Page 13 of All Because I Found You

“Considering you have half of it hanging from your mouth…”

Her eyes widened, and her hand shot up, the fork stabbing her right in the cheek. Prickles of pain burst from the prongs and she blew out a breath.

“I don’t have anything on my face, do I?”

This time, he shrugged and moved toward the equipment. “I can have some guys come by today and move the equipment out of here, giving you more space to work with,” he continued, taking a page from her book with the subject change. “However, there’s a lot of straw left over from when we housed horses, pigs, and goats here.”

“What happened to the animals?” She loved animals and even had taken a few goat yoga classes. “Moved to a bigger location, closer to the farm stand.”

“They died.”

Raelyn gasped, her hand slapping against her chest. Luckily, it wasn’t the hand holding the fork. “Died?”

“Yeah, they were old. Just like all living things, they only live so long.”

“Oh.”

“What did you think? I killed them?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure what I thought.”

“If it makes you happy, all the animals lived out the entirety of their lives very comfortably.”

“Yes, I suppose that does make me happy. Just a shame things have to die.” His entire body froze at her words, and she mentally slapped herself for being so careless. “I—”

“Do you have a pen?” he asked, completely cutting her off. “I have to get out of here. I have things to do.”

“Of course.” She reached into her bag and pulled out her favorite ballpoint and handed it over.

Ryder took the pen, scribbled his name on the line, and handed her the paper and pen.

“We still need to discuss your price,” she said, her voice much softer than she intended.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with a reasonable price.” He stalked toward the door and stopped. “The equipment will be out of here by end of day. You can start doing whatever it is you do tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” she said, but she wasn’t sure he heard, since he was already gone.

Chapter 5

The next morning, Ryder woke up at six am and started his day like he always did. First, he made a pot of coffee, then headed outside to sit on the porch with his mug. He rocked on the chair, savoring the silence, but also strangely missing the off-key belting of Raelyn, which was absurd. He wanted to pop his eardrums yesterday to drown the noise out, so why the hell would he miss it?

It could have been the monkey wrench she had thrown in his day, mixing it up for the first time in years. He was a creature of habit, and yesterday nothing went to plan. Gene had told him the farm hands cleared the equipment out of the barn, moving it to another barn they had closer to the farm stand.

Raelyn would probably start whatever it was she would be doing today. Maybe he’d stop by and make sure everything is ready for her. Just because Gene said the guys moved everything out doesn’t mean they didn’t forget something.

Ryder went back into the house, jumped in the shower, then put on his usual jeans and t-shirt. He grabbed his keys and hopped into the old red pickup. He was amazed the thing still ran. It had been his dad’s beater truck to go from one crop to the next. Now it was Ryder’s. He visited the farms after hours when the workers had already gone home for the day. If anything needed to be tended to, he did it then, preferring to stay clear of others.

Putting the truck in drive and heading out to the old barn was completely out of the ordinary for him, but he didn’t care. His desire to look after things at the barn and make sure it was walk-in ready for Raelyn was stronger than staying under the radar.

It was six forty-five by the time he turned into the driveway of the barn. Shock flooded through him at the sight of Raelyn’s car parked just outside the doors, her hood popped open, along with all the doors except the driver’s.

He put the truck in park and slid out, making his way toward the barn. If he’d known she would be here already, he would have brought her coffee or maybe even some toast and jam. Before he could turn around, she walked out of the two open doors. Tiny jean shorts cut high on her toned and tanned thighs, revealing almost as much as her bikini bottoms yesterday. Her black tank top cut low, showcasing her assets in all their glory. The high wedges he’d seen her in the last two days were swapped out for a pair of running sneakers.

“Oh hey!” she said, placing a hand over her face to block the rising sun. “What are you doing here?”

“I…” He cleared his throat. Having not expected to talk, he was a little hoarse. “Just checking to make sure the barn is ready to go for you.”

She reached into her trunk and pulled out a box of lawn trash bags. “It is. Now is the cleanup part.”

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