Page 7 of Jewel in the Rough

“Are you some sort of Neanderthal?” Benny demanded. “Do you not watch YouTube or TikTok? Goats are cute! Goats are friendly and mow the lawn. Goat yoga is all the rage… you can make ice cream with goat milk.”

“I don’t have time to waste on the internet.” Teagan turned too quickly to head toward the house and away from Benny, which tweaked his thigh and only made him act like more of a dick. “There will be no goats. Ever. Why am I even having this discussion? It’s getting late. I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping, and if you’re hungry, you can help yourself to something from the fridge. I’m no cook and never will be, so if you want something special, you’re gonna have to cook it yourself. And after we eat, the cows are gonna want to come back inside.”

Benny’s response came from behind him. “It’s a good thing Ciara warned me about you, or I’d be an emotional puddle right now. Let me guess, your internet password is #-1-a-s-s-h-o-l-e.”

Teagan ignored the asshole comment, wanting to ask exactly what his sister had warned Benny about but biting his tongue. He would not be baited into a debate over goats. There would be no goats, ever, end of conversation. He started to stomp off, but his thigh gave him a warning twinge, so instead he settled for walking without a limp.

Because he was careful—notparanoid,as Ciara claimed—Teagan locked the front door even when he was just going to be in the barn and always after he was done for the night. Living in LA did that to a person. Tugging his house key out of his pocket, Teagan unlocked the door and motioned for Benny to enter ahead of him.

“Kitchen’s at the back, down the hallway. To your left is the living room. I don’t have a TV. The dining room is here and that door is the downstairs bathroom.” Grabbing the railing, he began to trudge up the stairs, ignoring his stupid leg but knowing there were several ibuprofen in his future.

“My bedroom is the one there.” He pointed across the landing. “You can have this one.” He pushed open the door to Ciara’s old room. If she was inviting someone to stay, she could sacrifice her bedroom. The walls were bright pink and still covered with the posters of Fallout Boy from her high school years.

Benny pushed past him, close enough that Teagan smelled his shampoo, or something. It took him a minute to pinpoint what it was. Green apple. He liked it.

“This is fabulous!” his guest declared, sitting on the twin bed so it bounced. “Let me get my stuff out of the car. And I am hungry, so I’m gonna check out the kitchen.”

“I don’t shop much,” Teagan warned. “I hope you’re not picky.”

Benny stood and stared at him, his lips parted. “Did Ciara not tell you? I’m vegan and gluten free and allergic to nuts.”

Teagan stared back, trying to process this information—andwhy was he noticing Benny’s lips? What the hell. Before he could think of a response, Benny laughed. “Gotcha! How could I be allergic to nuts?”

He brushed past Teagan, heading for the stairs, and again the scent of green apple filled Teagan’s nostrils. Shaking his head for what felt like the hundredth time since Benny arrived, Teagan following the still-chuckling man back down to the main floor.

Forty-eight hours later and Benny Brambilla was still at the farm. And Teagan was surprised to find himself… bemused by Benny. This was the only explanation as to why Teagan hadn’t ushered Ciara’s friend off the property. Benny was surprisingly entertaining and a hard worker, even though it became more and more obvious with every passing second that he had no clue about farms or livestock.

Teagan didn’t like people much, so why was he putting up with this person his sister had foisted on him?

Really, he had no idea.

Benny was like no one Teagan had ever known before. Had a friendly alien landed his spaceship in the back forty and was doing his best to pass as a farmer? Or maybe a weird sprite had somehow gotten lost in the human world. Teagan shook his head. What the hell was he even thinking? As a teen, Ciara had devoured books with fae and fairy characters. After Teagan left Piedras for college, Ciara had video-messaged him constantly, catching him up with island life and what book she was obsessed with that week. Maybe that’s where he’d gotten the idea?

According to Ciara, fae were supposed to be ridiculously good-looking. He seemed to remember Ciara telling him that humans couldn’t look at fae people without falling in love. Bennywasgood-looking, even Teagan could recognize that. His olive skin, sharp cheekbones, and flashing black eyes added up to equal extremely handsome. Handsome wasn’t something Teagan cared much about, but he wasn’t going to deny the truth.

Canned chili bubbled on the stove and Teagan absently stirred it, wondering if there was any cheese to sprinkle on it. He hated grocery shopping—it meant seeing people who asked questions, wanted to know how he was doing, how the farm was, sure missed Fletcher, etcetera etcetera—so he stocked the kitchen with cases of canned goods. He didn’t care what he ate, and until the past couple of days, he’d been cooking for one.

And he missed his dad, too. Like his thigh, the loss of his father was a pain that wasn’t going away anytime soon.

After swallowing a couple ibuprofen from the stash he kept on top of the fridge, in an effort to keep the ache in his thigh to a dull roar, Teagan opened the refrigerator door and scanned the contents. There was no cheese to be seen, but there was a jar of salsa. He heard the water turn off upstairs and snickered quietly.

Benny was taking a shower after an unfortunate incident with Bette Davis. It shouldn’t be funny, but it so was. Teagan had warned Benny that Bette Davis was difficult and moody, but he hadn’t listened or had been riding high after his success with Hedy that first day. Whatever the reason, tonight Benny had ended up on the barn floor covered in fresh milk, hay, and barn dust, a disgusting combination.

Once he’d made sure Benny wasn’t injured—just his pride—Teagan hadn’t been able to keep himself from laughing long and hard. So much that his stomach muscles had started to hurt. He knew he should’ve felt bad about what happened, but Benny had been laughing right along with him, eventually picking himself up off the floor, sticking his arms straight out, and shuffling in Teagan’s direction, grunting, “brains…need brains…”

Now Teagan was making—heating up—dinner while his new assistant cleaned up and changed clothes.

His phone rang and Teagan recognized the ringtone Ciara had set for herself.Radioactive,by some band called Imagine Dragons. Teagan refused to admit to his sister that he kind of liked the song.

“What?”

“Nice, big brother,” Ciara commented dryly. “Why can’t you answer your phone like a normal human?”

“I know it’s you, so why should I bother?”

The chili bubbled and some splashed onto the stove top, so Teagan grabbed a sponge to wipe it up, then turned down the temperature under the pot. There was no need to burn their dinner.

“Whatever, how’s Benny working out?”

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