“I’m glad I passed the girlfriend test.”
“Me too.”
Dragging me into his arms, he engulfed me in a hug.
“So when do I get to see you again?”
“Soon? Hopefully. I have a big week with my class coming up. We’re learning about all the different types of tack for the horses.”
He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll figure something out.”
“I have no doubt of that whatsoever.”
Chapter 10
Mornings Are For Coffee, Evenings Are For Gentlemen
“Jess, is that you?” I called out from the office of the barn while answering emails.
Boots kept stomping all the way to the open door. All of a sudden, Waylon’s broad frame was filling up the doorway.
“What’re you doing here?” I got up from the desk, giving him a hug.
“Well, I know this is going to be a busy week for you and everything, so I decided bringing you coffee was the least I could do to help you get going this morning.” He kissed my forehead before handing me a steaming cup of black coffee.
“That was really sweet of you,” I remarked before offering him a seat in the cramped office.
“If I’m being honest, I just couldn’t stop thinking about you all night and this morning. I just had to see you.” Waylon glanced down at his feet while playing with the lid on his coffee.
“You could always call, you know,” I teased.
“Calling isn’t seeing, and if I had asked, you would have given me one of your ‘I am an independent woman and don’t need you to bring me coffee’ speeches, and then I would have had to be a gentleman and respect your wishes, making me miss seeing you.”
“That is sound logic. Wanna help me feed Hunter?”
“More than anything in the world. I have to keep myself on that horse’s good side.”
Waylon followed me over to my horse’s stall as the students started to trickle in.
“Man, they show up early,” he observed as he took Hunter’s water bucket from me.
“The earlier they get their chores done and the earlier we start a lesson, the faster they are done and free to deal with their other classes and have some form of a social life,” I explained.
“It’s a cool program you run here. I wish I’d had a class like this in school.”
“But you got to eat all the spoils from your classes.”
“True, but not all of it was tasty. I royally fucked up coq au vin once and it made me hurl on the spot.”
I grabbed a couple wads of hay before showing Waylon where the hose was to fill up the bucket.
“That sounds delightful.”
I waited outside Hunter’s stall for Waylon to put the bucket back up on its hook before handing him the hay.
“I think he’d like it if you fed him.”
Waylon smiled down at me. “Thanks.”