Lainey looked at Caroline, her words bringing her back down earth from her sadistic fantasy. “I think there’s lots of food for him outside. Nathan, the kettle’s there and the tea bags are out. I’ll just take our invader back next door.”
“No problem,” Nathan frowned at her. “Any idea how he got in?”
Lainey hadevery idea of how Bertie the alpaca got into her kitchen. He was let in.
By Jake Maynard.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t been available when she’d returned his menace of a creature – apparently ‘indisposed’, which either meant he was with some poor unsuspecting female or he was avoiding her. She lay in bed, unable to switch her mind off enough to even doze. Tomorrow there was even more to do. Her new horses were here, and she needed to start assessing them; there was more referral paperwork to go through and a meeting with a potential second therapist. A builder was coming round to look at the cottage – maybe both – and she needed to do something for herself to unfrazzle. Like bake. Possibly enough to feed the whole town.
And maybe the next town over.
She resisted the temptation to check her phone and look at what her brother was up to on social media, or to text one of her cousins and get the latest family news. Having lived in London with them for a few months, she found she was missing their company; the busyness of their lives.
Here was beautiful. The scenery and the space, the lack of cars and the clean air. But soon, Imogen would go back, and she’d be left in Severton to make a new life. She switched her thinking over to the horses, realising that she hadn’t ridden today. In her head, she mounted Tommy, remembering the feel of him between her thighs, the sound of his hooves as he started to trot and then moved into a canter. The memory of the air moving around her skin, blowing her hair and the rhythmic beat of gallop started to lull her, her heart rate dropping, her breath evening out.
She’d just about drifted off when a loud rattle at the door acted like a cold bucket of water, yanking her out of what was becoming a blissful abyss of sleep.
Pulling on sweats and a dressing gown, Lainey headed downstairs, carrying a cricket bat that she’d stolen off Shay, doubting that the noise would’ve woken Imogen who slept like the dead with earplugs.
“What the…” Her words were full of semi-sleep, her eyes now full of Jake Maynard. “Why are you here?”
“That dressing gown’s incredibly fetching.” He gave her a look that made her want to put the robe’s belt around his neck and squeeze.
“What do you want?”
His face lost any joviality, those light blue eyes looking serious. “I have a mare in labour and Gus, my main stable bloke, is at his girlfriend's. I really need a second person until the vet gets here.”
“Who’s with her now?” Lainey was fully awake now.
“Scott, my cousin, but he needs to get home. His little girl’s not well…”
“Give me sixty seconds to get dressed. Close the door behind you.” She was already upstairs before she’d finished the last word.
The oversized T-shirt and dressing gown were discarded, and a sports bra, tank and hoodie thrown on. The sweats were replaced with ones which were fleece lined because a stable at night was never the warmest of places. Hair tied up in a messy top-knot, she barely put her feet on the stairs as she went down, Jake standing in the hallway, her Hunter wellies in hand.
“These?”
“Thank you.” She took them from him, glad that the socks were already inside, and pulled them on. “Is this a difficult one?”
“It’s going that way. The mare’s a rescue who was dropped off with me two weeks ago. You don’t need the back story. I’ve done a difficult birth on my own before but…”
“It’s easier with two. I know.”
“You’ve done one before?”
Lainey nodded. “I lived on my family’s farm in Ireland every summer and Easter for most of my teens. Where are the vets?”
There was no way Jake wouldn’t have a vet on his payroll.
“Emergencies elsewhere. One or the other or both will stop by when they can. You ready?”
She nodded, picking up her keys this time, not anxious for a night time repeat of Jake climbing up her wall. The image of his backside in those jeans implanted itself on her retinas, and as much as she tried to think of him as some yokel scarecrow, it wouldn’t go. The man had a mighty fine arse.
“I can get my cousin on the phone if needs be. He’s a vet.” She thought of Callum, who had his own kind of farm set up, where there were a range of rescue horses and other animals.
Jake nodded. “Let’s see how it goes. Lizzie and Connor will drop by as soon as they can.”
Lainey watched him push a hand through his hair, pulling off the beanie he was wearing. He looked tired and stressed.
