Page 38 of Toxic

When I didn’t answer, Toxic looked up at me again. The muscles in his strong jaw worked as he chewed. I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle this man. Because I’d only ever dated a boy. A lying, cheating, dramatic boy. There was zero doubt that Toxic was a man.

Toxic’s eyes dropped to my fork. “You need to eat, Billie.”

He acted like I was going to waste away. Considering the way I had to shimmy into my jeans every morning told me that my thighs, hips, and butt still hadn’t gone anywhere. I wasn’t in danger of starving, but I picked up my fork anyway. “I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t know what came over me this morning.”

He chuckled, his eyes dancing with amusement. “How did those words taste?”

I made a face. “Like crow.”

He nodded and continued eating. “It’s not a problem. Something tells me this isn’t going to be the last time you yell at me.”

I couldn’t help smiling at him. “Probably not,” I admitted. “Dad always said I had a formidable temper.”

“Saw that first thing,” he replied.

“I’d really rather not be dunked in more watering troughs, though,” I teased.

“Don’t lose your cool and it won’t happen.”

If that was the deal, then I was going to end up spending the rest of this summer soaked.

CHAPTER 14

Toxic

The sun was only just starting to come up over the horizon the next morning as I started feeding the sheep and goats. I frowned down at the text message from Lock. Hitting a button, I put the phone on speaker and laid it on the fence post nearby.

“You’re up early,” I said, cutting the baling twine off one of the bales of hay piled next to the fence. I grabbed the pitchfork and tossed flakes of hay into the feeding trough.

“So are you,” Lockout replied, sounding amused. “I’m always up this early.”

That explained why he was always so damn grumpy. A man needed to fuck, drink, and sleep in. Pretty much in that order. “How’s it going, Prez?” I leaned against the pitchfork.

“Good. I’m calling church tonight around five. Can you make it?”

I pulled the cowboy hat I’d unearthed from my closet over the last few days off and wiped my brow. It rarely dropped below the high nineties in the summer, even at night, so I was already sweating. “I’ll be there.” I was going to have to figure out what to do with Billie and Robert. I wasn’t about to fucking leave them alone out here after what happened. “Any chance any of the other guys could come out here and watch over these two?”

“I’ll check with them. If not, bring them to the clubhouse.”

Billie wasn’t going to like that. At all. But I wasn’t going to make it much longer before the women started cornering me, insisting on meeting her. I hadn’t been back to the clubhouse much, only to sleep occasionally, and I was sure that was the only reason they hadn’t managed to corral me yet.

Last night, I’d put my foot down and told Billie I’d now be staying out here until Rip finished looking into Fission Solutions and we figured out a way to get them to back off. She hadn’t been thrilled, but she’d made up the guest bedroom for me. I’d already been using it while she was sick, but I hadn’t said anything because she was agreeing to let me stay.

“Will do,” I said, answering Lock. “See you tonight.”

I pulled the leather work glove off my hand and disconnected the call. No one was coming out today to work on the barn. Most of them had needed the morning off and now that church was happening later, it wouldn’t be worth having them come at all. I shot Hush a text and asked him to spread the word that we’d start up tomorrow.

I ran through the list of work to do and how much time it would take and settled for taking a look at the bale unroller. The to-do list for this ranch was extensive. The roofs on the house, barn, and bunkhouse needed to be repaired or replaced, most of the equipment needed an overhaul, and a good majority of the fencing needed repairing as well. There was more, but those were the big things once the painting was finished up.

Robert had mentioned that the bale unroller had been busted for a while and the men had been hucking hay bales onto trucks and trailers in order to feed the cattle during the non-grazing months, which was most months here in Arizona. Now that there were no men to stack hay bales, that wasn’t going to work. I had no doubts that Billie was stubborn enough to try, but I’d lose my fucking mind if she did.

There was zero fucking reason for her to be hand moving bales. That was what all this fucking equipment around here was for. And if she didn’t have it, I’d buy it. Because while I didn’t mind throwing around bales, I’d eventually get sick of it, too. At least for now I didn’t need to hit the gym for my workouts. Was getting plenty of that out here.

Grabbing my tool box from the truck, I went over to where the unroller was and started poking and prodding at it. This particular unroller was for round bales, and it was designed to link up to a tractor. So my guess was there was either something wrong with the hydraulics, or the actual tractor itself.

Jumping up into the nearby tractor, I set to work connecting the two pieces of equipment so that I could fiddle with the controls and see where the trouble was. For the next thirty minutes, I was climbing in and out of the cab of the tractor, flipping switches and controls to see what the unroller was, or wasn’t, doing.

I’d just shut the tractor off when Billie approached with two steaming mugs of coffee in her hands. “One of those for me?” I asked with a grin.

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