Not Fake for Long by Weston Parker

20

KEIRA

The prospect of having an entire day alone on the farm with Harrison was my idea of the perfect day at this point in time. He looked like a cowboy-themed wet dream in his tight jeans and T-shirt, with his dark hair gleaming like it had diamonds in it in the sunshine.

His hazel eyes were soft and relaxed, but there was something in them that also seemed slightly guarded—worried almost. On the other hand, neither of us had had much sleep. It was possible he was just tired.

“What would you like to do?” he asked. “If you feel like it, we can go make some sandwiches and go for a ride. There are some nice picnic spots I haven’t shown you yet.”

“Lead the way,” I said. “That sounds amazing.”

He swept a hand in the direction of his house. It was much smaller than the main house where Hailey and I had stayed, and it hadn’t been built in the same style either. Whereas the main house had old-world, almost colonial majesty to it, his was more rustic. I loved it as well, though. Even if it wasn’t fancy and huge.

The door was unlocked when we got to it, and he pushed it open before motioning for me to precede him. All the windows were closed, but he didn’t go to open them. Both of us headed directly to the kitchen, where he pulled ingredients out of his fridge and I went to work buttering the bread.

In addition to our sandwiches, we added some bags of chips, bottles of water, and a few snacks to the backpack serving as our picnic basket. While we got our brunch ready, we talked about random things and discovered that we both loved documentaries and action movies but hated art films and metal music.

“What about art galleries?” I asked as he zipped up the backpack. “Do you like visiting those?”

He shook his head. “Not really. Maybe that makes me uncultured, but I just don’t enjoy walking around looking at paintings and sculptures that are supposed to have deeper meaning. I’m a simple guy. I see things as they are. A splash of paint is a splash of paint to me. There’s no point in trying to interpret it any differently.”

“Yeah, I’m the same,” I said. “There are a lot of things in the world that are open to interpretation, but splashes of paint just aren’t among them to me.”

He grinned. “I knew there was a reason why I liked you.”

When he reached out to grab me and slung his arm over my shoulders, I didn’t fight it. I slotted into his side like I was meant to be there and I enjoyed being there, so I wound my arm around his waist and stayed just like that until we reached the paddock where the horses were grazing.

Harrison grabbed their halters before holding a red one up to me. “Do you want to come in with me to get Molly?”

I eyed the wooden fencing around the patch of field. “Isn’t it better if I stay out here? I still don’t really know that much about horses. It seems like it could be a bad idea going in there with them when I don’t have a clue what to do.”

“I’ll be right with you,” he said calmly. “Just don’t walk right behind any of them and you should be fine.”

Should be? “That doesn’t sound terribly comforting, but sure. Okay. When else am I going to get the opportunity to do this?”

“Well, whenever you come out here,” he said. “If you’d rather not do it right now, it’s fine. We can always work up to it.”

I watched Molly lift her head from the grass, her tail flicking as she moved to the next spot. She looked so at peace out there that I almost felt bad going in to bother her, but she also didn’t look too scary.

None of the horses did. They looked so serene, all of them grazing on the greenish grass. It was almost like a picture. “No, I’m good. Like you said, it should be fine.”

He chuckled when I held my hand out for the halter. “You can tell me at any time if you’d rather come back out. I can get them both without any problems.”

I rolled my shoulders back and headed for the fence. “I’m sure you can, cowboy, but I’ve got this.”

“I know you do,” he said when he watched me swing my leg over the top of the fence post. “Looks like we’re doing this then.”

As promised, he stayed right next to me from the minute our feet hit the other side of the fence. Grass and dirt crunched beneath our boots, but apart from a few bird calls, there were no other sounds. The sky was blue and dotted with puffy white clouds, the air scented with that unique perfume I’d noticed last weekend.

We went to get Molly first. She looked up at us when she heard us coming and flicked her tail again, but she didn’t seem annoyed to see the halter.

“You remember where it clips in?” Harrison asked when we’d almost reached her.

I nodded. “Is there any secret about how to approach her?”

“Just make sure she sees you coming,” he said. “A surprised horse is an unpredictable horse. Be calm, no sudden movements. You can slide an arm around the other side of her neck and just clip it into place. She’s a good girl. You won’t have any problems with her.”

I followed his instructions, moving slowly and calmly toward her. Just as he’d said, she didn’t bolt or try to nip or kick me. She even leaned into me a little when I snapped the halter into place and then followed lazily after me.

“I did it,” I said, keeping my voice quiet and calm despite the squeal rising deep within me. “I got her.”

Harrison put his hands together in a silent clapping motion. “Well done. Let’s go get Nairobi. Just hang back with Molly. He’s not so gentle, but he won’t cause any trouble either.”

“I think Molly and I will hang all the way back right here,” I said. Where it’s safe.

Watching as he trekked across the field to where Nairobi was grazing, I saw the moment the horse realized he was coming toward it with a halter in hand. He tossed his head into the air and took a few steps back, tugging at the lead once Harrison had clipped it into place.

He also refused to move for a minute, but eventually, he gave an annoyed huff and followed his owner over to us. Harrison grinned at me when they were close enough, dipping his head toward the gate.

“See. That wasn’t scary at all, was it?”

I shrugged. “Not really. I did have a mental image of Nairobi rearing up when he was tossing his head like that, though. That would’ve been something.”

He laughed. “He used to do it all the time, but I think he’s learned that he won’t win and that we’re not scared of him. Now he just tries to let us know he’s not happy with us, but then he always comes easily enough.”

We headed back to the barn, where we got the horses ready to ride and then took off for our picnic. Harrison chose another different trail this time and we went back to chatting about random things for a while before silence fell between us. It really was beautiful out here, but I could imagine that it also got quite lonely at times.

“Do you have family at all left around here?” I asked. “I know your parents are in Maine, but do you ever get visitors out here?”

“Not really,” he said. “None of my family are left here and my father has always been pretty stoic, so they never had a ton of friends that I was close to either. Since I take after him, I didn’t keep in touch with many of my friends from school and I prefer people mostly at a distance.”

“Doesn’t the quiet get a bit much at times, though?” I asked. “I know you have Ashton, but it seems like it could get pretty lonely all the way out here with only him for company.”

“I’ve never even really thought about it,” he said. “Do you think it would bother you?”

I pursed my lips and moved them from one side to the other while I thought. Then I shrugged. “I’m not sure if it would. I’m not usually the life of the party or a social butterfly, but I would miss having my best friend close enough to grab a coffee with whenever we can.”

For the last few minutes until we got to the picnic spot, we weighed up the pros and cons of living farther away from people. The trees opened up ahead, giving way to a shady area next to a stream, and I fell silent as I took it in.

“Wow,” I breathed. “This is incredible. I also think I suddenly understand even better why not having many people around works for you. To have this all to yourself whenever you just want to sit and relax must be amazing.”

Harrison tied our horses to a low-hanging branch nearby, then spread out a blanket he’d rolled up and stowed in one of his saddlebags. Just as we were sitting down and spreading out the goodies we’d transferred from the backpack to the saddlebags, my phone rang.

It was such a foreign, shrill sound in that moment that it made me jump. Then I started laughing at myself when I realized what it was. Harrison watched me with amusement lighting his eyes, patting the blanket as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

Seeing my mother’s face on my screen was like being doused in cold water. The woman wouldn’t be ignored, though. Even though the last thing I wanted to do right now was spend an hour discussing last-minute wedding arrangements, she’d just keep calling if I didn’t pick up.

“Hey, Mom,” I said once I’d resigned myself to taking her call and getting off it as soon as I could. “How are you? I can’t really talk right now.”

“You can never really talk these days,” she said, sighing but not sounding snippy or angry. “I’ll get straight to the point then. I haven’t seen anything about a plus one from you for the wedding, and we’re busy finalizing the seating chart. We really do need to know. There’s a lovely colleague of Nick’s who’s—”

“I have a date, Mom,” I said, cutting off her attempt at matchmaking. “I’m really sorry if I didn’t send the card, but I thought I had. I am bringing a date.”

“Really?” she asked, disbelief ringing clear as a bell in her voice. “If you don’t, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Like I said, I’ll happily set you up with a man who exists—”

“He does exist.” I felt my cheeks flush when Harrison quirked a brow at me. “Would you like to speak to him? He’s right next to me right now actually. He very much exists, and we’ll both be there. We’re bringing our dog as well.”

“There are no pets allowed,” she said. She kept me on the phone for a few minutes more, fishing for information about my date but not taking me up on the offer to speak to him. When I finally hung up, he was laughing quietly with his gaze fixed to mine.

“Our dog, huh?”

I glanced down at Dottie, who had snuggled up against my leg as soon as I’d sat down. “Well, at this point, she’s really just my dog.”

He didn’t break eye contact, but there was something that shifted in his gaze when I said it. The hazel warmed, and when he nodded, he snagged my hand and pulled me closer until I fell against his chest.

“Yeah, I think she might just be.” He pressed a kiss to my mouth, and his woodsy, masculine scent enveloped me. “She comes with an owner, though. If you take her home with you, you’re going to have to take me too.”

I chuckled and ran my nose along the length of his before I kissed him again. “That can be arranged. I’m almost as fond of her owner as I am of her.”

It was true, too. I hadn’t known Harrison for very long, but I felt like I knew him on a deeper level than I’d known any of the guys I’d dated before. Just like it had with Jamie, it was like my soul had claimed him as hers. If Jamie was my friendship soulmate, it felt like Harrison might just be my romantic soulmate.

It was a thought that should’ve been terrifying but it wasn’t, not when his soft lips descended back onto mine and he kissed me in that way of his again. In that moment, it wasn’t terrifying at all. It was exhilarating.

I should’ve known it was too good to be true.