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“Woman,” he said, his jaw tight. “Not out here. We don’t know if the guy who’s been behind the attacks is watching us as we speak. I refuse to give him the satisfaction of a free porn show.”
“You do have a good point.” Bernie slid her hand into his back pocket and squeezed his ass. “But the cooking naked? We’re a go for that?” She smiled up at him as innocently as she could while talking about cooking in the nude.
“You’re on,” he said.
“Then hurry,” she said and picked up the pace. “We can’t start supper until the animals are fed. I also want to check the pigpen to make sure they can’t get out of their enclosure. Not that there are many more melons to protect. But I would like to have some for the farmers market over the next few weeks.
“I’ll get feed for the chickens while you collect the eggs,” she said and hurried toward the barn. “Don’t forget the fishnet.”
“Fishnet?” Gerard’s brow dipped and then came back up. “Oh yeah. The rooster.”
Bernie hurried into the barn, scooped a bucket of chicken feed and carried it out of the barn and into the chicken coop, passing the rooster where Gerard had hung it in the fishnet on a hook.
She chuckled as she recalled the look of confusion on his face when she’d first mentioned the fishnet.
“You’ve never been around a farm before now, have you?”
“Never,” he admitted as he plucked eggs from the nests and carefully laid them in the bucket Bernie used for that purpose.
“What about pets?” she asked.
His lips pressed into a line. “My dad wouldn’t let me have a pet.”
“Not even a dog?”
“I learned quickly how serious he was about no animals in the house or yard. I found a stray puppy in the field close to our house and brought it home. I begged my father to let me keep it. He took that puppy from me and drowned it.” He shook his head. “I’ll never forget what he did. And I never forgave him.”
“That’s horrible.” Bernie touched his arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“He drank so much that night he almost beat my mother to death. When I tried to stop him, he flung me against the wall and kicked me until he broke one of my ribs. I guess he figured he could beat the thought of that puppy out of my head. It worked. I never brought a puppy back to his house.”
Bernie poured the chicken feed into the feeder. “Makes you wonder what happened to your father to make him the way he was.”
“I stopped caring anything about him at a very young age. In fact, I went the complete opposite direction and wished he would die.” He collected the last egg and followed her out of the chicken coop.
They fed Lucy and Desi, the llamas, Dom DeLuise the donkey and the goats. When it came time to check the pigpen, Bernie opted to take the four-wheeler.
It seemed to suit Gerard just fine. He rode on the back with his arms wrapped tightly around Bernie’s waist the entire way.
The pigpen was the same as it had been the night before when they’d herded the escapees back inside their home.
Bernie checked the latch on the gate. It was secure but not enough. She returned to the four-wheeler, unlocked a cable from the back rack, wrapped it around the gate and the brace post and pressed the lock together tightly.
Her lips twisted wryly. “A bolt cutter would cut right through that, but maybe it will slow them down.”
By the time they returned to the house, dusk had settled over the land.
Bernie’s pulse kicked into high gear. Cooking naked was next on her list.
“Last one in the house has to wear an apron,” Bernie called out, and she leaped forward.
Not to be left too far behind, Gerard raced to catch up to her before they reached the porch steps. Gerard caught her around the middle and swung her around and into his arms, kissing her soundly.
“Eh-hmm,” a voice sounded from the shadows on the porch. “I was going to announce our presence earlier, but you were a little preoccupied, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Gerard stepped between Bernie and the porch.
Two men moved out of the shadows and descended the porch, their faces becoming clear in the fading light.
