Under The Montana Skies

25- I hope I can ride him someday

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, I don't think it would hurt to try."

"If it doesn't work out we can always put Charlie back inside."

Jake walked back over with Spook. "I want to try riding him."

Eleanor looked over at me as I tried deciding.  "Okay, we can try. Eleanor, why don't you hold that rope and talk to him before Jake gets on but be careful."

"Okay."

"Greg, Danny and Chase, watch to make sure Spook doesn't hurt her."

They all nodded and followed her over. She did what I said and Jake lifted his leg slowly, as to warn Spook of what he was doing before getting up, wrapping his leg around Spook and sat down.

Spook was hesitant and started backing away. "Shh it's okay, boy. Hey-" Eleanor started saying. Spook started throwing his head back and backed further away, flaring his nostrils to show he was not happy.

"Eleanor, back up." Greg grabbed her gently by the waist and brought her around him.

Jake jumped off, safely, while Spook kicked. We tried it a few more times, each time getting better.

Eleanor came over to me again once Jake was able to get on with Spook semi happy.

She leaned up against the fence and smiled again. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"I hope I can ride him someday."

"I hope so too."

Nora's P.O.V.

Watching Spook come along like he was made my heart happy. He has been doing so good the last few weeks that I was hopeful he would be rideable soon.

"I hope so too." Brady agreed. I looked down at him. His stare back up at me had my tummy fluttering.

This new nervousness the past month wasn't something I liked. I was treading on new water with this man and it scared me on how the next six days were going to go. He's left me speechless, he's left me flustered and it's like he purposely tries to find things to pick on me for.

Then there was a fact that I was scared to say something wrong because I didn't know if it would make him mad or not and I really didn't want to fight with him anymore.

But then he would look at me with those eyes and I couldn't help wanting to throw myself at him.

He was by far the most confusing man I've ever met before but I always found myself enjoying the grumpy man's company.

Brady and I went into the house he stayed in. Carrie Ann told me I just needed to worry about lunch, then Jenna or Kassidy would make sure he had supper in the house with the family at night when I left.

"I know your mom said I could make our food in the house, but I made this yesterday and I have so much left overs I thought I could share."

"You didn't have to go to the trouble."

"Really it's not that big of a deal, Brady."

"I really do appreciate you being here like you are. I'm sure you would rather be doing anything else."

"I promise. I really don't mind."

He smiled and started heading towards what I would assume to be his bathroom. "I'll be right back."

"Do you need any help?" I wasn't sure exactly how this all worked or what I needed to help him with exactly but I assumed that would be a problem.

He chuckled. "Not right now."

"Okay."

I washed my hands, noticing I had a splinter on the palm of my hand. Ignoring it for now, I started to warm the soup up and started putting the things on his table. I sat down waiting for Brady and checked my phone. I had a couple texts from my parents, one from Amanda and one from Selena asking about my songs and let me know that Ben talked with Starz a few days ago as he was leaving the Titans stadium about our relationship.

She didn't go into detail about it, but it was enough to upset me.

Brady came out as I was replying back to my Mom and Amanda. Amanda replied right away about Ben, saying it wasn't that big of a deal and she didn't think I needed to watch it because Ben didn't say much.

So I decided I was ignoring it. I haven't been on social media since the day I looked at the comments on my post while I was here and I was okay with that.

He looked down at the bowl of cheesy broccoli soup. "Eleanor, why did you make soup?"

I rolled my eyes over at Brady and my first instinct was to be defensive about my food choice. "Well, first of all I'm hungry for it yesterday and secondly… why do you whine so much?"

"It was like a million degrees outside yesterday!"

"Really! A million degrees… How did you survive?"

He gave me a bored look, "you know what I mean."

"You are such a man child." Well now I was mad at him because I was trying to be nice. I shook my head and took his bowl of soup away from him and threw the sub I had made at him, landing on his plate making crumbs go all over the table. "A fucking child!" I mumbled.

I was beyond annoyed and the thought of Ben talking with Starz was not helping this situation.

He started laughing, making me even more annoyed. "Give me the soup, I was just teasing you."

"No!"

"Eleanor."

"Brady."

He chuckled again. "Give me the soup."

I raised my eyebrow as I glared at him.

He let out a breath, trying not to smile. "Pleassse?"

I wanted to go into the kitchen and dump it in the sink just to spite him but I also believed in not wasting food because there's a lot of people starving in this world. Maybe I'll eat his too. I had to remind myself that I was the only adult in this room and slid it over to him.

"Thank you…" he took a bite and moaned in approval. "Eleanor, this is delicious."

"I know, that's why I made it. I also thought you would like it."

"I do. Thank you."

See, he's so confusing and now I felt like a butt for getting mad.

"You're welcome."

We continued to eat in silence and I couldn't help but smile when he wanted more.

After I was done, I sat back rubbing the palm of my hand. Somewhere today I must have gotten this splinter and it was starting to bother me.

"Are you alright, what's wrong?"

"I'm just trying to get this splinter out." I said as I squeezed it.

"Let me see."

I showed him. He examined it for a moment before he went into the bathroom not saying a word and came back a few minutes later.

"I'm the king of getting these bad boys out. Give me your hand."

I hesitated for a moment, making Brady laugh. "Eleanor, I don't bite."

I think I wanted him to bite me though. Shaking away that exciting thought, I moved closer and grabbed my hand. His hands were warm and callused, but gentle. I sat there staring at him… very aware of how close we were. His lip moved just slightly, showing me he was in deep concentration as he worked to get the splinter out of my hand.

"There, it's out." He looked up at me as I continued staring at him.

He was gorgeous.

I wasn't sure how long we sat there, staring at one another and I realized that even though he got that chunk of wood out of my hand, he never let go.

Clearing my throat I reluctantly looked away because I knew if I didn't, I would have kissed him.

"Thank you."