Another side of Heartland

Chapter 15

-Caleb-

I woke up earlier than usual and noticed Mallory fast asleep next to me. I gently got out of bed and scribbled her a note and turned her alarm off before throwing on some clothes and heading down to the barn. I quickly got all the horses fed and went out to feed Ghost. Ghost has a stall in the barn but he by far prefers to be outside, so as long as the weather is tolerable I don't bring him in.
I carried the bucket out and hung it on the fence for him and was waiting on his water to fill when I heard running feet behind me. I turned around to see Georgie right before she flung herself on me Laughing.

"Good morning to you too"

she was still laughing when I set her back on the ground and I had a smile on my face.

'I came out to help feed but everything was already eating and I saw you out here'

"yeah I woke up earlier than usual"

'what are you doing today?'

I turned around to tighten the valve to shut the water off and grab Ghosts now empty bucket as we turned to walk up to the barn.

"Well I was thinking I would clean stalls and then I'm not really sure. With the only horses here being the ones we own things aren't incredibly busy"

Georgie hastily kept up with me as I walked to the barn

'I can help!'

She volunteered brightly. I smiled and nodded as we walked through the barn doors. I grabbed the wheelbarrow and Georgie grabbed the forks and we got all the stalls cleaned in no time at all. We laughed and joked and teased each other the whole time, totally oblivious to the world until we heard someone clear their throat. We both jumped in surprise and looked outside the stall to see Lou smiling at us

"hi Lou"

we said in unison.

'I was wondering where you disappeared to Georgie'

I looked at Georgie and she had a sheepish expression on her face

'sorry Lou. I lost track of time'

Lou smiled and nodded

'it's okay. I didn't figure that you had gone far.'

Then Lou turned to look at me

'Caleb, do you have any plans this weekend?'

"Uh not really. There's a rodeo in town I was going to rope at but that's not until the evening and won't interrupt the days"

'Grandpa is driving over with Lisa to where Amy is competing this weekend, they are leaving around lunch time and Peter was going to take me and the girls over to the winter festival on Saturday, I was going to see if you could cover feeding?'

"Oh yeah no problem at all"

'okay.. I didn't tell grandpa that we were going to go because I didn't want him to change his plans.'

I smiled and nodded

"I understand and it's not a problem"

I turned to finish cleaning the stall and then I remembered

"oh Lou what about Mallory?"

Lou gave me a knowing look and raised her eyebrows

'what about Mallory? She seems just fine sleeping in the loft with you'

my face turned red and I chuckled nervously.

'Don't fret Caleb, I don't care and Grandpa doesn't know. I was up with Katie last night and I saw you guys walking back to the loft, just keep it from Grandpa and it will be just fine'