Read Love Finds You: A Helena's Grove Novella for Free Online

stared in silence. She liked Annie, but she couldn’t help but imagine duct taping her mouth shut. It was far too early to be so damn chipper.
    “Well, you wanna get dressed so we can be on our way?” Annie asked.
    “I’m not going anywhere,” Jen said flatly as she sipped her coffee. “I refuse to go branding again.”
    “Oh!” Annie smiled and her brown eyes and long eyelashes made her look like a deer. “We aren’t going branding. Now come on, you can’t go riding in those skimpy things.” She gestured to Jen’s pajama shorts and tank top.
    Riding? Riding? Riding what? Jen was sure she heard the word riding . She looked at Aunt Gabby who just nodded her encouragement.
    “Now I know that you’re a little thinner than I am,” Annie started, “but I brought a couple of my skinny jeans so you can try them both on and see which fits best.” She handed Jen the jeans and smiled enthusiastically. On the way upstairs to get dressed, the thought crossed Jen’s mind that it was a good thing Annie had pretty teeth. Otherwise her smiles would be much harder to take.
    Ten minutes later Jen came down the stairs in blue jeans, boots and a light blue, short sleeved blouse with ruffles down the front. At Annie’s suggestion, her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She couldn’t remember the last time she wore her hair that way. “These fit best.” She gestured to the jeans.
    “Oh you look adorable!” Annie exclaimed. “The pants look a little big but we’ll just have to go shopping later and get you a pair that fits. Once you go denim you never go back.” She waved her finger at Jen and laughed at herself. Jen felt tired again. This was going to be a long day.
    A few minutes later Jen was in the passenger seat of the same truck she had been two weeks earlier. Except this time she wasn’t covered in mud… yet. After a few minutes of driving Annie spoke up.
    “Are you ok with getting that shirt a little dirty?” she asked reluctantly. “I don’t want you to ruin any more of your nice expensive clothes.”
    “All my clothes are nice and expensive.” Jen tried not to sound rude but it was useless.
    Annie smiled. “Of course, you work in New York, and you have to dress nice. That’s one thing Zack always said. He said he never saw so many rich and so many poor people as he did in New York.”
    Jen was suddenly attentive , “When did he go to New York?”
    “Oh he was there a lot when he was in school,” Annie said as if it were no big deal.
    “School?” Where did he...”
    “We’re here!” Annie cried as she pulled the truck onto a long dirt driveway. As they drove closer, Jen could see a barn and three saddled horses that were tethered to a post. Annie put the truck in park and jumped out without another word. She ran to one of the horses, a dark black beauty with a single white diamond on its forehead. She started cooing at the animal, kissing its nose and petting its neck.
    Jen sat in the truck, her heart racing. “No way in hell,” she said out loud, shaking her head.
    The passenger door opened and Zack was there. He was dressed in his usual garb, plaid shirt, boots, jeans, a hat. Jen couldn’t put her finger on it, but even though he never varied from his country attire, there was something attractive about the way he dressed. “You ready?” he asked, but didn’t stick around for a response. He walked toward the horses before Jen could say one word.
    “I’m not going,” Jen stated as she got out of the truck. “No way. No way in hell am I getting on that thing.” She pointed in the direction of the horses. “I have never been on a horse. What if I get bucked off? Or trampled?”
    Zack turned and looked at her but said nothing, and Jen realized she was bothered by that little trait of his. She could handle anything anyone had to say. What she couldn’t handle was silent looks that were hard to read. She didn’t like it.
    “Jen, you’ll ride Stallion,” Annie said, pointing to a