Monty’s looking for a home? Perfect. I’ll give her everything she’s ever wanted.
FIVE
Monty
Wakingup at five is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Or I assume it is. I wouldn’t know since I forgot to set my alarm and ended up sleeping in until almost nine. By the time I got up for the day, Griz was already out of the house.
I wasn’t sure where he was and I didn’t really want to go wandering around the farm looking for him. I was sure I would get lost or end up in one of the pens with some angry cows or chickens. I didn’t want to be a bother so I stayed in the house.
I looked around his place a bit before I finally found the cleaning supplies and decided to get to work. I just finished cleaning up the entire house, which took a little over two hours.
Putting the last of the supplies away in the closet, I close the door at the same time Griz walks in the back.
“Hey,” I greet, not looking him in the eye as he steps into the hallway. “Sorry about this morning. I didn’t know when you would be back, but I can make us something for lunch really quick.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he says, his tone warm and friendly. I was sure he was going to give me shit for sleeping in. “We’ll get a routine set soon enough. I’m going to take a shower. I need to run to town to pick up a few things, so we could grab food too if you want?”
“Do you have food here? I didn’t even think to check.”
“Uh,” he says, his face turning a slight shade of pink, and I bite my lip to keep from smiling at how cute he is.
“I’ll check,” I tell him. Griz smiles as he jogs upstairs to shower.
I head into the kitchen and open the fridge. It’s bare except for a few condiments, and I pull out my phone to start a grocery list.
I’m just finishing up when Griz comes back into the kitchen.
“No luck?” he asks.
“Not unless you’d like ketchup with a side of relish.”
“That does sound good, but I think I need something a little more filling.”
“I made a list,” I tell him, holding up my phone. He nods and holds his hand out for me to walk ahead of him.
Griz opens the door for me as I climb into his truck and I try to ignore the way it makes me feel precious and taken care of. He’s always such a gentleman. It’s hard for me to reconcile this guy with the guy I first met at the bar. Griz was so cocky then, winking at me and offering to give me a ride. It was easy to turn that guy down, but the sweet man sitting next to me in the truck is a lot harder to resist.
“We’ll go to the feed store first if that’s okay?”
“Sure.”
I sit back in my seat, watching the town go by as Griz drives. He’s singing along to the radio and I bite back a grin. He sounds terrible. He’s painfully off key, and when I peek a glance at him, he’s grinning at me.
“My mom always said that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Crushed my dreams of being a famous singer,” he says with a sigh. I giggle.
“Did you really want to be a singer when you were little?”
“No, I wanted to be a firefighter for the longest time, but then I fell in love with riding horses.”
I nod, picturing a young Griz running around trying to put out imaginary flames.
“What about you?” he asks.
“I wanted to be a warrior. Someone brave who would fight off the dragons,” I say as I remember some of my favorite young adult books.
“Like Katniss?”