“You should probably get to bed too. Been a busy couple of days for you.”
He nods. “Yeah… What do I do with her?”
I chuckle, then scoop her up and lay her down on the hay beside me. She makes a small noise, likely annoyed with being moved from Theo’s warm lap, but she settles pretty quickly.
Theo’s eyes follow me as I get up and check her water and her temps, and when I’m done, I hold a hand out to him. He takes it cautiously, letting me pull him to his feet. His hand is softer than I thought it would be and warm considering the slight chill in the air.
“Better get inside,” I say, dropping his hand and taking a step back.
“Yeah.”
He follows me wordlessly out of the barn, and when we make it across the yard and onto the front porch, he clears his throat. “Thank you again.”
“Anytime.”
We walk quietly up the stairs, and he slips into his room, shutting the door behind him.
It’s not until I’m back in bed with the blankets pulled up around me that I realize he never told me if he was planning on coming out with me in the morning.
Therearenotenoughhours between me going to sleep and my 6:45 alarm, but maybe I’ll try to take a nap after the rounds and breakfast. I don’t regret my detour this morning with Theo, but it definitely cut into my sleep. I don’t know how parents do this shit.
I stumble out of my room, still half asleep, and nearly run directly into Theo. He yelps, and I scream, and, well… that’s embarrassing. “Holy shit,” I gasp, placing a hand over my racing heart. “Sorry. I didn’t expect you to just be… there.”
He grimaces. “I didn’t know whether you were still in there or not. I didn’t want to knock.”
“So you just stood outside my door like a sleep paralysis demon instead?”
Theo stares at me, and I stare at him, my heart pounding against my ribs. And then, he shocks the ever-loving fuck out of me.
He laughs. A huge belly laugh that has him doubling over. I haven’t so much as seen him smile, and here he is, standing outside my door before the sun’s even up…laughing.
It’s so fucking infectious that before I know it, I’m laughing too.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says, honest to goodnessgigglingwith each word.
I wipe at my eyes, trying to get myself under control. “I bet not, but you did.”
He giggles again. “I can tell. You—” His voice cuts off with a high-pitched sort of wheeze, and I dissolve into laughter all over again.
When he finally calms down, he stands up, peering at me through damp, smiling eyes. “Sorry again. Can I still help you?”
My heart flutters. Oh, that’s not good at all. “Of course. Did you bring a jacket, though? It’s a little cold when you’re not in the barn.”
The light disappears from his eyes. “Fuck. No.”
“Easy to fix.” I step back into my bedroom and pull out a coat from my closet. It’s not one I usually wear to do chores in, but if it puts that smile back in his eyes, it’ll be worth it.
He’s still waiting in the hallway, looking anywhere but at me, but when I hold out the jacket, he takes it. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. We should head down. Lila is probably madder than a wet hen.”
Theo snorts. “Madder than a wet hen. What’s that mean?”
“I’ve never had anyone ask me that before.”
I nod my head toward the stairs, and Theo follows me down and into the kitchen, where I start making Lila’s bottle. “It’s, like, really mad. You put a hen in water to stop her from being broody. I think it comes from that. Like it pisses them off, you know?”
“Broody?”
