Page 28 of Ethan

The barn was quiet in the early morning, just the soft sounds of horses moving in their stalls and the barn swallows going about their business in the rafters. She let herself into Jewel’s stall. The mare turned and pushed her nose into her chest.

“Morning, sweet girl.” She stroked her neck and stood there for a moment, just breathing.

She heard the barn door open at the far end.

She knew his footsteps already, which was a little alarming.

Ethan appeared around the corner, coffee cup in hand, and stopped when he saw her. For just a second neither of them moved.

“Morning,” he said.

“Morning.” She kept her hand on Jewel’s neck. “How was the rest of the night?”

“Long.” He looked at her over his cup. “You get home alright?”

“Serena dropped me off.” She smiled. “She didn’t say a word the whole way home.”

Something shifted in his expression. “That’s unlike her.”

“I thought so too.”

He nodded slowly and looked down the aisle, then back at her. Like he was working something out.

“You eaten yet?” he said finally.

She shook her head.

“I make good, scrambled eggs.” He said it simply, like it wasn’t a big thing. “If you want.”

She looked at him for a moment.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like that.”

The kitchen was exactly what she’d have expected from him. Clean, functional, nothing unnecessary. A table sat against the window, two chairs. A Keurig coffee maker that looked like it got used hard every single day.

“Sit,” he said, moving to the fridge.

She pulled out a chair and sat, wrapped both hands around her coffee cup, and watched him move around the kitchen. He was still in his ranch clothes, hat on, completely at ease and she found it unreasonably appealing.

He pulled out eggs, butter, a block of cheese, and set a pan on the burner without measuring anything, checking a recipe, or doing any of the things people did when they were cooking for someone else for the first time.

“Cheese?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Please.”

He nodded and cracked four eggs into a bowl, whisked them without looking, and poured them into the pan. The kitchen smelled like butter and coffee and something else she couldn’t name that was just the house, just him.

She looked out the window at the pastures.

“Did Cole give you a hard time last night?” she asked.

He made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Cole always gives me a hard time.”

“What did he say?”

Ethan glanced at her over his shoulder. “Nothing worth repeating.”

She smiled. “That bad?”