fan going in this damn barn to keep it cool enough for the animals, but it’s still hot when you add manual labor into the mix.
Wells told me they want to get it outfitted for temperature control in the summer. They’ve already got it set up for Montana winters to keep them warm, but it’s rarely warm enough to warrant it in the summer. Lately, though, he says they’ve been getting random heat waves, and it’s making everyone miserable.
Can confirm because I’m officially fucking miserable.
I look toward the barn door because I hear the kids’ squeals of laughter floating in. It must be lunchtime. Katherine hasn’t missed a single day of coming up here with sandwiches and iced tea. It’s still awkward as hell for me to be around her because I know she knows. But she hasn’t brought it up once. We are just living with the elephant in the room, choosing to ignore it like a piece of very normal furniture.
Hayes jumps to his feet as she rounds the corner, trying to look busy.
“Saw that,” she says, handing out the sandwiches while the kids go play with the puppies, who are growing like weeds.
“Thank you, Katherine.” I smile at her, and she gives me a playful wink.
“The guys up at the horse barn need some help,” she says, not really addressing anyone in particular. “Your daddy has gone up to help Rhett but wants someone else to come.”
“I am not muckin’ out stalls in this heat,” Hayes says through a mouthful.
“Just for that, yes you are.” Katherine gives him a look, and it only takes him a second to respond. Groaning, he tosses his guitar over his back and pouts the entire way out of the barn, shoving that sandwich in his mouth so fast I think he might choke.
“I’ll go up in a minute,” Wells says.
“Think we could stay with you?” I look down, and Jolene’s warm brown eyes are looking back up at me. Her hair is in braided pigtails today, her baby hairs falling out and floating around her face. Her nose and cheeks are red from the sun.
“Of course you can. You can take the little ones outside for a few minutes if you want. They probably need to potty after their lunch.” They’re still so young and underweight that they’re getting fed three times a day, with treats in between. They’re going to be spoiled rotten.
Katherine helps get the puppies outside and then tells me to send the kids back the second I get tired of them. I could never get tired of these kids. They’re incredibly well-behaved, if not a little ornery sometimes. But they have big hearts, and they’re great with the dogs. It’s a bit of a relief to have something to distract me from thoughts of Rhett.
