Page 32 of One Kind Soul

No hard bodies tried to save me.

His hard body was on her mind. That had to be a good sign.

But Remi did try to wiggle into bed with me, she texted.

Wiggling is better than bouncing. Is he driving you nuts yet?

No. Tessa was right. He is the cutest. The cutest dog anyway. I’m curious about cutest horses and cats though.

Did that mean she wanted an invite to the farm? He wanted to extend one, but how would she get away from Tessa and Donovan. He could invite them over too, but that meant he’d have to behave again. He was all behaved out from yesterday.

Can you lose T and D?

She sent back a smiling face with a text that read, Working on it.

Christian rarely felt glee, but that was definitely what coursed through him now. How?

Let’s just say I’m a genius. Will you be home tonight?

Yes.

The possibility of seeing her tonight made him race down the stairs and spill into the main floor of the barn where he startled his horses, Zip and Clover. “Sorry, guys.” He ran his hand over Zip’s brown mane then patted Clover’s nose.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll be there. The three dots wavered again then, Delete these messages.

He reread all the messages before deleting them because he was pathetic, but only the horses had witnessed that. Shoving his phone into his pocket, he fed both the horses and refilled their water trough. After tending to the chickens, he grabbed cat food and found all the cats in a heap on the front porch of the farmhouse. When they saw him, they untangled themselves and fumbled over each other as they circled around his feet, rubbing their cheeks against his jeans and meowing like crazy.

“Okay, okay.” He held up the five small cans of food in his hands. “There’s plenty for everyone.” He opened each can and set one down in front of each cat. Their meows quieted as they ate and Christian took a few moments to pet each of them. One of them, Leaf, slinked over to him when she was done eating. She sniffed at his injured calf then rubbed her head along the area.

“Thanks, Leaf.” He picked up the calico and nuzzled the top of her head. “Don’t worry. I’m okay.” Of all the cats, she was the most caring one.

A green pickup truck pulled into his driveway and his friends and employees, Ben and Jared, jumped out of the cab.

“Hey, man.” Ben walked toward the porch. “You made it back in one piece.”

“I did.” Christian set Leaf down. “My truck didn’t though.”

“We heard,” Jared said. “Too bad. That truck wasn’t that old.”

“That’s what I get for going into the big city.” Christian shrugged. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We thought maybe you could use some extra hands with house stuff today.” Ben pointed to the farm house.

“We’re two single guys with nothing better to do,” Jared joked. “May as well be useful.”

“Great.” Christian rubbed his hands together. “I’d love to crank in here today.” Because if he got more done, he had more to show off to Nicole later.

“Let’s do it.” Ben climbed the front steps with Jared right behind him.

Christian let them all inside, leaving the door open so the cats could come and go. “How about if we work on tiling the kitchen backsplash?”

Jared saluted him. “I’ll set up the saw.”

“I’ll lay out some courses of tile.” Ben kneeled beside the boxes of four-inch by four-inch tile that were on the floor.

The beauty of working with Ben and Jared was the three of them operated like a well-oiled machine. They’d had lots of experience together doing farm work and that translated well to other projects. Christian was always amazed at what they could accomplish together.

The morning and afternoon passed quickly and Christian was grateful for his buddies’ help. By the time four o’clock rolled around, they’d finished the kitchen backsplash, put up door trim, and made a supply run so work could continue tomorrow.