Chapter Seven
Will
Higgs and I were hefting bales of hay out into the snow when my phone rang.
I pulled it out of my pocket and was surprised to see Spencer’s name on the screen.
He usually never called me, so I could only assume it was an emergency, but why he was calling me instead of one of the guys in town was a mystery.
“Hello?” I asked, tucking my phone between my ear and shoulder so I could pull my pocket knife out to cut the bailer twine off some of the hay.
The snow had covered a lot of the more nutritious grazing and I needed to make sure my pregnant ewes got enough to eat as they entered the final stages of their pregnancies.
They were already waddling towards us, eagerly awaiting the new delivery of food.
“Will,” Spencer hissed, his voice barely above a whisper. “I need to ask you something.”
“What’s wrong? Why are you whispering? I can barely bloody hear you.”
“Sorry, I can’t talk too loudly because I don’t want to be overheard. Hang on.” I heard him moving and muttering something to someone about being in the back. I assumed he was at Novel Tea. “Okay, that’s better. I’m in the stock room.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on now?” I asked, sticking the knife back into my pocket and starting to shake out some of the hay. It was still snowing heavily, making the golden strands look like they were being enthusiastically dusted with icing sugar.
“You know how you left with that guy on Friday?”
“Yes…”
“Did you, er, did you give him your number?” Spencer asked in a way that was far too casual to be casual. He was fishing for something.
“No… Why? What’ve you done?”
“Nothing!” I didn’t believe him, and disapproving silence filled the line until Spencer cracked and continued. “Okay, so he just came into Novel Tea, and I recognised him from Friday, so I might have asked him if you’d given him your number, and he said you hadn’t, and I was just wondering—”
“Spencer,” I said, cutting him off, “did you give it to him?”
“No! I wasn’t going to do that without asking you.”
“Is that why you called? To get me to say yes?” I straightened up and brushed some stray snow from my face. Sometimes, I really wished my friends weren’t so bloody interfering. I knew they meant well, but this was my life, and I didn’t need my dating decisions made by a committee.
“Yeah, it is,” Spencer said. “I know you’re busy, especially with this weather, but come on, Will. Some no-strings-attached fun would be good for you. This guy isn’t going to be here forever, and it would be good for you to have a distraction.”
“A distraction? Is that what you’re calling him?” I tried to stop myself from smiling, but it was hard. Spencer meant well, and I appreciated him not randomly handing out my number, but that still didn’t mean I had time for Jamie, especially since the snow was supposed to get worse.
“I mean, I don’t know his name, so it’s that or Theo’s suggestion of Mr. Sexy.”
I snorted and shook my head. “His name’s Jamie.”
“Yeah, that fits,” Spencer said, more to himself than me. “Come on, Will. I don’t even know if he’ll message you, and if he does, you don’t have to do anything about it.”
“Are you going to keep nagging until I give in?”
“I don’t know. Probably. I could always get someone else to nag you instead. Lane would make you do it.”
Spencer was right there. Lane was one of my best mates and didn’t take no for an answer.
Lane and I had been there for each other through a lot, and I’d been the one he’d come to when he’d first started to realise he wasn’t over Oliver.
It had been painfully obvious the pair of them were just dancing around their feelings and trying to pretend it was nothing more than a casual summer fling.
I’d breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to watch them pretend nothing was happening when they’d finally admitted they were back together.
I loved Lane, but he could be really obtuse at times.
“Fine,” I said, knowing I wasn’t going to win. “Do whatever you want.”
“Awesome, you’re the best! Keep warm out there. Let us know if you need anything.”
I said goodbye and hung up, shaking my head as I stuck my phone back into my pocket. I had no idea if this was going to amount to anything. I tried to tell myself I didn’t care if it did.
But as I opened the rest of the bales Higgs had dragged out of the old stone barn, I knew it was pointless to deny how I felt.
That night with Jamie was the most fun I’d had in years, and if he offered me another opportunity to see him, I’d take him up on it in a heartbeat.
The conversation with Spencer floated around my brain for the rest of the day while I worked. It was an annoying distraction, but I couldn’t make it go away.
When I tried to think about something else, my imagination helpfully supplied snippets of Jamie gasping and moaning in pleasure while I was deep inside him.
And that wasn’t helpful when I was freezing my balls off on the moors, trying to make sure all the animals had enough to eat.
Several feet of snow didn’t suddenly mean I could pack up and spend most of the day indoors.
In fact, it almost doubled my workload because everything seemed to take twice as long.
By the time I got back to the farmhouse for a quick break late that afternoon, every part of me was cold and aching. I desperately wanted to slide into a scalding hot bath and soak my troubles away, but I still had a few things to finish up.
Dylan had messaged me about getting more salt for the yard to make sure nobody came a cropper, and they needed more hay too since the horses were only allowed out for a few hours a day to avoid injuring themselves and turning the fields into icy mud pits that would take months to repair.
Plus, I had Nell and Moss to feed and make sure they were toasty enough, then final rounds.
As I flicked the kettle on to make a quick cup of tea, noticing with joy that Mum had been in and left me a whole cherry loaf cake at some point, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see if I had anything from Jamie.
I dismissed the notifications from the group chat because I didn’t have time to read through the hundred or so messages I’d missed throughout the day as well as the various emails—I’d look at them tomorrow—until finally I saw a message from an unknown number at the bottom.
Jamie
Hey, it’s Jamie. Your friend from Novel Tea gave me your number in case I fancied getting in touch. He promised me he’d checked with you. Hopefully, he has actually given me the correct one, and I’m not messaging some total rando.
I chuckled to myself, unsurprised Spencer had attempted to make it clear to Jamie that he’d gotten my permission. The kettle boiled, and I threw a teabag into a mug, adding the water and leaving it to stew. I cut myself a chunk of cake while I tried to think of a response.
Will
Yeah, this is the right number, so you’re not messaging a total rando, only a partial one. And Spencer called me to ask, so you’re good there - Will.
Jamie
Thank God for that. Although I do like meeting the odd randomer, especially if they’re sexy. I recently met this one guy in a Yorkshire pub, and he was a really good fuck.
Will
Was he now? Sounds like you had fun.
Jamie
He was, and I’m hoping he’d be up for another round tonight.
I glanced out the window at the darkening sky, frowning as I tried to think everything through the same way I always did. I still had things to do before I could call it quits for the day, and none of them were things I could just put to the side. But after that…
It wasn’t like I had any plans for my evening beyond soaking myself until I shrivelled up and watching whatever I could find on Netflix until I fell asleep.
I wouldn’t exactly be missing out on anything if I went to see Jamie.
And I could just leave again afterwards to make sure I was back for the morning.
I didn’t really want to be stuck in town if we had more snow overnight since the tiny back roads up to the farm could easily get blocked or become treacherous to drive.
My Land Rover would be fine, but it would be everyone else that was the problem.
Will
He might be. Depends on when and where.
Jamie
Come to Heather Sands about nine?
Will
Make it eight, I have to get back and get up at five.
Jamie
Seriously? Five?! Eight it is.
Will
I’ll see you then.
A smile slipped onto my face as I put my phone down and cut off a second piece of cake to eat with my tea. I’d been tempted to tease him and say that some of us actually had jobs to get back to, but I wasn’t sure if that would be too much.
If this was just an ongoing series of hook-ups, I didn’t want to get too involved or share too much since Jamie probably didn’t care.
It wasn’t like the casual thing I’d had with Andrew, who was a mate of mine and Spencer’s, where we’d both shared stuff about our lives.
Andrew and I both knew we were never going to be more than casual fuck buddies because we just didn’t work that way together, but we’d still become friends along the way.
If Jamie was leaving soon, I doubted he’d want that with me, and I wasn’t sure how comfortable I felt sharing parts of myself with a man who just considered me another name in his book, someone to be remembered fondly when he thought about that time he’d decided to piss off to Yorkshire in February.
That was another reason for me to hold back.
It wasn’t like Jamie had been exactly forthcoming with any details about himself beyond his name and what I’d worked out for myself.
Like the fact he was likely some sort of trust-fund brat who just partied and fucked his way through life while spending money like it was water.
His life was completely different from mine, and I wasn’t about to give him the opportunity to shit all over it when he’d probably never done a day’s work in his life.
But none of that meant I couldn’t go and get off with him.
Jamie had been right when he’d called it a really good fuck, and maybe Spencer was right.
Maybe I did just need some mindless, meaningless sex to distract me from the long slog through the rest of winter I had ahead of me.
February was always the worst month, and every year it seemed to drag on forever.
Perhaps getting off with Jamie as many times as I could was exactly what I needed.