Chapter Nineteen: Andrew

Kelsey and I made a pact that, moving forward, I would try to keep my weekends free. I hired a farm manager months ago and struggled to let the man do the job he was employed for. But even with that promise, I had a hard time not messaging him every five seconds, even in the middle of the night, so that he’d see them whenever he woke up in the morning.

“Andrew,” Kelsey whined as she pressed her lips against my neck, leaving small kisses along the path to my bare shoulder.

“Baby, you’re the best kind of alarm,” I groaned as I quietly set my phone down on the nightstand and turned to face her, then tugged her body closer.

“Why are you micromanaging that poor guy?” she asked, letting me know I hadn’t been as stealthy in my texting as I thought. “It’s still early. You could be sleeping in, since you wanted to work with your dad today.”

“Never too early for me to fuck you.” My lips brushed against hers.

“No, not too early for that.”

Her body wiggled under my touch, and she cried out an orgasm mere minutes after I slid my hand between her legs. I knew her body better than my own. With the pregnancy, her body was extremely sensitive, so as my cock slipped inside her, I felt her start quaking once again.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”

She mentioned the other day that she worried if I would still feel that way when she was “larger than your new house.” Her words, not mine. Even though we hadn’t discussed our future, I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful woman than the one lying next to me.

I spilled myself deep inside her sex, my cock pulsating against her walls.

As we caught our breath, I slipped from the bed and returned with a warm washcloth, wiping away the remnants of our lovemaking from between her legs.

“Go back to bed, baby. You have a fun day planned tomorrow.”

“Do I?” she asked.

I chuckled. “You know you do.”

Kelsey cuddled up against me, her thigh wedging between mine. I once asked her why she didn’t want to use one of those pregnancy pillows they recommend in the books, and she replied, “Why would I, when I have you?”

The logic made sense to me.

In the last few days, she started making the cutest noises while she slept. Little grunts and snores. I wouldn’t ever tell her about them, but sometimes in the middle of the night, I’d wake up and listen to her little sounds for a few minutes before drifting back to sleep.

I let her body settle against mine as the clock changed to 2:34 a.m. Today, I was helping Nash out at the farm. It was a weekend, but we received word about a horse that needed to be rehomed. We weren’t a sanctuary, but we did our best to provide a nice home for animals when we had the room to spare. Many, we ended up rehoming to other farms in the area, if we saw they were in need.

That was one of the best things about the Ashfield community. We were always looking out for each other.

Kelsey barely budged as my alarm went off what felt like seconds later but was actually hours. I took a quick shower to wake myself up and dressed in layers for the colder mornings but warmish days at the farm. November in the mountains could go from one end of the spectrum to the other in a matter of hours. With a quick breakfast of eggs and SPAM, I returned to the bedroom to find Kelsey in the same spot I left her.

Leaning down, I pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead. “Have fun today,” I whispered, and she stirred a bit before adjusting the pillow under her head. Even in her sleep, her body sought me out, as her arm reached out toward where I normally laid. “I love you, baby.”

“Mm… I love you,” she mumbled in reflex.

I pressed another kiss to her soft form, this time on her bare shoulder, then left the bedroom, closing the door behind me.

Grabbing my keys and Resistol cowboy hat, I headed out the front door, locking it behind me. Ashfield was a safe town, rarely any crime besides the random teenager acting out, but I wasn’t about to risk Kelsey or the baby’s safety.

I fingered through my damp locks, combing the strands toward the back of my head as I started the truck. My beloved accessory occupied the passenger seat.

Once I arrived at the farm, I went to work with Leon, the new farm manager, to see what items I could help him tackle. It seemed the demon cow, Claire, had knocked down another fence. Which we now learned was a sign she wanted to spend some time with Owen. We ragged on him endlessly about the bovine’s crush. Claire seemed to only tolerate Aspen because she would bring Owen to the farm.

I saddled up Thunderbolt and put the equipment I needed in the saddlebags to fix the fence. Leon was going to work on adhering stones to the large Sunny Brook Farms entrance sign that had fallen off over the last week. Since the storm, when I showed Kelsey the special lookout at the event venue, we’d had almost nonstop rain until yesterday. The stones dislodged if we had too much water.

We agreed to meet at the stables to check on the stall being set up for the new horse.

Riding Thunderbolt made me miss how it felt to hold on for dear life on the back of a bucking bronco. There was a thrill only that ride could provide.

I made quick work of the fence, Claire smartly keeping her distance as I patched it up.

Finishing early, I stored all the items back in the saddlebags and hoisted myself onto Thunderbolt’s back. With time to spare, I allowed the horse to pick up speed until we were galloping across the fields. My house wasn’t too far off from the damaged fence, and I directed him toward it.

Most of the construction equipment had been removed, since the exterior was done. Now, the inside was the main focus. The team had been busy hanging the drywall yesterday, and I was curious to see how it was all coming together.

I hopped off Thunderbolt, directing him to the shade, where he munched on grass.

Opening the door to the house, I walked around the now distinctly defined rooms. The drywall still needed to be taped and floated, but the space looked like an actual home now. I could clearly see where the kitchen would go and how a large archway opened the foyer to the living room.

The stairs leading to the second floor were temporary. I had a custom staircase being made, which would be delivered the following week. There were four bedrooms—two of equal size, an oversized master, and a smaller room next to it. The designer added a connecting door, so the room could be used as either a nursery or an office.

The designer was already collecting the items to decorate with. I’d been picking Kelsey’s brain for input on the room decor. Her style was more classic, where I tended to lean toward mid-century and modern.

I hadn’t officially asked Kelsey to move in with me, but I was hoping she had caught the hint that I wanted her to stay.

A special project I had the designer add recently was an external door for the basement. I told Kelsey the space was going to be used as a home gym, and it was originally, but I decided she could turn it into her own therapy room. By adding the door, she could have her own business here at the house without the clients having to walk through our home.

Or what I hoped would be our home.

As I stepped outside, I received a text message from Mom containing a bunch of images. I asked her to help Kelsey select some maternity clothes I asked Nicole to bring into her store. Kelsey had no idea she was going on a shopping spree at my expense—mostly because I knew she would never go if she did. Instead, I told her my mom requested she spend the day galivanting with her. Which wasn’t a complete lie.

The real surprise though was that Mom was going to take Kelsey to the baby store in town. She hadn’t bought a single thing for the baby when she went to check it out, but I caught her scrolling online a few times, saving images of things she liked.

I told Mom to buy her whatever she wanted, no questions asked. I knew either Kelsey was going to be as angry as a disturbed hornet’s nest when she got home, or she was going to run up the amount on my card to an obscene amount. Maybe both.

Thunderbolt raced through the fields on our way back to the stables. I knew he loved to stretch his legs, and I was all too willing to let him go at full speed.

“Whew, he’s a pretty one when he runs like that,” Leon said in his strong Southern drawl.

“I think we both needed that,” I said, a bit out of breath.

As I removed Thunderbolt’s gear off and worked on brushing him down, a truck with a huge trailer slowly drove over the hill toward the farm. I asked Leon if he was given any information on the new horse, and he shook his head.

The ranch hands were ready when the truck stopped, and the animal control officer opened the door. The mare gingerly stepped out of the trailer and sniffed the air before continuing the rest of the way down the ramp.

Thunderbolt whinnied at the new arrival, spooking the older horse a bit. But I knew my stallion was only curious. His snorts and cries were his way of greeting someone.

I approached the new horse gradually, not wanting to spook her even more. Taking a sugar cube from my pocket, I held it out in the palm of my hand for the mare to take. The ivory-colored horse leaned forward and nipped at the sweet treat, allowing me to run my hand along her muzzle, then shoulder.

“What happened?” I asked as the horse nosed the pocket of my jacket, seeking more sugar cubes.

“The older couple who had the horse could no longer take care of her. Their children didn’t want the responsibility but insisted it go to a good home. They were considering putting her up for sale, but I knew y’all would be the best place if you had room.” Because of the size of our town and the lack of services in the area, animal control and the sheriff's deputies were called out for duties not normally performed by their counterparts. It was a job they all took very seriously though. They’d do anything to help the people they served.

“Yeah,” I said, still running my hands along her body. She barely moved when I slid my hand along her thigh. It was clear she had been well-cared for. “We’ll keep her for a bit, but I know a family looking for a non-working horse. She’d be used for occasional riding. I’m assuming she’s good with a saddle?” The officer nodded. “Perfect. I’ll give them a call. They just lost their horse a couple of months ago, and their daughter was devastated. They’ve been looking for a replacement ever since.”

“I’m so glad I brought her here. Thank you again.” The officer left with the trailer in tow.

For the next hour, we worked to acclimate the new arrival to her surroundings. The horse, who I named Snowflake for the time being, sniffed around the area before she walked into the fenced field, where Thunderbolt and another mare grazed. She was going to be just fine until I could move her to her new home.

With a quick message to the family, I verified they were interested, and they hoped to come meet her sometime this week. With any luck, Snowflake would move to her new home by the end of the month, since they needed to get ready for her arrival.

The rest of the morning, I spent mucking stalls and performing maintenance on our equipment. The late fall and winter months weren’t spent with our feet kicked up. There was always something to do on the farm.

Wiping away the sweat along my forehead with my flannel shirt, I glanced up and realized the barn needed a new coat of paint. It had faded since the last coat five years ago.

Hanging in the equipment room was a board with a list of tasks we needed to complete. Some were monthly, some just during certain seasons, and some were urgent. I added Paint the Equipment Barn to the column labeled Before the First Snow .

Leon had been busy working on inventory in the months since he arrived, and now everything was electronically calculated based on weight. It was incredibly efficient, and I was thankful he had come up with that solution.

I really did need to learn to let him handle more around the farm, because it was clear he knew what he was doing.

Removing my gloves from my back pocket, I tossed them into the large bin containing items that needed to be washed.

Leon was on the other end of the farm, so I messaged him and let him know that I was headed back home and that he wouldn’t see me for another few days.

I was taking Kelsey’s advice and letting someone else handle the little things.

It also meant I could spend some one-on-one time with her, hopefully in the bedroom.

***

On the way home, I got another text notification from a number I didn’t recognize, which I’d been getting pretty frequently lately. As always, it was from a different number I didn’t have saved, but it was the same sort of content. The sexual kind. The kind accompanied by faceless photos of a woman’s nude body.

The first time Kelsey confronted me about them, she was livid, thinking I asked for these messages. Seeing how upset she was, I showed her right then how frequently they came and how I immediately marked them as spam so I could ignore them. Then I pulled up my Blocked Numbers list and let her see each one had been added to it when I saw the texts were piling up in my Spam folder, which annoyed me to no end. Something told me to keep them though, instead of deleting all of them, just in case something came up where I needed to have evidence.

Kelsey once asked me why I didn’t just change my number. I had no answer except that I was a guy and that took too much effort. My number hadn’t changed since college, and I’d grown attached to it. Even the twins had it memorized. The thought of changing it because of a rodeo stalker didn’t sit right with me.

If the messages continued though, I was going to have to consider heading to the store and getting a new number.

As I pulled up to the house, I was disappointed to find Kelsey’s car was still missing. I was hoping to release some excess energy, and her pussy was my favorite place to work out.

I messaged my mom to see how much longer they’d be, and she replied with a video of Kelsey pushing a stroller around the store. It was clear they wouldn’t be home anytime soon, but at least she was enjoying herself.

Or it was all a ploy, and she was going to have it out for me later.

I pulled out some ground beef to thaw, planning to make some tacos for dinner. I’d mastered making homemade crunchy shells, and Kelsey had been begging me to make them again. I could chop up the veggies later.

Heading toward the shower, I shed my clothes after reaching the bathroom and then stepped under the warm spray. After the weeks of having to take a bath while sitting on a seat, I would never again take showering for granted.

The spray pounded against my skin, soothing the aching muscles. After the month of no manual labor, my muscles had to relearn everything again. And they let me know how much they ached from the lesson. And though I worked out as much as I could, it was nothing compared to being out there in the field.

A moan vibrated from my chest as I turned and let the water pour over my head and down my back. Thoughts of Kelsey in the shower popped into my mind, and before I could stop myself, I had my hand wrapped around my cock and started thrusting my shaft along my palm. Images filled my thoughts of me using the handheld showerhead to pulsate the water against her clit as I fucked her against the shower wall.

A moment later, a guttural growl emitted from my lips as I came down the drain.

“Christ,” I mumbled as I blindly reached for the shower wall and worked to calm my racing heart.

Now loosened up, I washed my hand off before lathering shampoo into my hair. I rinsed, then ran the bar of soap over my body. Kelsey couldn’t believe I used a generic bar of soap to wash with. I told her I just didn’t care enough, that the goal was to get clean, period, and if I wanted to smell nice, that’s what cologne was for.

“That’s not what I meant,” she corrected. “My ex used a fragrant body wash, and he didn’t come close to smelling as good as you always do.”

I had grinned at her, wrapping her up so her face was buried in my chest, where she could take a good, long whiff.

In the bedroom, I pulled on a pair of athletic pants and a fitted gray T-shirt. Grabbing my laundry basket, I decided to get my load done while I waited for Kelsey to get home. When that was started, I grabbed my laptop and spent some time reviewing vendor contracts. We were in the market for some upgraded equipment, along with a new computer system. I’d also been trying to find examples of large farms like Sunny Brook that had physical therapists on payroll for their employees. After the weeks I endured, I could see where having someone specialized in the area would benefit the employees, getting them back to work on the farm, of course, but more importantly, helping them get healed up and back on their feet as soon as possible.

I spent an hour on that research before I searched my browser for nursery images. My screen filled with pictures of cribs, changing tables, rugs, and nursing chairs. I had no idea if Kelsey planned to breastfeed or use formula, but it seemed like she’d enjoy a comfy chair either way.

I continued to scroll through the pages until my eyes landed on a particular setup. The colors were neutral overall, with hints of muted pinks, blues, and oranges. Natural woods mixed with white furniture, making the space look warm and cozy. Something about it just jumped out at me, and I felt like it would be the perfect setup for the baby’s nursery. Taking note of the designer, I saved the imaged to a folder with hopes of showing Kelsey later.

Fuck, I still hadn’t had the courage to ask her to move in with me yet. Something was holding me back. I feared it was related to worrying about being rejected—something I’d never experienced before.

Just as I clicked the tab to scroll to another set of images, a fervent knock sounded on the door. I rolled my eyes at first, because there was a doorbell available, which would’ve been less annoying than the continuous pounding that ensued.

“Coming!” I shouted so they’d stop, and I set my laptop on the coffee table and walked toward the door.

I stole a glance through the peephole, but I didn’t recognize the person on the porch, who was wearing a cheap suit that was two sizes too small.

Slowly, I opened the door and came face-to-face with the woman on the other side. Her hair had been bleached beyond repair, dried and frizzy, like I remembered many of the girls in college having. She was average height, and something about her seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place her.

“Can I help you?” I asked, my eyes skimming down her body, noticing her suit looked more like something a stewardess would wear than it had when I looked through the peephole.

“Wyatt! Oh my God, I can’t believe I found you,” she exclaimed, as if she just found the cure for cancer.

At the mention of my rodeo name, all my brain cells shriveled up and blew away. “Um… do I… know you?”

The woman flinched just before she chose to unbutton the top button of her blouse and lean back against the porch railing in what I guessed she thought was a sexy pose. In reality though, it gave me secondhand embarrassment for the gal.

“Are you saying you don’t remember me, Wyatt? You don’t remember that beautiful moment we spent together?” she purred.

“I’m sorry,” I said as nicely as possible. The woman seemed like she had only one foot on the normal side, while all the other parts of her were planted firmly on the side of crazy.

She stalked toward me slowly. “Remember that night in Louisiana? It was, I think, fourteen years ago, after you competed in the rodeo and won that five-thousand-dollar prize. You fucked my mouth in the middle of the parking lot, where anyone could see.”

The memory started flickering to life.

“And then I ran into you again ten years ago,” she said as she reached out and ran her hand down my chest before I could step back fast enough. “I did a double take when I saw you strolling through the airport terminal in Atlanta. I thought maybe you’d be on my flight, and that would be our chance to join the mile high club.”

Fuck, I did remember her. She had been… a mistake, to put it lightly, but when I was younger, I led with my cock, not realizing or caring that I would have to deal with the consequences later.

Hello, consequences.

Thank goodness I had been headed to California to visit Nate at the time and not back home. Atlanta had only been a quick layover for me, and when she stopped me to say hi on my way to my gate, she was in a rush to get on the plane one gate over that was heading to Nashville.

“I’ve thought about you every day, Wyatt. Blowing you after you won all that money got me so wet. I’ve been waiting for another chance with you. Didn’t you get my messages? I’ve been trying to find you.”

“I… um… changed my number,” I lied, but I certainly would be doing that now.

“Oh.” The woman looked saddened, then quickly recovered. “Well, I’m here now. Maybe we can relive that time together.” She nearly pressed her body against mine as I gripped the doorjamb. “I can make you feel so good, Wyatt. I know you want it.”

“I really don’t,” I said as I grabbed her hand and pulled it away from my body.

“Wyatt,” she whined, trying to press closer. “Why don’t you let me inside? I have the entire week free.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, just as my knight in shining armor arrived.

Kelsey’s car pulled into the driveway, and I immediately closed the front door behind me and pushed away from the woman standing on the porch.

I rushed toward her car, hoping to convince her to drive to my parents’ place. Whoever this woman was besides a past fling of mine, I didn’t want her anywhere close to Kelsey and the baby.

I leaned down to look through her window and told her sternly, “Get out of here, baby.”

“What?” she asked as she opened the door before I stopped it halfway.

“Kelsey, I need you to get out of here.”

She looked at me in confusion, then her eyes landed on the rental car parked in front of the neighbor’s yard.

With a surprising amount of force, she shoved the door open all the way and then slammed it shut before turning toward the woman on the porch.

“Kelsey, I’m so sorry. I have no idea why she’s here. I haven’t seen her in a decade, and it meant nothing the one time I saw her before that. I swear it,” I pleaded.

“What?” Kelsey asked me over her shoulder, then stomped toward the woman. “Mom?”

Utter shock registered, and I shook my head, thinking I misheard my girlfriend. “What?” I was the one to ask this time.

“That’s my mom. How did she find me here?”

My eyes widened to the point my vision blurred for a moment. “That’s your mom?”

The woman got within listening distance, then asked Kelsey, “Sweetie, what are you doing here at Wyatt’s place?”

“Who…? Who’s Wyatt?”

Neighbors started filing out into their yards to watch the drama unravel. Even Roman was ready with his baseball in hand, tossing it in the air as he watched.

“Maybe we could head inside?” I suggested through gritted teeth. I didn’t want this woman anywhere near our home. Which brought up a better question—how did she find me?