A Bride for Tom by Ruth Ann Nordin

Author:Ruth Ann Nordin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance, love, comedy, humor, free, novella, clean
Publisher: Ruth Ann Nordin

Chapter Ten

“Hey Tom,” Neil began as he, Tom, and Jimmy walked back to their horses after having a light lunch, “are you courting Jessica?”

I wish. “No,” Tom replied. “She’s engaged to Peter what’s-his-name.”

“You mean, Connie James’ son?” Jimmy asked.

“That’s the one. Peter James is his name,” Tom said. He followed the other two to the barn and got his horse out of one of the stalls. “Neil, you seem to take better care of this barn than you do your own house.”

Neil shrugged as he gathered his bridle to put on his steed. “I just sleep there.”

Jimmy looked at Neil. “You do take good care of this barn. Why don’t you take care of your fence the same way?”

Neil groaned. “I’m getting to that. Right now I’ve been putting all my time into the harvest. That takes a full day, you know.”

“I do know, but we just lost half the day in chasing down your cattle.”

“I’ll check the rest of the fence for anymore tears, but that means I won’t be coming out to your place tomorrow until afternoon.”

“It’s worth it.”

While the two rambled on, Tom glanced over his shoulder and saw Jessica and Jenny laughing as they sat on their horses. For a moment—just a moment—he imagined what it would be like if Jessica was always with them, helping the other women make food for the men during the harvest, always giving him kisses on the cheek, always being by his side... He sighed. Okay. So he got it. She hadn’t been making him the butt of a joke when he went to see her a couple days ago. He understood that now. But why was she here? Didn’t Peter even care that she was gone?

“You have to get on the horse before you can ride out of here,” Jimmy told Tom.

Tom turned his attention to his stallion and got into the saddle. “I’m coming.” He urged the horse forward and followed them out of the barn.

To his surprise, Jessica waited for him while Jenny rode ahead with Jimmy and Neil. Jessica rode beside him. “I enjoyed watching you out there.”

He glanced at her. “Really?” What was so special about watching him round up cattle?

She smiled and shrugged. “I guess it was nice to get a look at what you do.”

“Oh, I don’t do that all the time. Most of the time, I’m in the fields, except in winter when there’s nothing going on.”

“Well, then what do you do during the winter months?”

“Mostly stay inside and keep warm, though if there’s something that needs fixing around the house, that’s the time to do it. Of course, the animals always need to be cared for.”

“That sounds good.”

He nodded, not sure of what to add to the conversation. For some reason, the actual day to day activities seemed more interesting when he was doing them instead of talking about them. Finally, he asked, “Is your mother really alright with you being out here?”

“I told her that I needed to apologize to you.

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