“I’m driving the feed there anyway,” I said. “Plus, this’ll be warmer.”
I could see the shy smile on her face that she was clearly trying to keep hidden, as well as that faint flush that was beginning to crawl up her delicate, pale skin, and I couldn’t help thinking of the way that that rich, red flush must be spreading all over the rest of her body.
I also couldn’t help thinking that there were some other ways that I would rather keep her warm… and then I shook my head a little bit, trying to get my mind of the gutter.
“You okay there?”
I turned to look at her, and her face was a cross of concern and entertainment as she raised her eyebrow at me. “You look like you’re trying to shake off a gadfly or something.”
“Sorry,” I said, focusing again on the path in front of me that I needed to keep the tractor to. “I think I might’ve gone somewhere else for a second.”
I pulled up to the barn, stopping the tractor and reaching up for her hand, which she placed in mine without hesitation before stepping down. Her fingers were cold, but the small burst of contact sent a rush of heat through me, spreading out from the hand that she held and radiating from my fingertips up to the top of my head before rushing down to the tips of my toes.
With her hand in mine, I completely forgot about the cold of the weather around me. Pulling the sliding door open, I reached up into the back of the tractor as I began to unload the bags of feed that had just been delivered. Austin wasn’t in the barn yet, so I figured that I may as well take the opportunity to get a little organized. She started reaching for some bags of feed that had been left there, and I paused to shake my head at her. “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s okay. I’d rather not just stand around not doing anything if I’m out on a call. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
I shrugged. “If you insist. Austin’ll be down here in a little bit. He had a few foals that he wanted to look in on this morning before he comes to meet up with us.”
We worked quickly, stacking up the bags in a small pile in the corner of the barn. I wasn’t used to being around someone with whom my normal silence didn’t feel tense and strange. I’d been so grateful to have my brothers around us at the bar, but now that they weren’t here, I didn’t feel any tension other than the fierce attraction to Lucy that continued to rise in my gut the longer that I was around her.
“So,” she said, setting the final bag down in the corner and brushing her hands off on her jeans, “I heard I’m coming by for Christmas Eve.”
I looked over at her with a grin. “Yep. Think you can handle it after all this time?”
She laughed, and the sound seemed to rattle every single one of my nerves. “I think so. Maybe I’ll have a couple of drinks in advance so I can warm up to the prospect.”
I laughed too, and the two of us continued to chat about all our upcoming plans for the year. There weren’t many plans coming up that were very different from what we’d already done, but I was still amazed by how easy it was for me to talk with her.
“Hey, guys.”
We turned at the same time to face Austin where he stood at the barn door, wrapped from his toes to the top of his head. He grinned at the two of us, and I noticed that the corners of his mouth weren’t as tight as I expected them to be as he started to approach us, peeling off his gloves as he came forward.
“Hey guys,” Lucy said, leaning forward and picking up her bag before looking at the two of us. “Is there a surface that I can put this on while I examine the mares?”
I nodded, heading over to the corner where we had a table mounted on wheels that we normally kept for the tools that helped us maintain the animals or the barn itself and rolled it over. I flipped the small brake for the wheels on the bottom so that the counter wouldn’t roll away, and Lucy gave me another smile of thanks as she opened the bag on top of the table.
“Thanks,” she said, and I stepped back, simply observing as she and Austin got down to business. “Which are the affected horses?”
“These,” Austin said, leading her over to the two stalls in the corner where the two had been kept for the last few days. “Sage and Rosie.”