Chapter 122

122 He’s Gone

It could have been the rain, the overly humid weather, or my exhaustion, or the combinations of all those things that made me feel so drained and sleepy. If I had thought that I would have problem sleeping on the hay with nothing but a towel wrapped around my body, I found out that I was so wrong. I didn’t remember much of anything after I lay down and that was probably because I fell asleep almost right away.

When I came to my senses again, it was dark outside, and it was completely quiet all around me. The rain must have stopped. There was just enough orange light from the lamp for me to see around and that was when I discovered through my sleepy eyes that I was all alone.

Where is Brandon?!

Suddenly, I sat up as panic gripped me. Brandon was here with me when I fell asleep so where did he go?

“Brandon...” I called his name softly.

There was no reply, but I wasn’t surprised by that. I knew that he was no longer in the shed. Before I knew what I was doing, I had gotten out of my temporary bed and was making my way for the door. I was right, the rain had stopped completely. The sky above was dark but clear and I could see many stars twinkling up above. The sea of stars above me looked so beautiful, it was like I was staring at the galaxy. I wished that I could stand there forever and just stare up at the beautiful stars in the sky, but Brandon was missing and finding him was the top priority right now.

Seriously? It’s so dark. Where could he have gone?

“Brandon!” I shouted his name loudly after sucking in a large breath of air.

After straining my ears for a while, I was sure that I didn’t hear anyone call back in reply. All I could hear was the sound of the strong wind howling all around. Maybe I wasn’t loud enough with the wind blowing my voice away like this.

.....

“Brandon!” I shouted again, louder this time.

I walked around the shed trying to find him. It was dark and if I walked too far from the shed, I couldn’t see. With only the towel around my body, the cold was catching up to me fast and I ended up sneezing. Where is Brandon? Why did he have to disappear now of all times?

Just when I was hesitating about what I should do next, I heard rather than saw the sound of something or someone approaching. I strained my eyes in the dark as I tried to see what was approaching.

“Brandon? Brandon!” I called out his name.

“Oh...Elena. You woke up?” he asked.

I ran towards him and when I got close enough, I realized that Brandon was guiding our horses towards the stable. Did he go back to get them after the rain stopped.

“Where did you go? I was worried sick!” I cried out loudly as I tugged on his arm.

In my fit of panic, I realized regretfully that I had scolded him although he hadn’t done anything wrong at all.

“Were you worried? I just went to get the horses. The rain stopped a little while ago...” Brandon replied casually as he slipped his hand in mine and pulled me along with him.

“I woke up and I was all alone. You were...gone...” I whined openly.

“It’s fine. Dawn should break soon, then we can ride back. Hopefully, our clothes are somewhat dry...” Brandon said with a sigh.

“You didn’t get any sleep. You look like a mess...” I said with a hint of complaint.

“Really? Well, I think you look like a pretty mess,” he said teasingly as he placed his large hand on top of my head and began ruffling my hair.

“Never mind me. You should get some sleep, Brandon...and stop walking around half naked...” I snapped a little at him as I tried to pull his arm away from my head.

Brandon laughed mockingly at my concern while he led the horses into the stables. I followed after him and was relieved to see that the animals seemed fine. Maybe Brandon was right when he said that it was ‘just rain’.

“You don’t understand. I was worried sick!” I complained and ended up yelling at him.

“Calm down, Elena...” Brandon replied in a very composed manner.

This just reminded me of how I was always worried about him just like this. Why did he have to make me feel so worried about him?

“You should get some sleep. You haven’t slept at all...” I said as I started pushing him towards the shed.

“Thanks to a certain someone hogging the bed...” Brandon muttered darkly.

I knew that he was just joking, and it was just so like him to make it sound like it was all my fault. Somehow, Brandon let me push him all the way back into the shed before he let me drag him down onto the temporary bed where I had been sleeping up until just now.

“Wait!” I cried out as he pulled me down onto the bed along with him.

I sighed when I felt his arms around me hugging me like a body pillow. I had expected something like this to happen.

“You still have problem sleeping?” I asked, although I had a good guess for the answer.

“Sort of...” Brandon replied vaguely.

That was a ‘yes’ for sure. I could feel that he was tired as he held me tighter in his arms. His warm breath tickled the base of my neck as he hugged me to him from behind. His body felt warm against mine and my body started to relax. I tried my best to stay as still as possible so that he would fall asleep. It wasn’t long before his breathing became steady as he fell asleep.

...

“I’m taking today off,” I declared when Justin picked up my call.

“Sure. I heard you worked very hard over the weekend,” Justin replied mockingly.

I did work hard. More accurately, Brandon worked me so hard that I was amazed that I made it back alive. I wondered how Justin found out or how much he knew. It wasn’t like Brandon to brag about our sexual activities to other people, let alone, Justin who was supposed to be something a little like my boss right now.

–To be continued...