Rose’s POV
“Brother?” I question aloud.
Not looking at me, Cody says, “Rose, this is my brother, Adrian.”
“Oh. Okay. Um…Adrian, I have to ask, why are you here exactly?”
“I came to see my brother. Is that a crime now?”
Cody speaks softly, close to my ear, “Can you give us a minute?”
“Sure,” I responded, looking up at him, before walking toward the barn.
I go into the barn and check on the horses. I approach Clover’s stall. Clover is our pregnant horse, she’s close to giving birth, a few more days, a week at most. I open her stall, walking toward her, “Hey, girl. How are you doing?” I walk up to her and pet along her neck with one hand, and drag my other hand along her stomach. I feel her baby kick, and smile in joy. I spend a few more minutes just loving on Clover before I check her feed and water.
When Cody comes into the barn with Adrian following behind him, I’m standing outside Clover’s stall holding a feed scoop. He clears his throat and I turn around. Adrian is looking around curiously and Cody is staring directly at me. I look from him to Adrian and back to him, “Hey, you good?”
“Yeah,” he says softly.
I step closer to him and ask, “So what’s he doing here?”
“He wants me to go with him to find our sister.”
“Oh. Are you gonna go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, do you want to?”
“I don’t know. I would love to see my sister again,” he lowers his voice, “It’s been almost three years since she left, but what if she doesn’t want to see us? See me?”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to see. It’s better to try than to always wonder.”
He looks thoughtful for a moment before smiling at me, “You’re right. Thank you.”
“Anytime,” I smile back at him.
His eyes travel from mine down to my lips and back up again, before he says, “I wish I could kiss you right now.”
“Me too,” I grinned at him, before taking a step back.
“I’ll talk to your mom tonight about taking a few days off.”
“Okay, I’m sure she’ll agree. You’ve done a lot for us since you've been here. You deserve a few days off.”
Cody then turns around and we both face Adrian who is currently petting Bandit. Cody clears his throat again, causing Adrian to turn around. “I’ll have to talk to Julia, but okay, I’ll go with you to see Bianca.”
Adrian smiles and claps his hands together, “Great!”
Later that night, Cody discussed it with my mom and she agreed, just like I thought she would. She also told him that Adrian could stay the night and they could leave tomorrow. So now we are all sitting at the dinner table, my siblings are asking Adrian a bunch of questions, while me and Cody sit in silence. After Adrian dropped the bomb that he’d just gotten out of prison, I noticed that Cody visibly stiffened, so I gently squeezed his hand under the table in support and comfort. When I tried to pull my hand away, he grabbed it again, not letting go. After a while he’d started to relax, but we kept holding hands. By the time everyone is done eating, I'm starting to get tired. I cleared the table with the help of my siblings. After we took all the dishes into the kitchen, I told Shane and Noah, “Get the twins ready for bed, please?”
“Okay,” Shane and Noah say before going back into the dining room and picking up Luna and Lucas. They walk up the stairs in the direction of the twin connected bedrooms. I sit back down at the table just as Mom says, “You can stay in the barn with Cody or you can take one of the guest bedrooms. Whichever you prefer is fine with me, “she says to Adrian, before standing up and looking at me, “I’ll let you and Cody help get him settled in. I’m gonna head to bed.”
“Okay, mom. Goodnight. Love you.”
“Love you, too, sweetie. Goodnight, everybody,” She responds before walking upstairs to say goodnight to my siblings.
I turn to face Cody and Adrian, “Okay, so what do you wanna do?”
Adrian opens his mouth to respond but Cody speaks first, “He’ll stay in the barn with me.”
“Okay,” I say before asking Cody, “Do you need any extra blankets or pillows?”
“Yeah, I don’t have any.”
“Okay,” I say before getting up and walking over to the hall closet and grabbing a few blankets and a pillow. I walk back over to them and hand the blankets and pillow to Cody, “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Both Cody and Adrian stand up. I walk them to the door and we say our goodnights.
“Thank you so much. Both you and your family are very welcoming. I can tell you are taking good care of my brother here.” Adrian says to me.
“We are, and we are very glad and grateful to have him.” I say to him politely.
“Goodnight, Rose.”
“Goodnight, Adrian.” I say before he steps outside. Cody looks at me and smiles slightly, mouthing, “Thank you.” I smile at him in response.
“Goodnight, Rose,” Cody says to me with a soft smile.
I return his smile, “Goodnight, Cody. I’ll see you in the morning, before you leave.”
He nods at me before turning and walking out the door, blankets and pillow in hand. I watch as they walk toward the barn for a minute before closing the door and going to my room. I change into my pajamas and lay on my bed. It takes me slightly longer than I thought it would to fall asleep. Eventually, the exhaustion from the long day took over and I fell right to sleep.
The next morning.
I made breakfast for everyone and we all sat at the dining table to eat. Even though it’s something we do every morning, it’s weird and different because Adrian’s here and Cody’s leaving for a few days. I’m sad to see him go. Even though he hasn't been with us long, we will all miss him the few days he’s gone to visit his sister. After we’d all finished eating, we stood on the porch and watched as Cody and Adrian drove off.
The few days Cody was gone, we all shared his work load. I took care of the horses, Shane and Noah took care of the other animals, we all did the other farm work together. It’s back to how it was before Cody, and I don’t like it. I miss Cody. I miss seeing him everyday. I think we’ve all gotten used to having him here. He’s been here almost a year now. He’s become a part of our family.
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Author's note:
Another chapter done! Would love to hear your feedback. I'm a first time writer, so this is kinda new for me. But i have read a lot. I love to read, and i got this idea for a book and decided to give it a try. Hope you guys are enjoying my writing so far.
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Every Country Girl Needs A Country Boy
RomanceIt's about a girl named Roseanne "Rose" Thompson and a boy named Cody Miller. She's a farmer's daughter and he's a ranch hand. He works for her family's ranch. They have a two year age gap. She's 16 and he's 18. She fell first, he fell harder. Small...
