Chapter 6
6
It’s nice to have a crush on someone.
It feels like you’re alive, you know?
Scarlett Johansson
“ W ith the animals?”
Baylin didn’t answer until after she’d made a U-turn and headed back in the direction of the farm, her house, and his apparent barn.
“With the pigs and the horses and the chickens?” He tried again, for clarity of the situation and such.
“You’ll survive.”
“In the winter?”
“We’re in southeast Oklahoma,” she reminded him.
“Where it’s rather chilly,” he pointed out.
“I promise you’ll be just fine,” Baylin said, teasing or cajoling. Teddy couldn’t be sure which.
“And what about mice? Or snakes?” he asked.
“We have barn cats to take care of the mice, and it’s too cold out for snakes this time of year. Nothing to worry about,” she said, flashing a happy, reassuring smile his way. The fact Baylin was happy all of a sudden, maybe even gleeful, did the opposite of reassuring Teddy.
He held his tongue for the rest of the drive.
In reality, sleeping on the ground, under the stars, with all God’s creatures, wouldn’t have worried Teddy. He’d grown up in Watson, Louisiana, a small town not unlike Green Hills, Oklahoma, where boys hunted and fished and ran around the countryside with their brothers and buddies every chance they could.
The only difference between where he’d come from and where he stood in that moment? Alligators…there weren’t any alligators to wrestle in southeast Oklahoma.
Were there?
“Baylin?”
“Yeah?”
They’d arrived and parked the truck in the garage. He’d grabbed his bags and moved to follow her into the house.
She stopped on the stoop, blocking his path, and turned an innocent, yet inquisitive eye his way.
“Are there alligators in Oklahoma?”
“Sure, in some rivers and streams, but they tend to stay south and east of here.”
“Great,” Teddy muttered under his breath.
“Barn’s that way,” she said with a little head tilt toward the massive, rather hard to miss, red building about thirty yards from the house. “Goodnight.”
Baylin went inside and closed the door.
He heard the deadbolt lock click into place.
And then she turned out the lights. All the lights.
Is a sassy red-headed vixen more dangerous than a cold-blooded reptile?
He chuckled at the thought.
No tour of the barn, no I’ll see you tomorrow, no anything at all.
Standing on the stoop of her side entrance in the pitch dark of night, Teddy tried to remember the last time he’d felt such an encouraging wave of anticipation.
As he trudged to the tall red barn, a smile planted itself on his face.
Baylin O’Casey was just his type of challenge, the kind of puzzle he liked to solve.
Thinking back on their encounters throughout the day, his smile grew to a full-fledged grin.
However long it took to see Boxy repaired promised to be an interesting, unpredictable adventure.
The barn turned out to be the first curveball…
Teddy rolled back one of the heavy doors to reveal a first-rate barndominium.
A gigantic green tractor monopolized the center of the building, with a couple of smaller tractors and two ATVs parked down the left side. An office, an equipment and supply room, and open tack storage lined the right side.
Teddy followed the sound of gentle nickers and neighs to discover three horse stalls and a series of working pens, each with doors opening to the pasture behind the barn.
“Your owner is something else,” Teddy told the first horse, the chestnut mare Baylin had been riding that morning. Feisty — like her master — the ginger-coated beauty gave an annoyed sigh as Teddy moved to her side so she could see him better. When she’d settled, he lifted a gentle hand to pet her neck and shoulder. The iron nameplate on the front of her stall introduced her as Penelope. “Are you a loyal and faithful steed?” he asked the horse. “I bet so,” Teddy cooed to the beast. “I bet Baylin instills that in everyone she meets, man and farm animal alike. She really is something else .”
He spent a moment with the other two horses, named Phoebe and Eros. Then he made his way up the circular, wrought-iron stairs leading to a second story over the office and storerooms, where windows overlooking the open expanse of the barn glowed with soft yellow light.
Someone had left a light on for him.
The condo portion of the barn rivaled any dorm or apartment Teddy’d inhabited during his journey through college and the minors.
The door at the top of the stairs opened to a cozy living area. A soft and inviting brown leather sectional the color of tobacco filled most of the room. Quilts in a variety of sizes and colors covered the rungs of a rustic wooden ladder. An armchair upholstered in a southwestern print paid homage to Native American artistry. A television hung over a gas log fireplace that someone had left burning to warm the space. Between the rock fireplace facing and the large sofa, a square coffee table held an assortment of decorative and necessary items such as the television remote, a stack of Western Art Collector magazines, a set of sandstone coasters, two large-format photography books, playing cards in a box, a square box of tissues, a leather-scented candle, and a binder with instructions for the TV, fireplace, thermostat, and Wi-Fi.
After rifling through the accoutrements , Teddy glanced around the kitchen. The stocked cabinets contained a plethora of pots, pans, and cookie sheets. In the fridge he found a glass pitcher of milk, a bowl of fresh fruit, a few single-serve yogurts, and two jars of homemade jam. A box of dry cereal, a bag of granola, and three blueberry muffins — each covered in plastic wrap and tied with a ribbon — filled a basket on the countertop. A coffee pot and a pouch of fresh ground beans sat beside the basket. Plates, cups, mugs, bowls, silverware, and fringe-trimmed cloth napkins provided an eye-catching and useful setting on the small round table. Each of the four dining chairs held a pillow made from a quilt block; the pillow trim matched the napkins. Someone had put an awful lot of work into creating stylish yet functional guest quarters.
Designed like the shotgun houses he knew from Louisiana, the condo’s layout led from living space to kitchen to utility room to bedroom to bathroom. At about eighteen feet wide, it used every inch of space, yet nothing felt cramped. And in every room, the same intentional care had gone into selecting comfortable furniture, attractive finishes, and all the amenities a guest could need.
Someone did an outstanding job putting it together.
After a quick shower, Teddy climbed into bed in the way-more-than-adequate lodgings. He inhaled the sharp, woodsy scent of the crisp, fresh-laundered linens.
And he thought of that someone .