Page 18 of Need Me
“I know, I know! I’m late,” hesaid.
The pretty bay mare shook her head and trotted into her stall from the outside while Robert went inside. The barn smells always helped Robert wake up. The last vestiges of sleep left him as he measured sweet feed into Precious’feedbox.
Robert had set up his small barn so that all the animals could go in and outside when they pleased. During the winter, he shut them inside at night, but over the summer, he left their outside stall and pen doorsopen.
Cletus, his big black mule brayed as he fed him. Robert scratched behind Cletus’ long ears and gave him a few pats before he fed Sam and Sally, his Nubian goats. Poor Sam only had three legs due to getting caught in some barbedwire.
The farmer who’d brought him into Kate’s clinic had been going to put Sam down, but Robert had intervened. Kate had amputated Sam’s useless leg and the goat had adjusted just fine. He was happy and healthy now and Sam and Sally were expecting a littersoon.
Going into their pen, Robert pet and talked to them as he gave them a little grain and hay. He ran a hand over Sally’s big belly and wondered if she was going to have twins. The image of two kids scampering around made him grin as he started mucking out thestalls.
Sketch scurried into the barn, grunting angrily. He was unhappy that Robert had left him inside. It wasn’t every pet skunk who had free rein of both inside and outside, but Sketch never roamed farther than thebarn.
As he came out of Precious’ stall, Kate entered the barn, holding out a cup of coffee tohim.
“Thanks.” He took it and took a carefulsip.
Kate leaned against the stall door. “I’m glad that the smell of horse poop doesn’t bother me anymore. I was worried that it was going to last my wholepregnancy.”
Robert patted her slightly rounded belly, which was shown off by her running tights and tank top. “I know. I’m glad it settled down foryou.”
He was glad when Kate changed topics. “So, what are you going to makeBrooke?”
Robert wanted to kick himself. “Not something out of box, but what? I don’t even own a cookbook. I don’t suppose thatyou—”
“Oh, no,” Kate said. “I’m not cooking foryou.”
Robert glowered at her. “Some best friend youare.”
A sly smile spread over her face. “But you know who will, don’tyou?”
“No.Who?”
“Chase.” Kate pulled her cellphone out of her pocket. “Watchthis.”
“What are you doing?” Robertasked.
Kate put her hand over the cellphone mic. “Saving your ass.” She took her hand away. “Hi, Chase. How are you? Good. Hey, do you have any simple recipes that Robert could make for dinner tonight? He wants to cook for Brooke, but you know that he’s not skilled in thatarea.”
Robert watched Kate try not to laugh and wondered what Chase wassaying.
“Okay. I’ll let him know,” she said and hungup.
“Well?”
“He says that he’ll call you in a little while with something,” Katesaid.
Robert ran a hand over his face in frustration. “I hope whatever he comes up with is easy to make or I’mscrewed.”
“You won’t have to cook. Trust me. Chase can’t resist helping people,” Kate said. “He doesn’t think he’s a control freak like Ric and Tyler, but he is. He just cares about different stuff than theydo.”
Robert scratched his head. “That’s kind ofsneaky.”
Kate laughed. “But effective. Chase does it to people all the time.” She patted Robert’s chest. “Don’t worry. It’ll befine.”
He tried to shove his worry away. “Okay, but if something goes wrong, I’m going to kick yourass.”
“Duly noted. Do you still want to go for a run?” sheasked.
