Filling in the Pieces // Luke Brooks

Chapter 24 - Nice Choice

        The next morning I woke up to Jai's head on my leg while he still sat sleeping in the chair. My grandpa sat in the chair on the other side of the bed reading the newspaper.

        "Good morning, or should I say afternoon," he said while taking off his glasses.

        "What time is it," I asked rubbing my eyes.

        "12:47 pm to be exact, you two were up late last night I assume," he questioned, raising his eyebrows at me.

        "Yeah, but we were only playing cards grandpa," I laughed.

        "Okay wake up Jai and then get ready, we are leaving in 20," he responded before walking out of the room to most likely get another coffee.

        "Jai, Jai get up," I spoke nudging his shoulder and trying to get up myself. He lifted his head and groaned.  "Come on sleepy, we gotta go, I'm just going to get changed first," I said as I picked up the clothes my mom dropped off last night and locked the bathroom door behind me.

        We signed ourselves out and headed home. I got out of the car to see Luke walking quickly out of the barn and towards me. Before I could take two steps out of the car Luke picked me up in a hug.

        "Finally you're home," he said placing a kiss on my cheek.

        "Yes, and can we please go for a ride?" I asked in desperate need to get up on a horse again.

        "I don't know about that, you should be resting," my grandpa said cutting into my statement.

        "It will just be in the field and no farther, please." I begged with my hands locked in a position to look like I was praying.

        "Fine, but I want you back here in an hour," he stated with a stern look.

        "Deal. Boys are you coming with?" I yelled as I kiss my grandpa on the cheek and ran to the barn. I could hear the boys following behind me as I scurried away. 

        "Want to ask Beau if he wants to come, and you can get to know him?" Luke suggested as we entered the barn.

        "He knows how to ride?"

        "Yeah, he used to ride all the time when we were little," Jai answered.

        "Why did he stop?" I asked.

        "He kind of just grew out of it. Don't get me wrong, he loved it," Luke explained while running up to the loft to get him.

        "But not enough to stick with it," Jai added in.

Luke came down a couple seconds later with Beau following. "Hey how you feeling?" he asked going straight for a hug.

        "I'm fine," I responded with a small smile returning the hug.  "So I hear you ride?" I questioned trying to break the silence.

        "Yeah, you can say that. Which horse should I ride?" He asked as he looked around at all of them.

        "Well I'm taking Pouka, Luke is on Jake, Jai is taking Lola, and you can't take Jewels because she's pregnant, so you can chose from the rest," I responded pointing to each one as I go.

        "Well I want a big manly horse to match the manly person I am," he joked as he examines each horse. Well at least I hope he was joking. "This one, this is the horse for me," he stated with confidence as he pointed to the white horse in the end stall of the barn.

        "Okay, then go tack up your horse," I said with a laugh.

        The entire time we tacked up our horse Luke, Jai, and I could not stop laughing. We all lead our horses outside the barn and Beau finally got fed up with our snickers.

        "Okay what's so funny?" He stopped us from going any further.

        I looked over at both boys and we all nodded agreeing that it was time to tell him. "The horse you chose is a girl, and her name is Pegasus, real manly," I explained and we were almost on the floor laughing and Beau's face dropped.

        "Nice choice dumbass," Luke teased joining in on my laughter.

        "Why didn't you tell me?" He spoke pushing my arm.

        "Dude it was destiny for you to ride this horse," Jai informed him.

        "Whatever lets just go," Beau rolled his eyes frowning.

        We rode for only an hour like my grandpa said, and it was one of the funniest rides I have ever experienced. The rest of the night was relaxing and quite until I feel into a sleep at the early time of 9 o'clock.