Page 42 of Before You Can Blink
I bolted upright, and Daisy followed suit.
We were as isolated as it got out here. Sure, people knew this was where we lived, but no one outside of Wade or Murph ever went out of their way to visit. And certainly, never before the sun made its appearance.
Moving off the mattress, I muttered a quick, “Stay there,” to Daisy as I crept closer to the door.
Before I could ask who was on the other side, there came a shout of, “Get your lazy ass up, Jett. We’ve got work to do!”
Wade. Of fucking course.
I wrenched the door open, growling, “Do you know what time it is?”
My best friend flashed me a giant grin. “Time to build you a barn, brother.”
Rearing back, I stared at him, slack-jawed. “What?”
His eyes lifted toward the sky. “Jesus, falling off that horse scrambled your brains worse than I thought.”
“Not sure I’m the one who needs his head examined,” I shot back. “Seeing as how I’ve already told you I’m at least a year out from getting anything built out here.”
With a snap of his fingers, Wade declared, “And that’s where you’re wrong.” Stepping back from the doorway, he gave me a clear view of the horizon, where several pickups were parked about a hundred yards away, along with a flatbed truck containing stacks of lumber. Giving me obnoxious jazz hands, my buddy proclaimed, “Ta-da!”
“What’s going on?” Daisy’s voice sounded from beside me as she slipped an arm around my waist.
So much for staying put.
“Mornin’, Mrs. Sullivan.” Wade tipped his hat. “Think you can help me get it through your husband’s thick skull that we’re here to build a barn, so you two crazy kids get this thing off the ground?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I held my hands up. “I don’t want any charity.”
“It’s not charity, Jett; it’scommunity. Big difference.”
“Forgive me if I’m having a hard time seeing that, considering I didn’t pay for that truckload of wood over there, and can’t afford to compensate those folks for the labor.”
Wade clapped me on the shoulder. “You’re gonna have to trust me on this, seeing as I’ve been the one ranching for the past three years while you were off chasing glory on the back of ornery horses.”
Grumbling under my breath, I shot him a look that made it damn clear I wasn’t pleased with his interference. But the smug smirk that curved on his lips betrayed that he knew full well he had me bent over a barrel. I’d look ungrateful as hell if I sent away all these people who’d come out herebefore dawn on a Saturday out of the goodness of their hearts to ensure we got off on the right foot on our new venture.
“Get dressed. We’ll see you out there.” With that, Wade turned on his heel and waltzed off.
Still reeling from the turn of events my day had taken that would speed up the timeline on how quickly we could get this horse breeding business up and running, I hadn’t noticed Daisy had left my side until I heard her bustling about the cabin.
Spinning around, I shut the front door to keep the chill out, only to find her stripping off the countless layers she wore to sleep.
“What are you doing?” I leaned against the wall, arms folded.
She barely spared me a glance, rummaging through the chest of drawers for clean clothes. “Gonna run into town, see if your mom and Naomi can rustle up a hearty breakfast.”
Guilt churned in my belly, effectively killing my appetite.
My reluctance to accept charity stemmed from the fact that we were already receiving so much of it, to the point where I felt like an absolute failure as a man, as a provider. Ma was almost single-handedly keeping us from starving by providing food from the restaurant. Beyond that, she coordinated with the ladies in town to lend Daisy some of their Sunday best in larger sizes because we couldn’t afford to buy maternity clothes, and she couldn’t very well wear my T-shirts to work.
I blew out a heavy breath. “Don’t worry about bringing anything back for me. I’m not hungry.”
Daisy stopped dead in her tracks, blinking at me for a full minute before her head tipped back, and laughter filled the air. “I meant for all those people out there. The least we can do is feed them.”
Heat crawled up the back of my neck. “Oh, right.”
Stepping closer, she rose on her toes to press a kiss to my lips. “Take a deep breath.”
