Page 33 of One Kind Soul

“You guys want a beer?” Christian motioned to the barn after they’d finished unloading Ben’s truck.

“Sure.” Jared sat on the front steps of the farmhouse.

“Yeah, me too.” Ben slid onto the open tailgate of his truck.

“Okay. Be right back.”

Christian jogged to the barn, four of the five cats following him because dinner time was usually an hour ago for them. The fifth cat came out of a nest of hay he’d assembled in the barn.

“There’s my loner kitty.” Most of the time the cats stayed together, but every so often, Tibbs liked some solitude.

He quickly fed them, letting them eat right there in the barn as the horses were still out in the field. He headed upstairs, grabbed three beers, and marched back outside. He wanted his buddies to go now because he wasn’t sure when Nicole was planning to swing by, but he owed them beers at the very least for their help. He didn’t want to be a crappy friend.

“Thanks, guys.” He handed them the beers and lowered to a step below where Jared sat.

“No problem, man,” Ben said. “It’s coming along nicely.”

Christian glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. I’m pleased.”

“And you’ll have enough room to properly entertain your hookups,” Jared said, making Ben chuckle.

“The kid’s dangerous with a barn loft,” Ben said, rolling his eyes. “I can’t imagine him with an entire house.”

Christian stared at his beer bottle for a minute. “You guys know I don’t have a revolving door to my dick, right? Yes, I flirt, but a.) not every flirt session results in a hookup and b.) the hookups I do have never go beyond that.”

“Hookups not going beyond that sound heavenly,” Jared said. “I’d much prefer that over my last chick who turned out to be batshit crazy. What is it with chicks and the batshit craziness?”

“Maybe if you didn’t pick up chicks over in Cheshire . . .” Ben began before Jared pegged him in the chest with a bottlecap. “What? Something in the water ain’t right over there.”

“He may have a point.” Christian swigged his beer. “Wasn’t the girl before your last one from Cheshire too?”

Jared nodded. “Okay. Time to branch out.”

To Kauai? That was probably branching out too far, but his brother had found a nice woman on Kauai. Why couldn’t he have one too?

The three of them finished their beers and Ben and Jared offered to stop by again for part of the day tomorrow. With them helping, he’d have this house finished ahead of schedule. Maybe after the wedding, he could convince Donovan to help more and Landon too. His brothers had helped several times along with Noah and Dakota, but they worked well as a team too and he did want this house finished.

Christian waved as Ben and Jared left. He organized a few things in the farmhouse, hoping it was presentable enough to impress Nicole.

Assuming she was able to come over. He’d pushed thoughts of her aside for most of the day so he wouldn’t get his hopes up, but now that Ben and Jared were gone, he didn’t have the distractions. He checked his phone, but there weren’t any additional messages from Nicole. Her coming over was still a possibility then.

He rounded up the horses, settling them in the barn, and went up to the loft to make sure it was as presentable as it could be. Man, he hoped Nicole didn’t mind the horse smell. Nothing he could do about it anyway.

Standing in his apartment, he realized that Nicole might not know to go to the barn to find him. Plus, it was a nice night out. If he could delay taking her into the barn, that might be better.

Back outside, he set up some cinder blocks then rested a few pieces of decent barnwood across them to make a simple table. He found a Mason jar in the store and filled it with some wildflowers and greens, tying some hay around the base of the jar and setting the centerpiece on the table. He rolled two fat logs over to use as seats then lit two soy candles and placed them on either side of the flowers. Standing back, he admired his work.

“Not bad for limited supplies, right, Nina?” The gray and black cat hopped on one of the logs and sniffed at the bark.

The soft hum of an engine sounded behind him and he turned to see Tessa’s SUV pulling into his driveway. Christian held his breath until a head of long, dark hair appeared after the driver side door opened.

“Hey.” Nicole walked over to him. She angled her head to see around him then pointed to the setup he’d created. “Very nice. Are you setting the tables at the wedding this weekend, Chrissy?”

“You joke, but don’t think Tessa didn’t ask me. I have an eye.” And he used both eyes right now to drink her in. She wore a flowy, but short, dress covered in small purple and yellow flowers with a purple sweater and brown, toeless ankle boots so her pretty toenails—also purple—peeked out. They weren’t purple yesterday so he bet she and Tessa did some girl beautification together last night.

“What are you staring at?” She pulled the sides of her sweater tighter around her and that self-conscious thing made an appearance again. He wanted to get rid of that for her.

“I’m adding purple toenails to my list of Things I Love.” He waved his hand at her toes. “You have a problem with that, Nixen?”