He pulls me down off the counter and gives me a swat in the ass. “Now go back to bed.”
I give a weak smile and feel his touch again as he tries to put my strap back over my shoulder. But it just falls back over my breast.
“And you probably shouldn’t walk around dressed like this,” he says, his voice quiet again.
I look up, meeting his eyes.
He cocks his head. “Especially this winter.”
Tiernan
I rest my head against Jake’s back, my face turned up to the sky. Small puffs of white clouds dot the blue, and the cool air fills my lungs with water and wood. I don’t remember ever being so relaxed.
I didn’t get much sleep after he sent me to bed last night, but I’m not missing it. Everything seems lighter now.
“Stop taking the reins,” Jake snips.
I smile, my arms tight around him as I grip the leather straps.
“But I like to steer.”
“That’s not how you steer a horse,” he chides over his shoulder. “Thought you knew how to ride.”
“I thought I did, too, but you won’t let me ride one on my own,” I tease, resting my chin on his shoulder.
Our rifles bob against my back as we ride around the barn and back up the driveway to the house. After chores this morning, Noah drove all the girls back to town, and Jake took me into the forest for target practice. I hadn’t seen—or heard—Kaleb since last night.
But as we ride past the large pile of gravel Jake had dropped off to recover the driveway this morning, I look over and see Kaleb, standing up on a ladder and fixing the pane of glass in the ceiling of the greenhouse.
He doesn’t look back.
“You hungry?” Jake asks.
He stops, climbing down, and I take his hand, letting him help me off.
“Yeah.” I’ve been hungry since breakfast, and I ate something then, too. A lot, actually. I could eat like three—
“Cheeseburgers!” I hear Noah scream all of a sudden.
I whip my head around and see him step out of the barn, holding his fists in the air.
I smile and then look back at Jake.
He shakes his head and pulls his keys out of his pocket, dropping them in my hand. “Go,” he tells me.
I start for the truck but stop and swing back, planting a quick kiss on Jake’s cheek.
He freezes, giving me a look.
I whip off Noah’s flannel and tie it around my waist as I back away, smiling. “You said I should do things that make me happy. You told me to find my bliss.”
“I’m pretty sure I would never say that.”
But I spot the little smile playing on his lips as he turns and grabs a rake to start spreading the new gravel.
Opening the door of the truck, I climb in, but Noah is suddenly there, forcing me over. I scoot down as he takes the keys from me.
But as I slide over to the passenger’s seat instead, that door opens and Kaleb is there. We lock eyes, and he jerks his chin, ordering me to make room. My nerves fire. I settle in the middle.