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Jack grinned at me. “I’m glad. How about you come and meet the girls?”
“The girls?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“The chickens.”
“Ah, right. Sure.”
Jack led me over to what I assumed was the chicken coop, where he said, “And these are my girls. Frances, Betty, Laura, Henrietta, Poppy, and Sir Cluckington.”
“What?”
“What?”
I narrowed my eyes on Jack’s ‘girls’ before returning my attention to him and tipping my head to the side. “Sir Cluckington?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” he replied, as though I had no reason to be confused.
“These are girls,” I told him.
“Yep.”
Shooting him a look of disbelief, I said, “You mean to tell me that you gave all of your animals names, and when you got to naming the girls here, you ran out of suitable names and settled onSirCluckington?”
“Nope.”
My brows pulled together. “But you just said—”
“I didn’t settle on Sir Cluckington, Dakota. That was actually the third name I came up with after Frances and Betty.”
I looked back into the henhouse and shot a sympathetic look Sir Cluckington’s way. The poor girl.
Figuring I’d done enough to apologize for recently, I didn’t think it was wise to give Jack any additional grief about the names he’d chosen. If he was happy and the animals were being cared for, what did it matter?
“Well, this has been fun, but I should probably get going and let you get back to it,” I said. “Thank you for taking some time to get me more acquainted with the animals. I appreciate the introductions today. Maybe I’ll be much more confident now if I ever come into contact with a bison in the wild.”
“That’s not something you should ever be comfortable with,” Jack noted. “Bison are not animals you want to mess around with. And thank you for bringing over the cookies.”
“You’re welcome,” I returned with a small smile on my face.
With that, I moved back toward the gate that Jack had opened and allowed me to come in through. He reached around to open it up for me, and only after I stepped through did he speak again.
“Dakota?” he called.
“Yeah?”
“In the event you ever feel the need to bake again, I think it’s worth mentioning that peanut butter and chocolate are my favorite dessert flavors.”
Despite how much I had convinced myself that the answers to all the questions I’d been asking myself about Jack didn’t matter, for some reason, I liked the feeling that moved through me at having that tidbit of information about him.
That was why there was only one thing I could do.
As quickly as I could, without making it obvious I needed to get away, I said goodbye and went back to my cabin. The minute I was inside, I stripped off my layers, grabbed my phone, and planted myself on the couch.
I couldn’t hold this back any longer.
I needed to get it out.
And that meant there was only one person I could call.
