Page 48 of Roping Her In

He’d done her evaluation earlier that day, and he’d faxed it to Amarillo State the moment he’d returned to his office. She’d asked him how she could improve, or which tasks she could get more experience with. Jake had told her that her first month had gone well, but that he wanted her to do more with the smaller animals on the ranch—the chickens, ducks, goats, and miniature donkeys—and get some experience in dealing with the environmental conditions of their livestock, as those contributed so much to an animal’s overall health.

She’d asked if Charlotte was serious about having her work in the stables after her internship, and Jake had said he’d never known the woman to joke about the care of horses.

“Are you awake, beautiful?” he whispered.

She made a small grunt and shook her head. “No.” Her hand in his tightened, and Jake smiled and squeezed her back against his body for a quick moment.

“I’ve got to get to bed.”

“You can just sleep right there,” she whispered.

Lying on the couch with her for the past few hours had been nice, but Jake didn’t think he could spend the whole night on this couch and be comfortable. He didn’t want to tell her that, so he pressed a kiss to the sweet skin just below her ear, and then started to get up. She protested in the form of a long sigh, but she sat up and scooted down onto the other end of the couch.

She’d pulled her hair out of its ponytail, and it hung wild and loose around her face. She looked beyond tired, and yet Jake found her as beautiful as ever.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he said softly.

Hailey glared at him for a moment, but her expression softened considerably only a moment later. “I don’t know. This is just a strange place, and I don’t want to sleep in here by myself.”

“You could come sleep in the break room with the rest of us,” he said. “There’s plenty of couches, and I bet all the cowboys are asleep already.”

Hailey yawned. “Yeah, because it’s ten-forty-five.”

Alarm sang through Jake. “Is it really?” He picked up his phone and looked at it. “I’m going to be so tired in the morning.”

“Maybe we won’t even be able to leave the building.” Hailey looked half hopeful and half horrified.

“Did Amarillo State cancel classes?”

She shook her head. “Not yet, but I’m not going no matter what.”

Jake reached up and pushed her hair over her shoulder and tucked it behind her ear. “Tell me what to do.” He raised his eyebrows and searched her face, trying to find the answer that would make her happy. “I can move all your stuff in one trip.”

She shook her head. “No, when I went to the bathroom earlier, I heard snoring coming out of that room.” She smiled at him, the gesture growing bigger on her mouth as the seconds passed. “Good luck sleeping in there.”

A groan pulled through Jake’s whole body and came out his mouth. “Yeah, it’s going to be a real fun night.”

“You snore a little bit too, Mister,” she teased, and Jake blinked at her.

“I do not.”

She giggled. “You so do. And I can’t believe you fell asleep during Ghostbusters. It’s literally one of the best movies on the planet.”

“I’ve seen it at least a thousand times,” he said, as he’d been the one to suggest it, and he’d already told her that it was one of his favorite movies from his childhood. In that moment, he remembered he’d promised his parents he would text them more details once he had everything settled, and he hadn’t done it.

He looked at his phone. The heaviness of the texts waiting there for him, from the ranch thread, as well as his brother, and both of his parents, pressed down on him.

“All right, I’m going to go brush my teeth and go to bed.” He leaned toward her, thrilled when she met him halfway and kissed him.

“No alarms in the morning, all right?” he murmured. “You just sleep until you wake up.”

Hailey looked like he just told her she wouldn’t be able to leave this room ever again, and then she dropped her chin. “Does my routine bother you?”

“Bother me?”

She nodded and looked up. “Some of my cousins tease me a lot about how routined I am, how I do the same things every morning, in the same order. And one boyfriend I had in college, years and years ago, told me he could never live like that; that it would be too stifling.”

Jake watched her, realizing that this personality quirk of hers had been a burden she’d been carrying. “It doesn’t make any difference to me,” he said. “I’m fairly routined myself.”