His Nightingale

6

Chapter Six - Star Bright

True to his word Noah does come back within the week. On Friday morning I walk downstairs to the sight of him on the couch with his leg propped up. He grins cheekily and waves at me before I make my way over to him. I lean down to give him a hug before taking a seat on the armchair near him.

"How are you now?"

"I would be better if this cast was off me!" He huffs with a playful roll of his eyes.

"Well, who told you to scale the high wall at school?!" Michelle snaps as she walks over to him with a breakfast tray.

"I've done it so many times, how was I – ma!" He yelps before rubbing the back of his head where Michelle had swatted him. "I'm injured!"

"Eat your breakfast!" She orders and the sight of waffles alone shuts him up. "Ella, Evan wants to go over some documents with you after so get yourself some breakfast first."

"Alright, I'll see you later Noah." I smile and laugh when he says goodbye in a muffled voice.

I join Roman and Theo at the dining table and chat to them as I eat my breakfast. Roman is looking over some new cases while sipping some black coffee while Theo rambles on about the barn's roof needing to be repaired. Apparently when Theo and Roman were out of town recently Ryder tried to fix it and didn't do it properly.

"He's such an idiot! Who fixes a roof like that?!" He huffs while Roman and I glance at each other from the corner of our eyes with a small smile on our lips.

"Where's he now?" Roman asks as he puts the pages back into the files.

"Sleeping!" Theo grumbles as he chews angrily. The sight of him so annoyed at Ryder is comical. "I told him to wake up an hour ago! He's getting ice water thrown on his face!"

"No need for such vengeful acts, brother." Ryder mutters sleepily as he walks in before slapping his hands down on Theo's shoulders.

"You're helping me fix that damned roof you ruined." Theo states which elicits a groan from Ryder as he helps himself to the food.

"What's wrong with it?"

"You used duct tape!" Theo explodes which causes Roman and I to burst out laughing at his words.

"It wouldn't stay!" Ryder defends himself and proceeds to explain all the steps he took to fix the roof.

I look up at Evan when he peeks into the kitchen from the door. He rolls his eyes playfully at Ryder and Theo arguing before gesturing for me to come with him. I've finished my breakfast anyways so I leave with the argument echoing behind me. But when Michelle passes us by with the tray in her hands her and Evan shake their heads simultaneously before she mutters, "those two are always arguing like children!" Evan and I manage to catch the start of her scolding the two before he closes the door to his office.

"Alright, Theo's starting up his horseback riding classes again so we've got forms to go through." He states with a clap of his hands before we take a seat at his desk. "Will you go through the ones filled out online while I go through the paper ones?"

"Sure." I nod eagerly before powering on the laptop. "I'll make a datasheet too so we have them all in one place.

"That'll be great, thanks Ella." He grins before sticking a pen behind his ear and getting down to work.

We get that done in thirty minutes and it takes another fifteen to put everything in an Excel spreadsheet. After emailing it to Evan and asking him to read over it I make a start on noting the payments made by everyone for the lessons to the accounts book and datasheet. I also add on the weekly expenses before emailing that to him too. Around two hours pass but Evan and I talk throughout it so it doesn't seem that long.