AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The male had taken interest in a patch of scrub grass growing a few feet away, giving Nick the perfect opportunity to do a quick assessment of his health. This wasn’t the dominant male in the group—he was younger, with his antlers still growing in, though they were already pretty impressive. The animals made soft grunts and snorts as they shuffled around. All signs pointed to a healthy herd.
“We should start moving them up towards the road,” Nick said.
Joel blinked his big brown eyes. “How are you going to do that?”
“Gentle encouragement?”
“You are insane.”
“Give her a slap on the arse, that’ll get her moving.”
“Stop it,” Joel said, laughing now.
Nick turned away to hide his smile, disguising the gesture as digging into his backpack. All of the reindeer would wear bridles and harnesses, though he generally took them off when the animals were at their home pasture. Since he only needed to move them a few hundred yards, it made sense to just loop a rope halter around their shoulders—that would be more than enough to get them up to the road.
He took the female first, since her head was already up and she seemed content enough, and handed the end of the rope off to Joel.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely. She won’t give you any bother.”
The male gave him a little more trouble, not wanting to give up his patch of grass, but Nick had experience with recalcitrant reindeer. This one definitely wasn’t going to get the better of him.
“Come on,” Nick called, and clicked his tongue a few times. He wouldn’t really give any of the animals a slap on the arse to get them moving—just a bit of gentle nudging was all it took.
He got some disgruntled grunting and tugging on the halter from the male reindeer, and was completely unsurprised to see the female walking docilely next to Joel, her flank pressed close to his leg.
Joel gave him a smug kind of grin, and Nick’s stomach did a flip-flop.
“Some people just have a knack with them,” Joel said.
Nick scowled at him. “Or something like that.”
They emerged from the woods next to the road to find Fergus attempting to herd two more reindeer into his truck—the young mother’s yearling calf, and another youngster. They really hadn’t wandered too far from the others.
“Are you kidding?” Nick exclaimed.
“They were just here waiting when I pulled up,” Fergus said. “Hanging around, happy as anything.”
“We were looking for them. Stupid bloody animals.”
“Will all four of them fit?”
Fergus turned to Joel, scratching his head. “Yeah, should do. I haul Shetland ponies around in this thing all the time.”
“Ponies I can handle,” Joel said as his reindeer bumped her head against his hip. “Go on,” he said to her. “Get in there.”
She just blinked her big brown eyes at him.
“This is your territory,” Joel said, and Nick reached to take the harness from him.
“She’s just flirting with you.”
Joel’s eyes met Nick’s for far too long, and Nick was acutely aware of Fergus watching them, and he wasn’t sure if he was even interpreting this right any more, he just really, really hoped he was.
Fergus had loaded the truck up with hay and other goodies, and it didn’t take long for all four reindeer to be safely secured in the back.
“I can walk home from here,” Joel said before Nick could offer him a lift. It would be a tight squeeze in the front of the truck, but he’d make it work.
