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“Sneakers?” he questioned. He had rarely heard that word describe shoes.
“Tennis shoes, then.”
“You’ll need a little more than that, Tess. It’s spring. It’s muddy out here.” He opened the door and held it open for her to enter. As she passed by him, he could smell the summer flowers that she usually smelled like. Just the smell brought him back to her apartment so many months ago.
“Can I just set my things here?” She gestured to a bench.
“Yes. Try these on; they’re Mila’s.” He picked up and handed her a pair of rubber boots that had been discarded by his teenager the last time she had been forced to help him.
“Okay,” she said and dug in her bag to pull out a pair of socks. It seemed she was prepared for more than computer work today.
Math leaned against the wall and watched her carefully take off her sandals and slip on the socks, then pull on a boot. “You will have to thank Cora for letting me use her Wellies.”
“Wellies?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, still leaning against the wall watching her. Again, she looked sexy, just changing shoes.
“Boots. Rubber boots. Wellies?” She didn’t understand his confusion.
“Just rubber boots around here. No fancy name brand,” he replied, pushing himself off the wall. “Grab your coat.”
Math left the house without looking to see if she was following. In a way, he was excited to knock her off her high horse with a little hard work and dirt. He led her to the calves’ barn, where he had a load of small hay bales waiting. Her steps were slow as she looked around the yard.
“I need these piled up in this shed right here.” He pointed to the spot. “I’ll leave you to it.”
He walked away without any further explanation.Let’s see how she does, he thought to himself with a quiet chuckle. He knew he would spend a few hours rearranging the bales tomorrow or the entire trailer if she left right now. With her busy, he went over to the shed and started fixing an issue with his tractor. It had been having issues last fall, and sitting all winter hadn’t fixed it.
After an hour of working on the tractor, he headed back to see how far she’d gotten with the bales. As he drew closer, he saw her standing on the top of the wagon, tossing a bale off, then another, then another. Agilely, she jumped down to the ground and picked up one of the bales, then carried it easily across the shed to the location he had indicated. She added it to the perfect stack of bales she had already put there.
On her way back to the ones she had on the ground, she saw him. He expected anger, but she only asked, “What is this building?” and picked up another bale.
“Calf shed. Calves can come in here but not the moms, so I can give them extra food without their mom eating it all.” He leaned against the trailer and watched her carry the bale.
“Never heard of it, but I can see why it would be of use. I did not know you have cows.” He walked back for the last bale.
“Yes, a few dozen black Angus. Do you know much about beef cows?”
“No, not about beef cows,” she replied as she climbed back on the trailer.
Looking up, he noticed she was close to done with her first task in just over an hour. Once the bales started to fall, he helped her. Apparently, this hadn’t been enough to have her running for the hills.
“Do they have babies yet?” she asked from the trailer.
“I’m in the middle of calving season right now.” He stacked a bale.
Shoving another over the side, she said, “When we get done, can I see one?”
“A baby cow?”
“They are called calves, Mathias. You should know that.” She laughed at herself and dropped another bale.
“Really, Thorn?” He couldn’t help but laugh at her joke, mostly because she was so proud of herself for it.
“Yup.” She jumped off the trailer now that it was empty.
Taking another bale from the pile of only half a dozen, he watched her grab one also and carry it to the pile. Then he saw she wasn’t wearing gloves. He had forgotten to give her gloves in his hurry to get away from her before. Her hands must be killing her. The baling twine would have dug deep into her tender hands.
“Damn it.” He dropped the bale he was carrying, pulled off his gloves, and grabbed her hands.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she let him inspect her hands.
