Page 17 of The First Day of Breeding Season
“Of course it is.” He takes a deep breath. Holds it.Winces. And then says, “Let me guess, your favorite saysBreeding Major?”
He went there.
His expression doesn’t change, but there’s a warmth to how he says it, like he’s trying to tease me, and it’s working. A startled little laugh tears out of me.
I tip my head to the side. “Is that a lighthearted joke?”
“Yes.” He says it completely straight faced.
Heat zings through me. “I do one have one of those, you know. But my favorite is actually myTeach Me About Milkingsweatshirt.”
I hold my breath as he stares at me.
Too much?
Fuck.
But then he smiles.
And oh shit, but Drew Lowry has a very nice smile that makes his eyes crinkle, which makes my heart do funny, squeeze-y things.
“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you when you arrived,” he says.
That stops me in my tracks. I look at him carefully. “I wasn’t sure if we were going to talk about that.”
He nods. “Yeah, I fucked that up good.”
I’m going to read a lot of other apologies into that summary, too.I’m sorry I barked at you. I’m sorry I stare at your tits repeatedly.
It’s very easy to forgive the second one, since I like his attention there more than I should.
I cross my arms over my chest to discourage myself, and remove the distraction, even if this shirt is PG-13. “I really am looking forward to working with you this summer.”
He nods. “Glad to hear it. Can’t wait to hear more about that over dinner.”
“You’re coming to the bunkhouse?” I sound delighted. Iamdelighted. I grin at him.
“Yeah,” he says, almost like he can’t quite believe it. And then he gives me another crinkly-eyed smile. “We have a lot to talk about tonight.”
Which is all I need to float back to the main house on a cloud.
CHAPTER 8
DREW
Brynn excuses herself to take a quick shower. I want to wait outside her room like a lovesick puppy, but I need to look at her research material before dinner. I promised her we’ll talk bulls, and I can’t let her down.
Back in my room, I lean over my bed, where the material Brynn gave me is scattered. I flip open the folder and immediately grin at the top sheet, which summarizes the contents and lists, in bullet points, questions she has for me and ideas she wants to discuss. She’s even noted to herself, in brackets, that she should pace herself with these topics over the summer.
I scan the list, looking for her analysis of other big breeders in the region that I might look at acquiring a bull from. It’s midway down, so I flip through the articles, looking for that information mid-way through the folder.
She strikes me as a very thorough and organized person. Someone who plans ahead, maybe compulsively, so she has to keep all the information she collects in a particular order or she’d never find it again.
Sure enough, there is her target research in the middle of the thick stack. It’s a list of ranches that I’m already familiar with,and a couple I’m not, and pinned behind that list are two articles about herd diversity.
I quickly look up the ranches that I’m not familiar with, making some bullet pointed notes on my phone to ask her about.
Then I flip through the rest of the folder. She’s thorough and her notes are meticulous. Which makes the envelope shoved in the back stand out, and I open it before I realize that the letterhead, from Climax Springs Fertility Clinic, isn’t about cattle breeding.
