“Two days! Will this even be finished in two days?”
“It will be if you help me with it,” Cole stated, bringing my knuckles to his mouth and kissing the back of my hand.
“Y-you want me to help you build a chicken coop?” I stammered still not believing any of this was real.
“Well, it’s going to be your chicken coop, so you might as well get your hands dirty.” Cole shrugged like it was nothing.
“You’re building me a chicken coop?”
I was trying not to hyperventilate. This man couldn’t be real. We barely knew each other and he was letting me name his cows and building me a chicken coop.
“We’re building us a chicken coop,” Cole corrected.
I couldn’t help myself. I leaped up toward him knowing he’d always catch me. With my legs wrapped around his waist and Cole’s hands on my ass, I kissed him with everything I had. He might not know it was my birthday, but somehow, he’d managed to make it my best in years.
When my phone chirped, it broke our moment, and Cole set me back on the ground.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrunched up my nose.
“Who is it?” Cole asked curiously as he led me past the half-constructed coop and toward the barn.
With a heavy sigh, I handed him my phone. “Ben.”
“What’s he want?” Cole didn’t even bother to hide the disdain in his voice.
“No idea. I didn’t read it.”
“Want me to?”
“If you want. Or you can just delete it. That’s what I’ve done with all the others.”
Cole went silent and stared at my phone. For me it had been an easy decision. Hit delete and move on. There was nothing Ben could say that I wanted to hear. There’d been a point where I’d hung on his every word and believed every promise. But that naive, awe-struck girl was gone now. She’d been bruised and battered by the people he pretended to be protecting her from. Now all that was left was me. Cynical, strong, me.
I’d just pushed through the gate out of the yard when Cole’s words froze me where I stood.
“He wants you to meet him for coffee,” Cole announced, his voice devoid of emotion.
“Well, that’s not happening.” I tried to brush it off as I kept walking, reminding myself that Daisy deserved the very best version of me. Not this distracted, ‘wonder what he could want’ version.
“I think you should reply,” Cole called out as he caught up to me in long strides.
“No,” I declared adamantly.
“I think you should. He‘ll keep going until you do.”
Cole had a point, but I didn’t want to hear it. Least of all today. “I’ll think about it,” I conceded, offering him a fake smile that I knew he wasn’t buying. “Hey there, pretty girl. How are you doing this morning?” I cooed as I unlatched the gate and moved into Daisy’s stall.
She rubbed her head on my leg, and I was surprised by how strong she was for someone so little. “You hungry, girl?” I asked as I patted her head only for her to reach out her tongue and lick me.
“Okay. Let me get you some breakfast then,” I told her as I slipped back out of the stall to find Cole still staring at my phone. “What?”
“It’s your birthday,” he declared, and my shoulders drooped.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to know, it was more that I didn’t want him to feel obliged. We were already moving at warp speed, him having to get me something or celebrate out of obligation wasn’t something I was interested in.
“Yeah. It’s no big deal.”
“No big deal? Grace, it’s your birthday.”
