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So very kind.
The more I was around him, and the more that he spoke to me, the harder it was not to have an appreciation for who he was as a man.
I offered a friendly smile and replied, “Hi, Jack. I hope it’s okay that I came back here. I was just at your front door, but when you didn’t answer, I thought I’d try back here instead.”
His face brightened up at my words, and he came to a stop on the opposite side of the fence. “It’s more than okay. Is everything alright?”
I nodded. “Yes. I just… well…” I held up the tray between us. “I wanted to do something to say thank you for all that you’ve done for me lately.”
Jack’s eyes dropped to the tray, and if I’d been paying better attention, I would have noticed the change in his expression.
Instead, I kept babbling. “They’re my apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies. Technically, it’s my grandma’s recipe, but I’ve adopted it and made these fresh today.”
When I stopped yammering, I took another look at Jack’s face, and that’s when I noticed the look on it. Suddenly, the thought I’d had about how bad of an idea this whole thing was had a new meaning.
Jack’s expression did not indicate that me bringing cookies to show my appreciation was a good thing. I couldn’t begin to work out why doing something like this would put that look on his face.
Needing to do something so I didn’t look like a total fool, I immediately apologized, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you allergic to something I put in these? I was actually going to make my peanut butter cookies, but I thought there would be more of a chance of you having an allergy to that than these.”
Jack didn’t verbally respond.
He lifted his hands up and took the tray from me. “I don’t have any allergies,” he said after some time had passed. “Thank you for baking them and bringing them over. They look delicious.”
The sound of his voice made his words feel genuine, but something about it felt off. “Are you sure? I could make something else if—”
“I’m positive, Dakota,” he assured me.
I snapped my lips together and gave him a nod. “Okay.”
Unable to look directly at him, my eyes shifted to the side, where I saw some of his animals.
“Do you want to come in and meet them?”
“Meet them?” I repeated.
He nodded. “My animals.”
I probably should have said no, but I’d done that a lot lately when it came to him. I didn’t want him thinking I was a miserable bitch, so I decided there would be no harm. Besides, I thought this was far better of an option than being inside one of our cabins alone with him. At least there was far more space to move away from him out here.
Jack opened the gate for me, so I could come inside. After he closed it and started leading me toward the building where he had his sheep, he pointed out at into the open pasture. “I’ve got three cows and one steer. That’s Bessie, Roger, Gertie, and Ida,” he revealed, pointing to each one.
I loved that Jack named all of his animals. I didn’t know why, but I thought it said something about how he felt about them to want to make sure they all had names. I hadn’t grown up on a farm, nor did I know any ranchers, so I wondered if everyone named all of their animals.
“Great names,” I praised him.
Jack chuckled as the two of us continued to walk across the space toward the structure where his sheep were. “These are my sheep. I’ve got Wilma, Aster, and Ewe Jackman.”
I gasped. “Did you just say Hugh Jackman?”
Shaking his head, Jack clarified, “No. I saidEweJackman. Big difference.”
Looking at Jack, knowing how serious he’d been every time I’d been around him up to this point, and having watched him from the comfort of my cabin for weeks on end, I couldn’t stop myself.
Embarrassingly, I snorted with laughter. I hadn’t wanted to do it—I was clearly making a fool of myself—but it was too funny to hold back.
Plus, I hadn’t really laughed in a long time, and it felt good to do it now. It was the stupidest thing I could have been laughing at, but I appreciated Jack giving it to me.
When I finally settled myself down, I promised, “I think the names are great. I just wasn’t expecting that.”
