Right Where I Need to Be

Luke swung her up onto the horse again. When she was seated, he nudged the horse on the sides, and they started up the hill to where the cows usually were.

Brooke held onto Luke with a loose grip as they trotted along, looking at the cows. She listened to the different things he said, but only showed mild interest. She was sure if Thomas was the one showing her around, she'd be paying a lot better attention, but the fact that it was Luke...

She just couldn't forget that text she read. Why it bothered her so much, Brooke wasn't sure, but she just hoped checking the cows took as little time as possible so she could get away from him.

Luke fell silent as they continued on their way. He wasn't going to keep wasting his breathe if she was even going to acknowledge anything he said. He nudged Blues sides, encouraging her to pick up speed a little as they made their way to where the majority of the herd where standing.

He pulled Blue to a stop as they came up on the herd. "Alright Brooklyn, we need to get off so I can vaccinate the newborn ." he nodded to where the baby cow lay beside its mother, still covered in afterbirth.

Brooke felt anger wash over her once again. She pushed off of Luke as she jumped down from the horse, and quickly crossed her arms over her chest.

"It's Brooke, okay? My name is Brooke."

Luke raised an eyebrow, and swung his leg over the horses neck, sliding out of the saddle. "Now don't be getting pissy because I called you Brooklyn. Because that's exactly what YOU told me to call you." He said, pacing his hands on his hips.

"Well— you— I just— ugh!" Brooke threw her arms up in the air. She knew he was right; she had told him to call her Brooklyn. She was just so fed up, that everything about Luke was driving her crazy, even the things that made absolutely no sense for her to be angry about. There was no way she was going to straight up admit her defeat, though.

"You know what? Fine. Stay here and bask in your glory. I'm going to walk back." With that, she turned on her heel and began back toward the fence.

Luke just rolled his eyes and grabbed the stuff he needed to use to tag and vaccinate the calf. He quickly did his work, and did a head count before swinging back up on his horse. He started to where Brooke was, nudging Blue into a trot to get there quicker.

"Come on Brooke, get back on the horse. It'll take you forever to walk back," he said, falling into step beside her.

Brooke walked a bit faster as she opened the gate and exited the field. She didn't bother closing it behind her, lest it hit the horse and cause the animal any sort of damage.

"Just go, okay? I'd rather walk for days than ride anywhere with you," she said.

"Well its like this. You can either shut that gate behind me and get back on the horse, or you can continue on your little pity party and I will tell Thomas that you did nothing while I took care of the cows." He said, pulling Blue to a stop outside the gate. He knew that was a low blow, but she was being utter ridiculous.

Brooke stopped dead in her tracks, and quickly whipped around to glare at Luke. She wondered briefly if he was bluffing, but after seeing the look on his face, she knew that he wasn't.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed, as she realized she had no other choice but to do what he said. Stamping her foot, she walked back toward the gate and slammed it closed. She came to a halt next to the horse, hands on her hips, as she waited for Luke to boost her up.

Luke grabbed her outstretched arm, and pulled her up onto the back. He then kicked the sides of the horse, guiding her back towards the barn.

Once they reached the barn, Luke led blue towards her stall before pulling her to a stop.

The moment they reached the barn and Luke pulled the horse to a stop, Brooke jumped down, dead set on getting out of there. She really didn't want to have it out with him, which was why she tried to walk away. But she had a nagging feeling that Luke had more to say, even though she obviously didn't want to hear it.

Luke quickly swung from the saddle, and grabbed her arm. He pulled her back around to face him.

"What the hell is your problem? What did I do to piss you off so much?" He asked, not letting go of her arm. He didn't want her to run off before they could get to the bottom of this.

Brooke tried to rip her arm away, but Luke seemed dead set on hashing this out. Seeing no other option, she decided it was now or never.

"You wanna know what my problem is? Why don't you go ask Laura? Yeah, maybe Laura can tell you what my problem is, Luke." She spat, getting closer until she was inches away from him.

Luke's eyebrows shot up in confusion. He looked down at her, swallowing when she stepped closer to him. "What does my mother have to do with any of this?" He asked, shaking his head. How she even knew about her, he didn't know... Unless she had been snooping around on his phone.

"She has everything to... Wait, what?" Brooke was completely taken aback by Luke's words. His mother? That was not what she was expecting to hear. "Your mother? Laura is your mother?"

"Yes, Laura is my mother." He said, taking a step closer to her. "Why did anything she said bother you so much?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

"I thought she was... I don't know, someone else, I guess," Brooke said, shaking her head. She felt humiliated, and the fact that Luke was scrutinizing her so severely... She felt the sudden need to direct the attention somewhere else. She pulled her arm from his grasp, and placed boths hands on her hips. "Why don't you talk to your mother? She obviously misses you and loves you and yet you ignore her attempts to reach out."

Luke stepped back a little at that. Her words were enough to turn his mood sour. "What does it matter? Shes my...mother." He practically spat the word out. "Why does it matter to you?"

"It matters because she's your mother and you should talk to her!" Brooke exclaimed, continuing to her deflection from what the issue originally was. He'd obviously forgotten that bit, which was good, but now that they were debating this topic, Brooke felt a flock of new emotions taking over. "She's the only mother you have and you should speak to her while you still can!"