Page 35 of Dairy and Deadly

He kept glancing over his shoulder at the still-sleeping Ashley. Man, but she was a sound sleeper! She looked vulnerable, lying there next to Brie with tear stains on her cheeks. He also didn’t fail to notice that she was sleeping on her right side, probably because her left shoulder was still healing.

He filled all four milk bottles as quietly as he could. However, it was getting noisier in the room by the second. The three other calves were scuffling and climbing all over each other, trying to be the first in line to be fed.

Ashley stirred and stretched. Then her eyelids fluttered open. Her gaze immediately found his, and she blushed. “Hey, boss!”

Though he still didn’t like being called that, he waggled his eyebrows in return. “Hey, you! Wanna give me a hand?”

“One sec. I have something to show you first.” She scrambled to her knees, dusting hay from her hair and clothing. He saw her wince a few times, which probably meant her shoulder was hurting again.

He watched her in fascination. “By all means, darling, lay it on me.” The endearment slipped out so easily that it rendered him speechless.

He and Ashley stared at each other for a tension-charged moment. Then her gaze slid away from his. “All right, sweet girl, show the man in charge of this operation what you can do.” She proceeded to coax the tiny calf to stand on all fours. It was like watching a miracle in motion. There was no other way to describe it.

“You did it,” he said quietly.

“We did it,” she corrected gleefully, throwing her arms around the heifer to give her a squeeze hug.

Her happiness was palpable. “I wish I could say my confidence matched yours every step of the way.” He couldn’t recall the last time he’d witnessed anything so beautiful. So rewarding. So worthwhile. “Which isn’t to say I’m any less grateful for what you’ve accomplished.” He was relieved, too. Relieved beyond measure that he didn’t have to watch Ashley grieve over the loss of her first calf. Not today, anyway.

She curled to her feet, leaving the little calf to wobble around at her leisure while she joined him at the bottle feeding station. She bumped him companionably with her good shoulder. “Alright, boss man. Who are we going to spoil first?”

He glanced down at her right as she was glancing up at him, which plunged him into another breathtaking moment of gazing deeply into her eyes. They were glowing with happiness.

“I wish I’d been your plus one last night instead of Caro’s,” he blurted. The timing was off, but it no longer seemed to matter. He wanted her to know what was on his heart. Heneededher to know.

“Don’t, please,” she whispered, dropping her gaze. “I can’t go there right now.”

“I’m not asking you to.” His voice was husky with emotion as he pushed one of the bottles into her hands. “No demands. No pressure, you hear?” He hardly knew what he was saying, though he was inwardly begging her to understand.

She nodded and gulped. “Just be patient with me, okay?”

“Patience is my middle name,” he joked, falling back into his usual stride of joking when things got tense.

“Somehow, I doubt that.” Her lips twitched as she leaned forward to shove the bottle toward Short Stack.

The calf joyfully launched himself in her direction, but she was ready, bracing her feet firmly against the floor.

Johnny popped a bottle into the mouth of the next calf that bounded his way.

Brie continued to wobble around the room, drawing stares of fascination from her playmates. They were so busy ogling her movements that it was easier than usual to get them fed.

Ashley was the first to speak again. “I meant what I said about not wanting a rebound relationship, but only because you’re worth more than that, you hear?”

He spun her way in amazement. “It’s cool of you to say that.” Even though she was putting him in his place, which she had every right to do, she was doing it so nicely that he didn’t feel any pain.

“I need more time to heal,” she continued softly. “If you’re still around after that, then maybe…” Her words dwindled away.

Whoa!A stab of raw elation rocked him all the way to his boots. Unless he was still in bed dreaming, she wasn’t rejecting his pursuit of her after all. She was simply saying not now.

“I’m not going anywhere, babe.” Never had he been more sure of anything in his life. The way he felt about her was rock solid. One of those God things.

Her eyelashes fluttered shyly against her cheeks. “I’m not asking you to put your life on hold for me, Johnny.”

He knew what she was saying, but it didn’t feel like he was putting anything on hold. On the contrary, it felt like forward movement to him. Her sweet declaration of mutual interest was enough to tether him to her. Permanently. Her raw and humble honesty had given him the final nudge he needed to scrape himself out of the rut he’d been stuck in for so long.

He cleared his throat. “This might not be a bad time to tell you that a lot of what you hear about me around town…is just an illusion. One I’ve built for my job.”

She chuckled. “You mean as the local heartthrob?”

---