No Way in Hay'll by Ali Parker

Author:Ali Parker [Parker, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Star Key Press
Published: 2024-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 39

JESS

Iwoke up to the rooster crowing. Beside me, Slate nearly jumped out of his skin, getting such a fright that he almost launched himself out of the hayloft. Giggling, I sat up and blinked hard a few times until my eyes started focusing properly. Then I got to my feet, dusting off my ass.

“Steady there, champ,” I said. “You’re okay. It was just the daddy chicken. Don’t worry. He’s just saying good morning. He won’t eat you.”

I stretched my arms out above my head, yawning as the realization dawned that we must’ve fallen asleep together out there. As I lowered my arms back to my sides, Slate groaned and sat up, blinking hard before he let out a mighty yawn too and stood. Brushing hay off his pants, he looked around.

“Would you look at that? We spent the whole night on the floor, and you thought I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

I chuckled. “I said I didn’t believe that you would sleep in the barn with the cows, and you still haven’t done that.”

“One thing at a time, Jess. Jeez. Give a guy’s back a chance to recover.”

I laughed. “Okay, old man. Maybe you should go have a nice, long soak and then go for a massage.”

“That sounds pretty good right about now,” he said, perking up. “I haven’t seen a massage parlor in town, though.”

Reaching out, I smacked his shoulder and shook my head at him. “That’s because we’re a tough crowd out here. We don’t need back massages after one night of sleeping on hay.”

He shrugged, but he really did look a little crestfallen. “Speaking of hay, you’ve got some in your hair.”

I brushed my palm over what was left of my ponytail, picking out the pieces I felt, but Slate chuckled, grabbed my hand, pulled me to him, and helped me pick out the rest. I leaned into him, strangely okay with the intimacy of the moment and accepting his help.

After last night, I’d realized that he wasn’t the bad guy after all. Not defending me to my parents from the outset had been the right thing to do, and since he’d gone on to lay out all the other options to them, I’d realized that I probably also should’ve just stuck around to see how the conversation played out.

There had been fifty million reasons for him to approach things exactly the way he had, calm and measured, giving people time to process every different option he put out for them to consider. I’d been jerking my knees a lot lately, and as Slate gently picked hay out of my hair and then pressed his lips to mine for a sweet kiss, I decided that it was time to try to change that again.

I wasn’t a drama queen who freaked out over every little thing that happened. Merrick Meadows meant everything to me, which was why all this had been pushing my buttons in such a sensitive way, but that was also why I needed to try to keep a cool head from now on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.