Cal held his hands up in surrender. “This must be some sort of inside joke I know nothing about,” he declared, so we filled him in about the tattoo. “I gotta admit, I am curious to see what it looks like,” he conceded once he’d heard the story, “but I’m sure Melody did your likeness justice if she entered it in a statewide contest.”
I elbowed Sofia. “See?” But she shook her head.
Jake made it to the porch and handed me a container that was warm to the touch. “Mom made cookies for her book club and I thought you might like some. It’s her chocolate chip oatmeal recipe, and they’re still warm from the oven.”
“Please tell her I said thank you.” The smell of warm chocolate made me salivate and I clutched the container to me touched that he brought them. “What brings you both here?”
Jake used his thumb to point to Cal. “We’re headed out to Half Moon to pick up some fencing supplies for his place and decided it would be faster if we both exercise your horses before we go. Hope that’s all right?”
“That would be great, but you know the horses can skip a day or two if needed. Happens all the time when the weather’s bad,” I said, wanting to give them an easy out. It would take a few hours to get out to Half Moon and back.
Sofia plucked the container from my hands and set it on the table. “Let them do what they came to do,” she said. “I thoughtI saw some sweet tea in the fridge. I’ll grab it and some glasses while those two get to work.”
Jake and Cal gave her a half salute and headed for the side pasture while Sofia grabbed the tea and glasses. She poured us each a glass and opened the container with the cookies, inhaling deeply. “I’ve tried reheating store-bought cookies just so I could get my house to smell like fresh baked cookies, but it never works—and the cookies taste even worse than when I took them out of the package.”
I snatched a cookie from the container and took a big bite, closing my eyes to enjoy the sweet, melty chocolate taste before washing it down with tea. “You know they sell raw cookie dough already cut up. All you have to do is put the cookies on a baking sheet and bake. Problem solved.”
Sofia didn’t respond and I tilted my head to look at her. She was staring at something on her phone with a small smile on her face. I reached over and snatched her phone. “What’s this?”
“It’s the popularity count for the contest.”
“Oh? How’s your face doing? Or would that be Donovan’s thigh?” I asked, not bothering to hide my laughter.
Sofia took her phone back and was swiping away at something. “Melody’ssubmissionis currently in the top five. I sent you a voting link. Might as well help her out, right? As you said, it’s bound to be good for business.” We both settled back to eat cookies and watch the Thorne brothers exercise my horses.
As soon as Twister saw Cal, he trotted over to greet him. Twister was usually slow to warm up to new people who tried to ride him—he could get a bit jumpy. I was always very careful with him because of that, but it was clear that there was something aboutboth Cal and Jake that Twister liked. I wasn’t sure if it was their calm demeanor around him or the fact that both brothers truly loved horses. Whatever it was, even my more timid mares were eager for their attention.
“So…” Sofia started, waiting for me to face her. “About that.” She pointed to where Jake and Cal were laughing about something.
I huffed out a sigh. “What about it?”
“He’s here multiple times a day, brings you homemade cookies, takes care of your animals. Is there anything more you’d like to discuss with your bestie?”
I shoved a larger piece of cookie in my mouth and pointed to it while I chewed slowly, trying to sort through how to answer. I took a sip of tea to help wash it down, then said, “I’m not sure. I like him, but under normal circumstances, we’re both ridiculously busy. What could we possibly offer each other that wouldn’t leave either of us feeling like we’re stretched too thin?” Or worse. Plus, there was the fact that he was a cocky cowboy. I wasn’t interested in having another one of those in my life.
Jake and Cal finished up and were striding this way, so I pushed to my feet.
“How’d it go?” I asked them.
“Just fine. I went ahead and fed Ally a little early, and we left the horses in the side pasture as you can see. It’s a nice day. Did you want to leave them in the pasture overnight?”
Sofia rose and dusted the crumbs off her jeans. “I’ve got some errands to run in town. I’ll stop by later for Ally’s last feeding and get the horses put up,” she said. Turning to me, “I’ve got your grocery list from the fridge and I’ll pick up your order fromMartin’s to save an extra trip into town. Do you want anything else?”
I’d been hungrier lately and I wasn’t sure why. I’d assumed it was partly due to boredom since I wasn’t being physically active. “Maybe a veggie pizza from Magiano’s? Extra crispy crust?”
“I’ll be back in time for dinner,” Sofia said, snagging another cookie before heading for her truck. “Text me if you need anything else,” she said over her shoulder.
As she was driving away, I thanked Jake and Cal again for their help and leaned against the pillar on the porch while they made their departure, Jake’s promise to be back here first thing in the morning still ringing in my ears. As a single woman living alone, it was hard being reliant on people for chores that I could normally do in my sleep, but Jake went about everything with such a calm efficiency, I was going to miss seeing him every day once I was back to doing all of this on my own.
THIRTEEN
JAKE
Ibrought Julia’s horses in from where they were grazing in the pasture next to the barn and made sure to portion out their food, giving Ally a smaller amount. I couldn’t resist spending a little extra time with Twister who was spirited with firm opinions on everything from treats to which brush he liked used on him. He was magnificent and even though I was wrestling with a serious case of stallion envy, I enjoyed my time with him.
Admittedly, I’d spent far too much time trying to figure out why my brother never bought any horses from Shaun Lett after Dad turned the operations over to him. I already spent most of my days wondering what Luke would do with each situation that I faced. With the horses, that kind of wondering made sense. It was up to me to carry on the legacy Luke and our father had left behind.
However, given the proximity and the obvious superb genetics I was seeing in Twister, Luke should’ve been chomping at the bit to use Lett stallions in our breeding program. I didn’t want to entertain Julia’s claim that they didn’t get along. It had to be something else. But I’d been through Luke’s records so manytimes now, I practically had them memorized and I still couldn’t find anything to explain it.
