Page 62 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
“I expect you all to show Hadley the ropes. I have to head to Orlando to meet with a potential new feed supplier. I won’t be back until this evening.”
“Sure, Dad.” Damien nodded. “We’ve got this.”
“Good. Good. Your ma is making some kind of broccoli soup thing for lunch, so make sure to pretend you like it.”
“It’s broccoli cheese soup, and you’re the only one who hates it.” Damien sent his dad a pointed look.
“Yeah, yeah. Be good, kiddo.” His eyes scanned all of them before finally landing on Spencer. “All of you.”
With that, he ducked back into the rain.
“Are we like mucking out stalls or something?” Hadley didn’t understand what else barn duty could entail.
Damien and Spencer shared a laugh.
“What’s going on?” It was too early for cryptic looks.
Damien took pity on her. “We can’t clean the stalls with the horses in them, and we can’t put them out in the rain.”
“So, then what do we need to do?”
Damien shrugged. “We’ll feed them and then fluff the barn.”
“Fluff?” Something didn’t make sense.
Spencer nodded seriously, but she could tell he was suppressing a laugh.
“Someone tell me what’s going on.”
Damien sat down on a hay bale and looked up at her. “Barn duty is what we always called goofing off out here to avoid a day of chores in the house.” He grinned. “When it rains, we can’t do much on the ranch, but Mom would make us cook or clean, even if the house didn’t need cleaning. So, Dad concocted a job for us when we were little that consisted of watching the barn in the rain.”
Spencer lowered himself beside Damien. “Mom always knew.” It was the first time Hadley had seen him smile when talking about his parents.
“Always,” Damien agreed. “But she let us feel like we were fooling her with the many barn tasks that needed done.”
Gabe walked toward the stalls. “I’m at least going to feed the horses.”
Damien laughed when he was gone. “He still doesn’t understand barn duty. He can’t just sit still. Watch. After he feeds the animals, he’ll make some excuse to go help Ma with her jams or something.”
Sure enough, as soon as Gabe finished with the horses, he hurried out into the rain.
Barn duty. Hadley shook her head with a laugh as she walked past the horse stalls. Most didn’t belong to the Lees, but the few at the end did. Both Toby and Harbinger lifted their heads as she approached.
“Hadley Gibson!” Damien’s shout had her turning on her heel and sprinting back to where the brothers still sat.
“What?” She put a hand to her chest, feeling her heart beat rapidly beneath it. “What’s wrong?”
He waved his phone in the air. “You didn’t tell us it was your birthday.”
“Damien, you scared me half to death. What does it matter if it’s my birthday? And how’d you even find out?”
“Roman. He wants to FaceTime.”
“Of course he does.” She sat next to Damien and took the phone to call Roman.
He answered after one ring, singing happy birthday.
“Are you still in bed?” she interrupted.
