Page 19 of A Twist of Faith
“He’d inherited it. It was family land.”
Family land? Nowthathe knew a lot about. “You have any brothers to help your Dad on his farm?”
“Are you implying that I wasn’t enough?” She firmed her palm against one hip.
Reese tried to hide his grin, but it must not have worked.
“A girl can’t work as well on a farm as a boy, Mr. Mitchell?”
Reese’s palms flew up in surrender. “Now I ain’t sayin’ that, Doc.”
“Ain’t is not a word.”
“My sister Rainey’s worked as hard on the farm as either me or my brother. Emma? Well, she came along so much later, she ain’t.” He took a deep breath to control his frustration. “She hasn’t had to do as much.” He shrugged an apology. “You’re just not like Rainey.”
A round of thunder interrupted her sure-fire rebuttal.
“Better get this little ’un out of the rain.”
“Rain?”
Reese gestured toward the sky. “We’re gonna need to hone those country girl skills of yours, Doc. You’re a bit out of practice. Now …” He adjusted his cap on his head. “Unless you can do some impressive running in those fancy shoes of yours, I think we’re about to get wet. Come on.”
Reese wrestled the calf away from its mama and started a slow pace to his truck. The calf made quiet calls in his arms, urging Gypsy to follow. Dee grabbed the bag of OB tools and came alongside him as if she’d always belonged. Somehow, in a weird sort-of-otherworldly-kind of way, she fit.
Another blast of thunder quickened Reese’s pace. The mama kept up, and so did Dee. Just as they reached the tree line, the heavens opened. Dee tripped, but caught herself before landing face first in the damp grass and earth.
“I should have taken Emma up on her offer.”
“What was that?”
“Boots.”
Maybe she wasn’t such a smart woman after all. Whatever country-girl-sense flowed through her veins likely disappeared along with her accent. A pantsuit and heels in a cow pasture? He almost chuckled from the absurdity. One look at the steep grade of the hill down to his truck and he swallowed the chuckles right back down his throat. Especially with the rain.
“Doc, grab my arm and hold on so we can save that purdy suit of yours.”
“Pretty. The word is pretty, not purdy.”
He looked down, her face so close it made him feel all warm inside. “I have a hankerin’ to leave you and yourpurdysuit right back in the woods to get some peace and quiet.”
Her eyes widened and she snatched his arm tight. “You wouldn’t.”
His grin made no promises. “You got anything else you want to say about my vowels and consonants right now?”
She offered him a smile so sweet it haddangerwritten all over it. “I have a wealth of vowels and consonants I’d like to use, but since I’m a ladyandI like this suit, I’ll refrain. For now.”
The rain crashed against them in torrents. He was wet clean through, but barely felt it. Dee’s hands wrapped around his arm and her face buried in his shoulder, little shield from the blasts of the storm. Despite her sassy disposition, a protectiveness welled up inside him. He hadn’t felt such a strong attraction in a long time, a connection. And now? To some country-turned-city girl? Why didn’t life make sense more often than not?
Once they reached flat ground, she rushed ahead to the truck. Reese followed, placing the calf in the back and starting the engine with the heat wide open.
“We made it.” Doc leaned back in the seat and sighed. Her hair fell in little wet curls around her face, and the cab got a whole lot hotter than it ought to be. Reese put the truck in gear and moved forward at a slow pace to the barn so Gypsy could keep up.
“What took you from Keene to here?”
“This job.” She stared out the window. “When daddy died, the farm was split between me and my older brother. Jason didn’t want the old house on the property, so he took a little more of the land and built his own place. He still runs the farm.”
“There are a lot of good farms up there. My uncle owns one. I used to spend summers with him helpin’ out. He’s been trying to get me up there for three years.” A little dream he fed every once in a while, when no one was lookin’. A smaller farm of his own in the middle of farming country so he could still do research and consulting sounded good—a little too good to hang much hope on it, though. “I’ve had several consults up that way. It’s a good place.”
