Page 41 of Love Off-Limits
He lifted his hand and touched the same spot, wiping a smear of pig poop off his chin.
It wasn’t fair, really. Even covered in manure, he still looked so. damn. sexy.
I turned my back to him fully and walked away, the chickens dutifully following the sound of the shaking mealworms.
“Kelly could have told me it was that easy,” he called after me.
I turned and shrugged. “But now you won’t forget to close the gate again, will you?” I said, repeating the reason Kelly had given me. I paused, only then realizing I hadn’t even mentioned his filming. That was the entire reason I’d come down to find him in the first place. But as soon as he’d taken off his shirt, I’d lost my ability to think rationally.
But I was out of time now; the bridal party would be arriving soon, and if I spent any more time on this end of the farm,Iwould start to smell like pig.
I’d just have to find Tyler later and talk to him then. I ushered the two chickens, plus an extra one that had appeared from around the side of the supply shed, into the chicken yard and secured the gate, tossing a few handfuls of mealworms into the yard to reward them for their compliance. As I latched the gate behind me, I tried to pretend like I wasn’t excited about the prospect of seeking Tyler out a second time. I had a legitimate reason. Awork-relatedreason. One that was completely justified.
As I walked back to the gator, the two farmhands who had retrieved the manure pushed their now-full wheelbarrow past me. “That’s what you call secret buff,” the blonde one said. “I never would have guessed he had all that definition, but there it was.”
I bit my lip and paused, straining to hear the rest of their conversation as they moved away.
“It’s because he’s so tall,” the other girl said. “Like, he’s not bulky and stuff. Just long and lean and—”
“Beautiful,” the first one responded. “I want to date a tall guy.”
“How old do you think he is?”
Twenty-seven, so too old for either of you,I thought to myself.
“Too old for you.”
Ha. Good call.
“What’s he doing here, I wonder? After the job he had before...”
“I already told you. That guy, Jeff, who works over in events, said he’s doing research. You’ve seen him with his camera, right? He’s got to be doing some kind of undercover thing forRandom I...”
I lost the trail of their conversation as they moved out of hearing.
I couldn’t decide if I was more distracted by their belief that Tyler was involved in some sort of covertRandom Ioperation—which was ridiculous—or by their classification of him assecret buff.
I’d never heard the expression, but from what I’d seen, Tyler definitely qualified.
The image of him standing there shirtless, sweaty, dirty...yeah.
That was an image I wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Chapter Twelve
Tyler
After rinsing off the worst of the muck with the hose attached to the side of the supply shed, I’d double-counted the chickens to make sure I’d gotten them all inside—counting six dozen moving chickens is not a task for the faint of heart—then headed back to the bunkhouse to shower and change. It took three scrubbings and almost an entire bar of soap to get the smell of pig off my skin.
I couldn’t fault Kelly for making me do it the hard way. Iwouldn’tforget to close and latch the yard gate again. But I had to wonder what had brought Olivia down to the barn, all prim and pressed in her work clothes, her hair pulled back in that same low ponytail. I hadn’t seen her with her hair down since Isaac and Rosie’s wedding. I wished I could.
Had Kelly sent her to help? Or had she come with a different purpose and simply had mercy on me when she’d realized how much I was struggling? I’d been chasing those last two chickens for half an hour by the time she showed up.
After dinner, I walked out toward the east pasture, camera in hand, hoping I might get a little footage of the goats. There were several kids that had been born in the past couple of weeks, and more were on the way. There was an hour yet before the goats would be brought back in for their evening milking. And the way the sun was lowering toward the mountains, the light playing across the fields was too good to ignore. I raised the camera and did a slow pass across the horizon. It felt good to have a camera in my hands again.
I approached the back corner of the pasture, pausing and squinting at a white smudge about twenty yards away.
The smudge moved and my heart kicked up its pace. “What in the...”
