Page 84 of The Meeting
“I’ll get started on that,” she said, before walking away.
Chase looked after her as she disappeared out of the barn. She hadn’t given him a kiss or made much eye contact at all. He frowned and looked back at Derek.
“Did she seem upset to you?” he asked.
Derek gave a low whistle. “Dude, you’re in the doghouse.”
“I don’t even know why.”
Derek only shrugged before going back to the work at hand. They worked alongside each other for twenty more minutes before making their way back up to the house.
Derek called out to one of his ranch hands, who had just shown up asking if he’d like to join them for breakfast. He nodded and walked over to him.
“Chase, this is John. John, this is my brother Chase.”
They shook hands and walked into the house.
Chase went straight over to where Kailynn stood at the stove frying some eggs while Derek excused himself to the restroom. John disappeared down the hallway as well, Chase assumed to give them some privacy.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She shrugged. “Good.”
Chase leaned his back up against the counter so he could see her face. “What did I do?”
Her eyes flickered to his before going back to the pan. And then she shrugged.
“No. Tell me. I need to know.”
“Can we talk about this when we can have a more private conversation?” she asked, her voice soft, as if she didn’t want Derek to overhear them.
“Of course.”
Derek walked out at that moment with John and looked at the pancakes Kailynn had piled on a plate and the eggs she was taking off the stove.
“This looks delicious. Thank you.”
Kailynn carried the plate of eggs to the table, where Derek put out syrup and extra plates for the four of them. Chase walked over with the plate of pancakes. Derek introduced Kailynn to John before they all took seats.
“We can help with taking tents down and cleaning up from the party,” Kailynn offered.
Chase smiled over at her. It was sexy that she took initiative to help his family. Her eyes flickered to his before going back to Derek’s.
Or, she was trying to avoid having a conversation with him, and this would prolong it. He raised an eyebrow at the thought. That’s exactly what she was doing.
“I would appreciate the help, if you don’t mind. Then you two should grab Buttercup and go for a ride.”
“Sounds fun,” Chase said.
Kailynn only nodded.
They all dished up their plates and ate their breakfast in relative silence until Chase cleared his throat.
“It looks like you have full stables right now. Business is doing well?”
Derek nodded. “It’s better than I could have asked for. I’m also thinking about turning a few acres of property into hay fields.”
“Oh yeah? Why is that?”
