Whispers of the South Wind

Chapter 16

He sighed contentedly, listening to the sound of the water starting to roar inside the metal tea kettle as it began to boil on the stove. It was early, just before six o'clock, but he wanted to make sure he was up early enough to have some tea before heading up to Y/N's house. It had been almost three weeks since he'd agreed to help her with her property while she worked on getting back into racing. She kept a strict schedule, making sure she didn't overwork herself or Lady by training only three times a week.

That first day together had certainly been interesting. Anthony was originally supposed to come over with him and help, which Keigo had been grateful for. As much as he wanted to spend more time with her, having Anthony as a buffer would help ease any awkwardness until they were more familiar with each other.

He had gotten up that morning at least an hour before his alarm even went off, his stomach full of butterflies as he showered and pulled on clothes that he didn't mind getting ruined should something happen. He wasn't fully sure what she needed him to do around the small farm, but there was the strong possibility that it required work that would ruin good clothes.

He had just gotten down to his kitchen to try and make a tea to settle his stomach when his phone began to ring. "Anthony?" He asked, unable to hide his confusion as he glanced at the time on the stove, the little green numbers glowing 4:38 back at him. "Is everything okay? It is very early."

"Did I wake ya?" He asked in return.

"No, of course not. I would be lying if I said I slept well," Keigo admitted, causing Anthony to chuckle slightly in return. "I guess I am a little nervous."

"She don't bite ya know," the humor in his tone evident before he let out a large sigh, "But I'm real sorry to do this to ya. I've gotta take care of somethin', I won't be able to make it up with ya today."

Keigo blinked, swallowing hard as his nerves flared up. "Is everything okay?" He asked, quickly grabbing his metal kettle and throwing it under the sink to fill. He needed to get a tea into his system before he ended up puking. He could hear Anthony hesitating slightly before letting out a deep breath.

"Yeah, just some stuff goin' on with work. I need to go down there and help sort it out and talk to Ash about gettin' her some extra time off work. Are ya goin' to be okay up there by yourself?"

He shut off the water, quickly sticking the kettle onto the stove and turning it on before letting out a small sigh. When did he become so fucking scared around women? It was a far cry from the type of man he used to be. The kind of man who used them for what he wanted and never bothered to call after, but then again, he'd never really had these types of feelings about a woman before either. He was in uncharted territory, that much was for certain.

"Yeah, I will be fine." He said, gripping the phone tightly. She was just one woman, he could handle it easily.

"Thank you, now Imma tell ya a secret. I saw the way she looked at you the other night, I'm tellin' ya something is there-"

"She was drunk," he argued, interrupting Anthony before he could really get started, though the feeling of her fingers against his skin still burned when the memory resurfaced. It was even haunting him in his sleep, waking himself up with a fucking problem that refused to go away until he took care of it. He was honestly spending far too much time with his dick in his hand lately.

"Okay, yeah, but I'm tellin' you. Give it a chance. She told me the other day that she thought it was cool that you spoke another language, she wants to learn. Maybe you could teach her something easy, it might help with the awkwardness until you get to work?"

"She told you this?" He asked, his curiosity peeking as Anthony let out a nervous chuckle in response.

"Alright, well maybe I saw her using a language learning app yesterday at work, but does it matter? Either way, you'll be fine. I gotta get goin', but let me know how it goes later okay?"