Confusion raced through her eyes, and then she softened. “Oh yeah? What was it?”
Darren detailed how he’d been teaching the dog to crawl, and how he’d finally gotten it. “Bacon,” Darren said. “Apparently that dog will do anything for bacon.”
“Smart dog,” Farrah said.
They got their waffles and the silence between them was as easy now as it had been back before their break up. Darren was grateful for that, grateful that Farrah let him hold her hand as they went back to his truck.
Thoughts of kissing her danced through his head, but he made a vow that he wouldn’t do it. Not yet. She still had things to tell him, and he didn’t want to be too impatient. Well, he did, but he didn’t want Farrah tothinkhe was being too impatient.
Things were new between them too, as he’d learned more about her in the past few weeks than he’d known in the eight months they’d dated.
He pulled in beside her car and twisted to look at her. “Thanks for coming to dinner. I had a great time.”
She reached up and cradled his face in her palm. “Me too, Darren.”
“You are…wonderful,” he said, not wanting to venture into four-letter-L-word territory again.
That soft smile he loved touched her lips only moments before she skated them across his cheek. He closed his eyes in pure bliss and took in a deep drag of her scent. Woodsy and earthy, with a hint of maple from the waffles.
“Maybe we can do another cooking lesson tomorrow,” she said.
His eyes flew open. “You want to come out to the farm again?”
She shook her head. “Maybe you can come to my place.” Hope shone in her eyes, and Darren seized onto it.
“Yeah, sure.” The first time he’d kissed her had been at her house, and long after she got out and drove away, long after he’d returned to Steeple Ridge, long after he should’ve been asleep, all he could think about was kissing Farrah for the first time again.
Farrah textedDarren several times the next day, and it reminded him so strongly of when they were together, he wondered if they were.
“I need her to come out to the farm again,” he muttered after she’d told him what he’d be cooking that night. Her first couple of texts had detailed that she’d pick up the groceries and what time to be at her house.
He thought briefly about going out to the Bybee’s farm and meeting her again, but since he’d taken off early last night, he couldn’t leave his chores for the other boys today too. So he kept his head down and his hands busy.
His mind was just as occupied, circulating around ideas to get Farrah back out to Steeple Ridge, back into a saddle. Maybe she really did just need more time. Darren’s impatience reared, and he tamped it down as he went down the row of horses to feed them.
Cody entered the barn with the horse Missy had been using for a group riding lesson. “Is she done with Diamond already?”
“He’s hurt.”
It was then that Darren noticed the horse limping, and the way Missy’s golden retriever, Fritz, hovered near the horse’s back right leg. Darren abandoned the feeding and went to assist with Diamond King, the tall, taupe-colored quarter horse that Missy had raised from a colt.
“I’ll grab the blood stop powder,” Darren said as he hurried down the aisle and into the tack room. Tucker had a vet out to the boarding stables every month, but Darren knew where the emergency supplies were. He threw open the cabinet doors and searched, finding the powder quickly and heading back to Cody.
He had the horse lashed to the rail above his stall door, and he stood next to him, muttering softly. Cody was a great cowboy that had worked on just about as many ranches and farms as Darren and his brothers had. Their father had died without a will, and the ranch they’d grown up on in Nevada had been bankrupt anyway.
They’d sold as much as they could, bought their mother a nice condo in Las Vegas, and had been bumping around the country for a few years before landing at Steeple Ridge. They reminded Darren a lot of himself, of his brothers, and he’d been glad for their company once Logan had left.
“I’m gonna put it on,” Darren said, crouching behind and to the side of the horse, well out of kicking range.
Cody nodded once, kept his grip on Diamond’s reins, and kept up the low talk. The horse flinched at the application of the powder, and Darren slicked away the excess along with the now-congealed blood.
“It doesn’t look bad at all,” he said.
Missy burst into the barn and beelined toward them.
“It’s just a scratch,” Darren said straightening. Relief flashed across her face, but she bent to see for herself.
“Might need a stitch,” she said.
