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Three weeks later ...
“Wanna play Hide and Seek in the wheat field?” Gracen asked, grinning as she leaned in beyond the barn’s open door.
Malachi snorted loudly. “There’s no wheat in the field.”
Not growing from the ground, anyway. The farmer came through with tractors to cut it down and bail the wheat up. Big bales lined the rolling hills surrounding Gracen’s house. A perfect place to play a game of Hide and Seek.
“The bales,” she explained with a wave.
Meanwhile, Mister Kitty bounced around Gracen’s ankles before entering the barn to sniff out Malachi who had been working on cleaning out the loft. It meant a lot of hauling of old, and somewhat useless, items which had been stored high in the barn that the previous owner left behind.
He did find a few things that had once belonged to her father. Planers and other tools. Even a few cans of very old stain.
More than a few people had asked Gracen if she was concerned about moving in with a man that didn't currently have a job and hadn’t been in her life long—she’d opted to stop speaking to those people for a little while.
Sometimes, everybody needed a break.
What should she worry about?
Gracen had never been happier.
“Aren’t we a little old for Hide and Seek?” Malachi asked over his shoulder with a grin, and he used a rag to wipe clean a set of old wrenches.
Mister Kitty’s meows were a lot louder inside the barn. He didn’t stop the cries until Malachi bent down to pick up the cat and place him atop the work bench along the side wall of the barn where he liked to lay and watch one of his humans work. They introduced him to the outdoors after a week of having the kitten home, but only when they would both be within yelling distance. Not that it mattered. Mister Kitty never went far from the two of them if he could help it.
Gracen pouted as she inched further into the barn, fully enjoying the way her man eye-fucked the curves of her body in the new sweater dress she’d picked up from the falls the day before. It clung to the right spots in the best of ways, and she couldn't turn in the mirror and find a single angle that didn’t scream sexy. She topped off the dress with a cute pair of black suede heeled booties. Delaney, still feeling the effects of Gracen moving out, needed extra time and attention when both women could afford it. Shopping was one of the ways they did that together.
“You like?” she asked.
He cocked an eyebrow, his stare lingering on the slit in the skirt and then the low dip at her cleavage. “Very much. You want to play Hide and Seek in the field in that?”
“Not really. I just wondered—”
“Girl, if you want me to play tag with you in that field after the farmer sprays it with manure in the spring, I will. As long as you wear that dress. Or one like it.”
Gracen cringed. “We’re definitely not doing that.”
Malachi chuckled as she joined him at the bench. “I’m just saying.”
“I do think we should play Hide and Seek at least once before they come and take the bales away. Maybe get some pictures.”
“Of what?”
Gracen shrugged. “Anything.”
Them.
Him.
The land.
She had the greatest urge to capture every moment that she could even if all she planned to do was fill as many photo albums as she could. So be it. They’d have something to look back on when a different time came, and these ones felt like distant memories.
“Mister Kitty on top of a hay bale,” she offered, grinning.
The kitten in question had perched himself atop an old, rusty paint can. Proudly so.
Malachi’s amusement echoed in the barn before he quieted to lean over to steal a kiss from her lips. “Later? I’m waiting for a call.”
The sun was barely up, but she found him at this exact place every morning, waiting on the same phone call.
Alora’s good morning.
“I meant later,” she agreed. “After work—then we can catch the sunset. You still want coffee?”
Pushing away from the bench, Gracen headed for the barn’s doorway. Over her shoulder, she found Malachi thoroughly enjoying the sight of her walking away, too.
“Love the dress, babe,” he murmured.
And she loved this man.
“Coffee?” she reminded him.
“Yeah, yeah. That, too.”
Gracen took the walk back to the house slowly, giving herself the chance to properly enjoy the autumn morning before she had to head off to work. In the kitchen, she found her phone ringing on the counter.
And three missed calls.
All from the same person, too.
“Delaney, what’s wrong?” Gracen asked as soon as she picked up the phone.
She didn't have any reason to think Delaney’s rapid calls were the cause of anything bad, but a pit settled deep in the bottom of her stomach the very moment she picked up the phone.
Delaney’s gasped sob crackled over the phone. “It’s burning, Gracen!”
Did her heart stop?
It felt like it.
“What’s burning?” Gracen demanded, her desperation clear.
“The Haus—it’s burning! The firetrucks, they’re ... Oh, my God, I don’t understand what happened. Everything was fine when we closed it last night. What would do that?”
Or who?
“It’s not burning, right?” Gracen asked, refusing to believe her best friend. Delaney didn't reply, prompting Gracen to ask again, “Right?”
“I don’t know why this is happening,” Delaney whispered back. “I’m sorry.”
Gracen didn’t hear the phone clatter to the floor after falling from her trembling hand, but Malachi had heard her scream all the way inside the barn. He would swear on it later that he’d felt it in his own chest as her heart broke in those few seconds when time stood still, too.
Apparently, the universe wasn’t done with Gracen yet.
She had more pain to get through.
More growing to do.
*
Loving These Valley days and want more?
Book two is coming soon, but until then, check out bethanykris.com for more BK reads!
