Page 11 of Bailey

I turned to look at him as I opened the screen door. “Who said I was sharing my showers?” I asked him with wide eyes. I grinned to myself as I left them in the kitchen. The sky was looking a little gray today. We could use the rain, but that means Matty might not come over today. He knows I wouldn’t want him to get stuck in a storm.

I checked on my garden first. It was a pretty large garden, and I tried growing it a little larger every year. I mentally noted which vegetables I would need to start harvesting first. The tomatoes were beginning to ripen to a nice red color. They would end up needing to be picked first. The peppers and cucumbers were also coming along nicely. When we went on the supply run, I would need to watch for more jars.

As I stared at a tomato, a thought came to me. Would we be able to get the supplies to build a greenhouse? That would keep us with fresh vegetables year round. I’ll have to remember to bring it up to the guys later and see what they think. Maybe not this year's project, but it would make a good spring project if they’re still here. I was still unsure whether I wanted them here longer than the winter.

I checked on the chickens and fed them. One of the guys must have already been out to collect the eggs because I didn’t find any. I walked down to the barn, and the couple of cows and goats I kept there began greeting me. The calves and kids were jumping around excitedly. They were all ready to go out to pasture. First, I needed to milk them. I grabbed a bucket and a stool and let myself into their stalls one by one, making quick work of it. The curious babies poked me with their noses playfully as I worked. Once I was done, I put the bucket of milk I had collected out of reach of any of the animals and let them out of the barn into the field with the horses.

As I stood in the doorway to the barn watching the animals run around, I noticed Boone was walking the property's perimeter. I also spotted Ethan and Caleb with axes and a two-handed saw walking through the woods on the other side of the fence. My heart skipped a few beats as worry for their safety crept up in me. I reminded myself they knew what they were doing and would be fine. I wasn’t the only one capable of surviving the apocalypse, and it wasn’t my job to keep everyone around me out of danger.

I heard movement behind me but didn’t acknowledge it as Pike approached me. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey,” I responded.

“I stuck around in case you needed help with anything,” he told me.

I turned to look at him, leaning against the door frame. “You know that I’ve done all of this on my own for the last ten years, right? Well, Matty helped, but most of it was all me.”

He took a few steps forward so that he was in my space. My heart thundered in my chest as he pressed his body into mine, pinning me between him and the barn. “I’m well aware of that, Sweetling, but the correct response was ‘thank you.’ Try again, for me,” he prompted, his voice like velvet as it caressed my soul.

“Thank you,” I whispered as my body buzzed to life.

Pike made an approving sound in the back of his throat as he leaned in even further until our lips were a breath apart. “Good girl,” he whispered. He pushed away from me, and I couldn’t help the chill I felt from losing his body against mine. “Now,” he said in a more normal voice, “how can I help?” It took me a minute for my brain to catch up with his. When I didn’t answer immediately, he looked back at me with a smirk. “Bailey?”

My eyes snapped to his and narrowed at his smirk. I was not a toy to play with. “The milk needs to be bottled, and the stalls mucked. The manure can be wheeled over and spread in the garden. I’ll let you handle that while I take care of the milk,” I said sweetly as I walked past him.

“That works for me,” he said cheerily. I ignored him as I brought the bucket of milk over to the stall I used as a workspace. Inside was a burner and the heavy-bottomed pot I used to pasteurize the milk. A book on milking sat on the shelf above the workbench, but I hadn’t needed to reference it in ages. This batch would just be milk, so I needed to maintain a specific temperature to kill any germs that might have gotten in and could make someone sick. Until I found the book, I couldn’t figure out why me or Matty would frequently get ill.

I placed a strainer over the top of the pot and slowly dumped the bucket into the pot. The strainer was to catch any larger objects that didn’t belong in the milk. I heated the milk and stole glances at Pike over the walls mucking out the other stalls as I slowly stirred the milk. His muscles bunched and flexed as he worked. I didn’t realize I had stretched on my toes and craned my neck to watch him better until he stopped to wipe his brow and looked my way. After a few seconds of him not moving, I realized he was watching me ogle him with a smile.

Caught, I quickly ducked back down to focus on the milk. The sound of his chuckle reached my ears, and I groaned internally. The presence of these men in my life now was highly distracting. I found this incredibly annoying since I didn’t see myself as a sexual person. For my entire life, I viewed sex as a bad thing, a punishment. And now my body seemed to have a mind of its own and wholeheartedly disagreed.

Once I finished heating the milk, I carefully poured it into the clean bottles I had waiting and corked them. Thunder sounded, startling me and almost making me drop the bottled milk. I carefully placed the milk bucket in the pot and the bottles in the bucket. I would take everything inside to clean and then bring them back out later. I closed the barn doors that led to the pasture so that the rain stayed out of the barn. There was a covered shelter the animals could gather in to keep dry if they wanted.

“I’m going to run this inside, then I’ll come back and help you spread the manure in the garden,” I told Pike as I walked past him to the other barn door. “Since rain is coming, I want to get the manure on the garden before it hits to get the fertilizer soaked into the ground with the rain.”

“Ok,” he said. “I’m on the last stall now.” I gave him a thumbs-up before grabbing my pot and leaving. I set it down on the front porch to bring in and looked for the others. Boone was almost through his walk-around. I didn’t see any sign of Ethan and Caleb, which worried me. They needed to get inside and out of the woods before the rain hit. The last thing we needed was for them to get struck by lightning.

Pike was in the garden, so I went to join him, accepting the shovel he handed me. Together, we emptied the wheelbarrow he had filled. Thunder sounded above us, even louder this time, followed by a streak of lightning across the sky. “We need to get inside,” I told him as Boone jogged over to us.

“I’ll run the shovels and wheelbarrow back to the barn. You get inside,” Pike responded. He grabbed my shovel and took off at a sprint.

“Make sure to close the barn behind you when you return,” I called to him.

“Come on,” Boone said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the house. “It looks like this storm will be a bad one.” I followed behind him but pulled my hand away as we reached the porch. I looked to the woods and gate again, hoping to see Caleb and Ethan—still no sign of them. I chewed on my lip as I watched.

“I need to go find them,” I said as Pike joined us.

“No!” They said in unison.

Chapter six

“Excuseme?”Iasked,turning to look at both of them. “Let’s get one thing straight. I’m in charge here. This is my house, and you all are my guests. You don’t get to tell me what to do. Now your friends are out there. What if they got lost? I’m going after them.” I turned away from them and started to march towards the gate. I had my knife on me; that was all I needed.

As fat raindrops began falling from the sky, I was grabbed and tossed over Boone’s shoulder. “Sorry, Honey Bee. You can be mad at me all you want, but there is no way we’re letting you stomp around in the woods by yourself in this storm.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I said, wiggling around and trying to free myself from his hold. A sharp sting on my ass made me yelp as Boone swatted my ass with his hand.

“Stop struggling. You aren’t going anywhere; accept it,” he told me. I stopped fighting him as he walked up the few steps to the porch and brought me inside. I’d drop him and find the guys when he put me down. I glared at Pike, holding the screen door open for Boone with a grin.

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