Falls In Between

Chapter Five-Reed

Sunday morning I get all my chores done quickly. Feed the animals, check the fence and then shower. I grab my keys off the counter and head into town in my truck. I'm blasting George Strait through my sound system. I'm excited to see August. We barely talked but I feel the want to get to know her. She seems fun and not to mention beautiful. When I get to the Hobbs residence, I take a deep breath and go and knock on the front door.

"Hey man," Ken says, as he opens the door. "Were we expecting you?" He looks confused. I notice he has a backwards baseball hat and lounge wear. Typical Sunday attire.

"Who's at the-" I see his redheaded wife peek under his arm that he is using to prop up the door. "Oh, Reed, hey!" She smiles up at me. She is the sweetest thing. I have known her for so long, a good friend when I need one.

"I'm actually here for-" I try to say, but August squeezes between Chelsea and the door.

"Hi." August smiles and my heart beats a little faster.

"Hey, you ready to go?" I hitch my thumb over my shoulder, without taking my eyes off her. She is wearing a tight tank top that hugs her chest and her curves with jean cut offs and looks like converse shoes. Simple but sexy.

"Yeah, I'll see ya guys later." She smiles and Chelsea gives her a look of, she better hear all the details later. I help her into the truck and move to the driver side and take off back to the farm. Luckily it isn't too far outta town which is nice.

"So how's your Sunday going?" I ask, easy topic, gets her relaxed. I can see her eye me from the passenger seat.

"You know, I was shocked to see you without your cowboy hat." I instantly run my hands through my hair.

I chuckle. "Gotta do something different sometimes." I have no hat on, my shaggy brown hair is on display. She smiles and nods.

"How long have you owned your ranch?" She asks. I tell her about how the ranch became available after the last owners died. Tanner and I worked as ranch hands at it after high school and the owners didn't have any relatives and left it to Tanner and I. He didn't want anything to do with running the ranch so I did all that, but he still works and lives on it. He is the hardest worker.

By the time I'm done telling the story we pull the gates and headed toward the main house where I live. I park the truck and jog to August's side and help her down. She is a tiny thing and my truck is lifted. As soon as she hops down my two dogs race over and sniff her.

"Oh, hey there." She bends down and then looks up at me.

"They are safe, you can pet them, they make lick your face off though." Just then my aussie, Beau, gives her a lick across her cheek and she giggles and pets him some more. "That's Beau. The border collie is Jack."

"Nice to meet you two. Aren't you two the sweetest." She says her voice pitched high. After letting them get all the pets, I ask if she wants a tour of the farm. She nods.

She follows me to the barn. "We have three horses in here." We pass by the stalls and we pet each one on their snouts. "We love to ride, especially Tanner and I. We use them to ride and we sometimes have kids out here riding and we ride to check the fence line too." She nods and pets the horses. I lead her out to the goat pasture and tell her all their names and a little about them. Then we go out to chickens and then cows and by the time we are all done it's way past lunch.

"I love them, all the animals. I never had any growing up and I definitely wasn't near a farm. Thanks for showing me." She beams up at me.

"You are welcome. You can come out here anytime."

"I will try, it sucks not having transportation at the moment...or a phone." She looks defeated and sad.

"Chelsea and Ken have my number. Also Healy comes out here quite a bit to check the animals and honestly he rides too sometimes. I stay out of his way. He usually hangs with Tanner." I smile again. "We will figure out how to get you back out here." She nods. "Wanna have some lunch before I take you back?"

"Yes, please, I'm starving." I really like being around her and I'm gonna try my hardest to be around her more often. If I can also get her to beam that smile at me, I'll be a happy man.