Page 11 of Barn Burner
“Not long got back from a trail ride. We’re out again at two,” he tells me.
“Do you do them every day?”
“Not every day, but we offer them year-round, weather dependent.”
“So, is that, like, what you do here?”
“Mhm.”
I chew on my lip. The need to know everything about this guy isn’t something I’ve experienced before. It’s not only throwing me for a loop, but I’m also conscious that the guy I want to know everything about isn’t exactly the most talkative type.
When I haven’t said a word, he glances over at me again and asks, “How did you find the lodge?”
“Good, yeah. The views are insane. The window in the shower looking out? Holy shit, I could’ve stood there all day.” I chuckle. “I bet they’re popular.”
“We only offer the lodges during the summer months, as that’s when we do the longer trail rides. My mom looks after the petting farm now, as that’s her baby. She used to do the riding school, but that’s been passed over to Cooper. Rhett is usually out in the fields with my dad, unless I need him to cover me, like I did yesterday. Then my sister works as a vet in the city, but she comes by whenever we need her.”
“It must be nice, being all together.”
He hums. “Most of the time, but sometimes we butt heads.”
“Like yesterday with Cooper,” I reply teasingly, and when the corner of Jesse’s lips twitches in a small smile, I can’t help but grin triumphantly.
Jesse is gorgeous in a rugged, masculine way, anddamn, when this man smiles, it’s like the first glimpse of sun after a cold, gloomy winter.
Warm. Bright.
I lean against the door frame to the barn, watching him finish chopping up the fruit, and then he turns to me, holding out one of the buckets.
“Wanna help feed the horses?”
I nod eagerly. “I’d love to.”
Taking the outstretched bucket, I follow him as he leads me into the barn. I take note of the engraved name plaques on each of the stalls as I walk by, laughing under my breath as horses tilt their head in curiosity as I pass, nostrils twitching.
“Which one is yours?” I find myself asking.
Jesse jerks his chin to a stall further down, where a beautiful black horse with a black-and-white mane is flapping his lips. When I get closer, I notice he has white patches across his body, almost like the cows I see at home.
“This is Prince. He’s a paint horse.”
I let out a snort of laughter. “Prince! Like the Prince of Darkness.”
Jesse shakes his head, smoothing his palm up the horse’s nose. “He was actually named after Prince, as in Prince and the Revolution. We already had an Ozzy at the time. We’ve also got Blondie, Jett, and Bowie.”
“Are they all named after musicians?”
“It started out that way, but now we don’t really have a theme.” His hand moves around to rub down the horse’s neck, and my eyes fix on the way his arms flex beneath his shirt.
He looks so strong. Not in a way that his strength has come from hours in the gym, but muscles built from years of manual labor. I want to know what he looks like wearing nothing but those fucking chaps.
The sound of his deep rumble pulls me out of my reverent thoughts, and I snap my gaze up to see those icy blue eyes are watching me.
And there’s no missing the flash of heat that passes through them. Like he knows exactly where my mind had gone.
“Can I feed him?” I ask, needing something else other than the growing desire for this man to distract me.
“Sure.”
