Unedited. Read at your own risk.
Chapter 12
Millie changed into a warmer dress and went downstairs to the kitchen. Mariah and Quinn seemed to be carrying on a one-sided conversation in Quinn’s favor, and Clayton was reading the paper. Jess was probably waxing the floor in the parlor like she had planned, so it appeared that Millie and Trey weren’t going to be missed. Slipping out without being noticed, Millie walked quickly into the warmth of the barn. Trey was no where to be seen, probably out in the pasture rounding up Hank and Graceful, so Millie sat on a nearby bale of hay. Price was no where around, and the barn was deathly quiet.
Suddenly, a board from the barn’s back wall came off and hit the ground with a thud, and a short, stocky man entered through the gap it had created. Memories from back a few months ago flashed into Millie’s mind and struck fear in her heart.
“Escort this man out” Trey said.
“What should I do to him, sir?” Clayton asked.
“Nothing. But if you ever see his face again, kill him” Trey said.
Wes’ eyes widened as Clayton grabbed him and jerked him down the hall.
Millie jumped up, knocking over a pail next to the bale of hay she had sat on the moment before. The man jerked his head in her direction.
“Who’s there?” he asked.
The dimly lit barn didn’t give Millie a good look at the man’s features, but she hadn’t heard his voice before. Panicking, Millie grabbed a pitchfork from the wall a few feet away and held it out in front of her as the man neared.
“Hey, you’re that nursemaid lady that Boss has got the softies for, ain’t ya?” the man asked, the light from a small window to Millie’s left giving him a view of her.
Millie tightened her grip on the pitchfork at the man’s name for Trey. Only one of his men would call him “Boss”. What if this man was here to convince Trey to rethink his decision to make a better life? What if he succeeded?
“What do you want?” Millie asked.
“I’m here to talk to Trey. Is he around?” The man asked.
Millie hesitated.
“I’m Jed. We met once, I think” the man said.
“What do you want Trey for?” Millie asked, fixing the man with a glare as he stepped into the light.
His blonde hair fell just below his ears, and his clean shaven face looked like it was made up of planes. His intense green eyes looked her up and down.
“I need to speak with him. Business matters. Do you know where he is?” Jed asked.
Just then, the front door of the barn opened and Trey entered, leading two horses by lead ropes. He looked around and dropped the ropes when he saw Jed.
“Jed?” Trey looked back and forth between them before his eyes settled on the pitchfork in Millie’s hands. “What’re you doin’ here?”
Jed walked over to him. “We have a situation, Boss.”
Millie put down her pitchfork, her knees growing weak with relief that Trey was near.
“What kind of situation?” Trey asked.
Jed looked over at Millie hesitantly.
“Anything you’ve got to say she can hear. I’ve told her” Trey said.
YOU ARE READING
Keep My Heart
Romance“It wasn’t worth a horse, was it?” she asked. “No” Trey entered the stall and swung the saddle over Hank’s back. Millie walked into the next stall, which was empty, and leaned against the low wall that separated the two. “So then why take the ris...
