Foster Love

Chapter 11

I woke up and it looked like it was probably early morning. I looked at the time and sure enough it was only 6am.

"Where are we?" i asked.

"We hit the Tennessee border about 2hrs ago, a little less. We should be home in an hour or two."

"Tennessee?? You live in Tennessee?? *I*live in Tennessee now??"

Amber laughed at my response. "Yupp. Sorry it took me a while to come get you by the way. I talked to the case worker and she said I could have you but first I had to get a house, a steady job, and make sure I could handle everything and had everything sorted out."

"It's okay, I'm just glad you came back."

"..but?"

"But what?" i asked.

"Honey I ain't stupid. I know part of you wishes you could have stayed with him."

I didn't respond, I just turned away, because she was right. Part of me did still want to be with him and it was hard to lie to her.

About an hour and a half later we turned onto a long cobblestone driveway. There were trees on either side and so I couldn't really see anything else at first, but as we approached I was in awe.

She lived in a gorgeous white ranch house, with sky blue trimming. She had tons of land and there was a huge stable behind the house that i could see was in the middle of being repaired. On the side of the house was a huge weeping willow that I would probably be spending a lot of time under.

As we were getting my stuff out of the car I heard a whinny.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Damn" she muttered. "Well it was supposed to be your welcome home present."

My eyes got wide and my mouth dropped open. "Wait....you mean....seriously??? For real??"

She laughed. "Ya, you only have two bags, I can get em.. Go see her."

That was all the permission I needed before I took off towards the stables.

"Her name is Zag by the way, and come inside in an hour!" Amber called after me.

I walked down the open aisle until I came upon the one stable that was closed. I looked inside and there was a gorgeous black mare with a white zigzag from the tip of her nose all the way to the bottom of her tail.

I saw a bucket full of water and a brush outside the door so I grabbed it and walked in.

I walked over to Zag and stroked her nose, which she then licked my cheek in turn. I began to wash her when I heard a voice behind me.

"What are you doing in here?" Said a deep and husky southern accent.

I turned around to see a just as sexy body to match the voice.

The male in front of me was tall, probably 6'2, had short cropped blond hair, blue eyes, and an amazing tan. He was wearing jeans, work boots, a flannel with the sleeves rolled up, and a cowboy hat.

"Uhm...washing my horse..." I said uncertainly.

"Oh, you must be Jenny, its a pleasure to meet you ma'am." He said with a tip of his hat.

"Uhh...who are you?"

"I'm just the farm help" he said with a small smile. He began to walk away.

"Wait, whats your name though?"

"Baby doll, didn't you ever hear that you don't associate with the help?"

I gave him a confused look but he just smiled and walked away.

"Jenny, dinners ready!!"

I walked inside the kitchen and saw Amber setting the table with a lot of good looking food.

"I saw you met Austin."

"Who?"

"The farm help." She said, rolling her eyes.

"What was the eye roll for?"

"Because i don't see why he likes the title farm help but whatever, its his choice."

"So does he just like come over every day and work for you?"

"Nope...he lives here."

"Wait, what?"

"Apparently his parents have been having issues and he needed to get away and he was already looking for a job. So he lives in the top of the stables and we agreed that living here and me feeding him would be his pay. Speaking of which, he should be coming any second now."

At that moment I heard the back door open and Austin walked into the dining room.

We all sat down and began to eat.

"Oh, Austin, could you give Jenny a ride to school Monday?" Amber suddenly asked.

"Sure, I could show her around too."

"That'd be great!" She said with a huge smile.

"Ugh, school, do I have to go?"

"There's only 2 more weeks...you'll live."

"But I don't wanna."

Amber just shook her head.

We all finished eating and Amber stood up to get the plates when Austin grabbed her hand.

"Let me, you cooked an amazing meal....go rest, i can take care of it."

"Well thank you Austin." He tipped his hat in response. From what I had seen of him it seemed like he was truly the stereotypical southern gentleman.

The sun was setting out and I went out to sit on the porch.

I was just sitting there when I saw something move in the window at the top of the stables. Being my nosy self, I decided to go check it out.

I walked up the stairs slowly, but as soon as I got to the top I was tackled to the ground by a large German Shepherd who was viciously licking my face.

I started laughing. "Down boy, down!"

Once he finally got off I started scratching his stomach, causing him to start kicking his leg...guess I found his sweet spot.

"Don't they teach y'all city folk about personal space?"

I turned around to see Austin, who didn't look to pleased about me being in his bedroom. "I...uhm... I'm sorry, I just saw something and didn't know what it was."

"Well next time id appreciate if you let me tell you myself"

"Right...okay...well I'm, uhm, just gonna go to bed..."

"Sweet dreams Miss Hawthorne."

I scurried out of his room and ran back to the house.

I was seconds away from actually falling asleep when my phone went off. It was a message from Jay.

I shot up in bed....I missed him so much.

It was a picture of a candy heart that said I Miss You.

It was a simple gesture, but one that made my heart melt.

********

Hey guys...first of all, if you've read to here I LOVE YOU!!! Seeing my reads go up is like the best thing Ever....so anyways, i know im not that good of a writer at all, but i do have some ideas as to where i want the book to go....however, I do start to wonder if its actually any good at all.... If you guys could leave comments, good and bad, about what you think of the book and stuff i would really appreciate it...Thanks :)