AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know I have your back,” I reassure him. “But we don’t have much time to win you a cup.” I’ve already been part of a Stanley cup win in my years on the LA Cougars.But Logan hasn’t.
My friend started his career off strong playing for some solid teams, but the Scorpions, being such a new team in New Mexico, have struggled to get the talent. Logan and I were hopeful last season that the dream team being back together would send us to the finals,but we only reached the semis. And much as I hate to say it, I think my best friend could use a few more nights of sleep.
But it won’t be starting at Sly’s.
And if I can’t erase the pinup-girl image of Jolie Hunter in my mind’s eye, I won’t be getting any either.
Chapter Two
I hitthe back of the metal rails when a cow dancing her rear end smacks me out of a daydream. I’ve been breathing shallow since the minute I saw Ashton in CCs. Now the wind is completely gone from my chest.
“Shit, you all right?” Luis Mendez peeks over the cow chute, concern tugging at his brow.
His daughter, Shay, is just like him when she’s all serious.
“Yeah.” God, he’s going to think I’m such an amateur.
How is it possible that after all these years,Ashton has the same effect on me as he did when I was a little girl? I don’t know the answer, but seeing him this morning stole my concentration. Why didn’t Logan mention he’d be back today? And in CCs? And be so damn sexy at that time in the morning?
I’ve seen him on social media over the years, of course, but… the way he smelled. The way his chest felt when I hugged him… fuck, the girl crush came rushing back again. But that’s all it is. A crush. A crush just like millions of other women have on the specimen of a man fit for a wet dream.
My head needs to focus back on the game or I’m going to get hurt out here. I wish I could say I’m not the easily distracted type but I am. I have to recenter. The last thing I need right now is a broken foot. “Don’t worry about me, Lou. Got the steel-toed boots on today.”
“You’re gonna need more than that if this one steps on you.”
He’s right.Focus, Jolie.I stick the ultrasound wand inside to check if this cow is a mama. “Got another one,” I tell Luis to mark the girl is with calf.
I’m more careful when the next cow comes into the chute. In goes the wand, and after some jiggling, a bovine fetus appears on my screen. Discovering a life always fills my chest with warmth before the chill of its fate freezes my lungs. I cough to try and forget it. “Got another one.”
Luis lets the cow out. “A lot of good news today. Get two more and we’ll have an eighty-percent success rate. Higher than we’ve ever had. I’ll owe you a bonus or something for your turkey-basting skills.”
I laugh and arch a brow. “Yeah? What are we talking? What’s that worth to you?”
“Oh, I don’t know… a drink at Sly’s?”
Another cow comes in the chute. “Foolish offer, Señor Mendez,” I tease. “You think that’s getting off cheap, but I can shut that place down. Don’t forget I have three brothers and used to hold my own with the rodeo crowd.”
He laughs. “And hockey players…”
Hockey players.
I slide the probe in the cow and think of how I once asked Ashton to put his probe in me because my mind works in gross ways like that.
He looked mighty fine this morning. He’s even better now than at twenty-two. He’s all man. Filled into that six-foot-five frame of his. His thigh under my hand was like… titanium. Forget steel or whatever, it was Superman shit.What years of skating does to a man’s legs…
The cow coming in the chute lets off a loud moo, startling me from my millionth daydream.
I get back to my job, inspecting Bessie, and my second highly inappropriate thought races to my mind considering my long, ultrasound wand. I wonder if Ashton is proportional?
I do my job deciphering a screen of what mostly looks like television static. Wow. Another babe. I’ve never had a success rate this high. The Mendez ranch has fertile stock. “Mark that as a plus sign, Luis.”
A ranch hand scuttles around the corral, trying to get the last cow to me.
I stand on my tiptoes to spy on Luis. “One more to go and we got that eighty percent. You know, I don’t want a drink… but I can think of something else you might be willing to shake on.”
“What’s that?” He leans over the metal bars.
“A chicken.” I passed his ginormous free-range chicken yard on the way to the cattle fields. Thehens pecked and waddled so happily. And what better pet than one that gives you a gift every day?
