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A week had passed at the school and Jesse was going to spend the next two days studying in earnest for the upcoming exams. Her father had returned earlier in the week and wouldn’t be leaving the farm anytime soon. Mom had urged her to remain at school and not worry about them for a change. Jesse was grateful for the repreive. She had her books loaded in her bag and was heading down to breakfast when Dorian stopped her in the stairwell.
“Hey. Are you going to the library with the rest of us?” he asked with an easy smile.
Jesse shook her head. “No. I thought I’d go sit down by the creek and work on my own.”
He chuckled. “Missing Maise already? She’ll be back on Monday you know. I miss both of you when you take off for home. Makes me jealous.”
“Whatever,” she joked. “We’ve invited you to come with us numerous times and you always tell us you’re busy.”
“Well yeah. What would you think if you saw Toby visiting Maise every weekend?”
She nodded finally understanding. “Forgot about that. Thanks for never taking us up on our offers. It might have gotten awkward.”
“No problem. So do you want some company or would you rather study alone?” he asked casually, still leaning on the wall.
“I could use someone to quiz me on a couple subjects. I could do the same for you,” she offered wondering why she hadn’t thought about it before. He was almost as good a student as Maise.
“Sure. Let me fetch my notes and I’ll meet you there.”
“All right.” She jogged down the rest of the stairs and brightened when she felt the sunlight hit her face. She stood a moment and just enjoyed the feel of it warming her skin and took great breaths of the sweet smelling air. The creek was trickling merrily through the meadow and she settled down by its bank and spread out her notes and books. She only had two more weeks to get all everything committed to memory and it was going to take a miracle for it to happen.
A jaunty whistling was coming her way and she started whistling the same zany tune as Dorian came through the shallow line of trees. He was carrying several bottles tied together and had a basket swinging from his hand. “Thought you might want something to drink later.”
“I hadn’t thought about it. Thanks. We won’t have to break for lunch this way.”
“My mamma taught me,” he started grinning.