Page 11 of Jewel in the Rough

Teagan’s boot knocked against his own again—maybenotby accident? Benny put on his best soulful face, widening his eyes and lowering his chin.

“How about now?”

Teagan released a chuckle. “Fine, you only get on my nerves half the time now, instead of all the time.”

That admission Benny would grab and run with.

A weird little flutter pinged in the pit of his stomach, if Benny didn’t know better, he might think Teagan’s words meant more than they did. A man could hope.

By the end of the game—Benny managed to lose, but it was close—he’d learned even more about Teagan. He hated lima beans, loved brussels sprouts. Fall was his favorite season (Benny’s too), while spring was his least favorite.

“Last one. What would your superpower be?”

Teagan rolled his eyes but answered quickly enough. “Bulletproof, like Superman. You?”

“I can never decide. I think x-ray vision, but being invisible would be very handy.” Especially with the Sureños looking for him.

They cleaned up the game and Benny did the dishes because Teagan cooked, even though canned food didn’t count as cooking, in his opinion. But beggars couldn’t be choosers, could they? When the kitchen was sparkling, he headed upstairs, intending to text Ciara and then sketch out some ideas. Instead, he lay down on the twin mattress and immediately fell asleep.

A few days later, when Teagan pounded on Benny’s bedroom door at five a.m., he groaned and rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head. Why did cows think they needed attention this early? Couldn’t they be trained to sleep in?

“Rise and shine.”

Teagan sounded irritatingly chipper and, per his normal, Benny did not—unless it had something to do with a woodchipper. That he could get behind.

“Rise and fucking shine yourself, Goldilocks.”

He could’ve sworn he heard Teagan chuckle before clattering down the stairs to the kitchen. After a too-quick breakfast of coffee and cold cereal, and Teagan popping pain pills like they were M&Ms, Benny was sort of ready to start the day.

“Hurry it up, buttercup,” Teagan snarked, banging his cup against the kitchen table and pushing his chair back.

“Yes, sir, I mean, Master Teagan, sir.” Benny stood and bowed from the waist. “At your service, sir.”

Teagan shot Benny a look, but this look was softer then usual had more than a glimmer of humor to it, so Benny wasn’t going to bitch about being called buttercup. Slowly but surely, he was breaking through those walls Teagan had built around himself.

Someone meeting Teagan for the first time wouldn’t have any idea how his attitude had changed since Benny’s arrival at the farm. Benny had the sneaking suspicion Teagan had grown to like him—there’d been more than one time when Benny had caught Teagan watching him with a perplexed and almost admiring expression on his face. He quickly covered it up of course, by bossing Benny around,

“Master’s good, I like supreme overlord a tad better.”

Benny’s mouth gaped opened, and Teagan reached across the table to shut it with his index finger.

“Time to get to work, buttercup,” he said as he left the room.

Okay, what was that? Benny scrambled after him, almost knocking his chair to the floor. Teagan had made an actual joke andtouchedhim. The spot on Benny’s chin where Teagan’s finger had landed burned from his touch. Benny’schin,for chrissake.

“If I’m Buttercup, you’re Dread Pirate Roberts.”

He’d totally let Teagan protect him from rodents of unusual size.

Teagan disappeared into the barn, saying, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Once the milking was done, Tegan decided the storage rooms needed reorganizing. Then, at mid-morning, they walked the fences, checking for spots that needed fixing; Teagan took pictures with his phone and noted where the weak spots were. As they walked, Benny noticed Tegan’s limp seemed worse than usual.

“I’m starving,” he announced, stopping in his tracks.

Teagan turned back and squinted at him. “We had breakfast.”

Benny checked the time on his phone, noting another missed call he wasn’t planning on returning. “Three hours ago, and I’m now starving. Think of me as a hobbit, I need lots of meals or I start to waste away.”

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