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And it all made sense.
Grabbing my door handle, I threw it open, annoyed as all can be. While the date could still be reconciled, I certainly had some chastising to do. Once again, a kiss had been foiled.
Fingers wrapped around my arm before I managed to leave the truck. Glancing at Tenley, she smiled, giggling. “Go easy on him, tough guy,” she quietly said, and I paused.
She didn’t seem the least bit upset. Her eyes sparkled, something else twinkling as she simply looked at me.
I nodded once and snagged my hat from the dash. Tugging it on top of my head, I jumped down from the truck and walked around to the front as my fifteen-year-old nephew pulled out a few more stems of hay from his pants.
“Before you say anything, I—” Butch started while shoving through the hay, but I raised my hand, stopping him.
“How’d you convince your mom to let you stay behind?” I asked, and he brushed some dust and flakes off of the back of his neck. Picking up his hat from the ground, he pushed himself higher onto the messy hay pile.
“I agreed to bake like four dozen cookies for tomorrow,” he sheepishly replied. I watched as he pulled one leg from the hay, his purple pearl snap shirt untucked and buttoned unevenly.
“I’m sorry, what?” I couldn’t believe this teenage boy would miss out on the Christmas festival to bake cookies.
Butch shook some more stems out of his curly light-brown hair and grinned again as my truck door creaked open. “Mom left me the recipe, and I have all evening,” he said again, trying to step forward. It was awkward as he dug himself out of the hay, and I shook my head.
“You realize that four dozen cookies are forty-eight of them right? And I doubt Pearl has ever made you bake a day in your life.” I crossed my arms.
Butch’s eyes glanced at the figure approaching me cautiously as he finally reached the edge of the fence. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Without burning the house down?”
“I know how to work a stove,” he argued in response.
“You use anovenfor cookies, Butch,” I corrected, still in disbelief that he would agree to this as a fifteen-year-old boy. I was once a fifteen-year-old boy, and I can guarantee baking cookies was the last thing on my mind. There were girls at the festival. His buddies were at the festival.
Fingers wrapped around my arm, gently pulling my attention away from Butch. Tenley leaned in and subtly nodded up to the top of the stack that was now half as high. “I think there’s another reason he agreed to stay,” she whispered in my ear and then stepped away from me.
Letting my eyes float upwards, I raised my brows, once again watching everything come together, and Butch scrambled over the fence.
“Look, Weston, please. I’ll go inside and start baking them right now. I’ll clean this mess up too. You and Doc Tenley can go about doing whatever vet medicinal things you need to do with the cows,” he rambled, trying to drag my gaze away from the pair of wide, brown eyes peeking over the top of the bales.
“What’s her name?” I growled, and raised a finger, wagging it to have Butch’s female visitor climb down. She shrieked quietly, realizing she’d been caught, and disappeared from view.
Butch groaned. “Charlotte,” he quietly said, collapsing against the fence with his chest. I opened my mouth ready to scold him as I heard a snort come from Tenley. She bit back the laugh, and it hit me. She wasn’t too upset that we’d had our date ruined again. In fact she found this hilarious. And it honestly was.
Closing my mouth, I waited in silence for the curly-haired girl Butch was here alone with to round the base of the stack.
She kept her almond shaped, amber eyes fixed on the ground. Sheepishly stopping next to the fence, but far enough away from Butch that she didn’t have to climb over the pile. I raised a brow as Butch’s cheeks turned a little red. She brushed back her curly hair, her dark skin a sharp contrast against the bright white of the snow.
Pretty, young, and she honestly suited Butch. He hesitantly raised his gaze to meet mine as I studied the two of them quietly. Well, this made sense why he’d agreed to bake cookies. Though I figured he planned to accept whatever punishment Pearl would give him when she returned, instead of following through on baking. I mean, for heaven’s sake, there was a girl here with him. And I hated to admit, I would’ve done the same thing.
“So, I’m assuming my sister doesn’t know that Charlotte’s here?” I finally asked, breaking the silence.
Butch shook his head. “And please don’t tell her.”
“Does your mom even know about her in general?”
He shook his head silently.
“You snuck a girl here, alone,” I chastised.
He gestured toward Tenley. “You have a girl here alone, too. And I’m pretty sure you announced you were joining everyone at the festival, so you technically snuck her here and lied.”
“For one, this is my ranch. Second, we’re adults. And you're fifteen.”
