She watched him smile, the big cheesy, joker-man grin she’d seen him throw plenty of times now.
“Some days. I see what my sister and cousins have. It’s a big farmhouse and sometimes I’m rattling round in it, but then there are nights when I’m glad I don’t have to make the effort with anyone, or have anyone shouting at me for putting my feet up on the table.” He sounded grumpy.
“Has anyone every actually done that, apart from your mother?”
“No. Because I wouldn’t actually do that anyway. I just like knowing I can.”
She didn’t respond. Having seen the inside of his house a few times she knew he took pride in it.
“I know the feeling. I like being able to walk around…”
“Naked?” He finished off her sentence with what she was not going to say.
“Not when my sister’s there.” She exhaled a long, long breath. “I love her, but she drives me mad.”
Jake laughed, loudly this time. “So does Rayah. A lot.”
Silence swamped them, thick and cloying. For the next mile, they sped up to a canter, taking a bridleway that led down off the peak towards Underwood, and a right of access where the horses could have more freedom.
Jake slowed down next to her after they’d rode across a river. “Will you bid on me then?”
The question surprised her, almost enough to make her come to a stop.
“If the bidding needs a bit of a kick start.” Irritation pulled at her stomach. “Which I’m sure it won’t. You’ll have your harem.”
She found his resulting laugh even more annoying.
“Yeah, I might need to put in funds so a few of thosedon’twin.”
“Give me a list of names and I’ll make sure they don’t get to bid. There can be a technical issue, or we miss their call.” She’d thought plenty about Jake’s harem in the last few weeks; she’d even gone as far to ask Gran about them. The old woman had just given her a wink and told her that Jake had always been a ‘bit of a lad’, which Lainey translated to manslut. “I’ve never seen you with any one though. Not since I’ve lived here.”
“I had a rep when I was younger. And I’m no saint when we go out to Leeds or Manchester, or I haven’t been in the past. But it’s never been about more than one night.”
Like her. Or not even a night, just a quick half an hour where he’d been trying to prank her, a bit of opportunistic fun.
“Ever?”
She saw him shrug out of the corner of her eye.
“I’ve had one or two girlfriends when I was younger, but nothing serious. I didn’t live with anyone.” He didn’t offer any more information, leaving the subject hanging.
Lainey didn’t push. She wanted to ask him about Keren, but that felt intrusive. It had been a long time ago, she knew, and none of her business.
“I wish your ex hadn’t made you feel like that.”
His words came from nowhere.
“I wish I hadn’t let him.”
Jake came to a stop near a country pub that Lainey hadn’t even known existed. “Do you want to stay with the horses while I use the bathroom and grab us both a drink?”
She nodded, dismounting. They were in a field that led into the pub’s beer garden. It was quiet and set up for horses, a bench near to a water trough.
“What do you want to drink?” He rubbed his hands together as if he was cold, but there was no reason to be. It wasn’t a cold day.
She figured it was more of a nervous gesture, something to do with his hands.
“A pint – whichever lager they have on tap.” It had been a long time since she’d had a pint outside. Even longer since she’d been sat with a man who didn’t care that she was having something that really wasn’t a cocktail or glass of something that fizzed.
