Page 16 of In Full Bloom
I don’t know what else to say. I can’t say her mum is coming back because it’s not something that I even know. And if she did show up again, I have no idea what I’d say to her, or if I’d let her anywhere near Sadie.
Everyone in the room is silent, waiting for me to handle this incredibly awkward moment, but my mind is blank, my heart twisting painfully inside my chest and I don’t know how to move back to safer topics.
My eyes lock on Katie across the table and she must sense my desperation because she turns to Sadie.
“Will you help me give Porridge her next bottle?”
I blow out a breath as Sadie excitedly agrees and bounds away from the table. I’m about to open my mouth and remind her to clear her plate when Katie continues. “Hey, hey, Lady Sadie, don’t forget your dishes.” She says it with a big smile and Sadie happily skips back to the table and clears her plate, coming back for Katie’s, then mine.
“Will you come too, Daddy?” Sadie asks, slipping her hand into mine.
“Of course,” I say, following along as she leads me and Katie into the laundry room where the lamb is curled up in a cardboard box. She wobbles to her feet when she sees us and emits the tiniest bleat.
Katie prepares the bottle, and to my surprise slides down to sit on the floor, gorgeous dress and all. Sadie plonks down too andpats the floor indicating where I should sit. I fold my legs and sit cross-legged between them.
I realise my mistake the instant my ass hits the floor and I feel the heat of Katie’s arm through my shirt.
She reaches forward and scoops the lamb out of its box. I can’t believe she’s getting lamb all over this dress. The only thing that should be all over that dress are my hands. I blink at the thought, because woah. Co-worker. That was so inappropriate, but I can’t help myself. There’s a reason I noticed her last night, there’s a reason I went home with her and had potentially the greatest night of my life. And that dress … that dress keeps reminding me of all those reasons. Reasons that cannot matter now.
Because we work together, and because it breaks her very clearly defined rules. I am definitely not brave enough to find out what she’d do if I broke those rules.
But still, she doesn’t need to be ruining another outfit because of this lamb.
I’m about to tell her so when she places the lamb in my lap. “Your turn,” she says with a challenging grin, a flash of that bratty princess attitude I encountered last night. The one that irritates the fuck out of me … and makes my blood heat in all the right—or wrong—ways.
9
KATIE
This morning,Dallas left me to check the sheep and cattle solo.
I can tell it was a big step for him, trusting me with something on my second week on the job.
I triedreally hardnot to roll my eyes when he quizzed me for several long minutes about my capability to do a job I was doing solo when I was seventeen. As if he hasn’t seen me capably handling this job every day since we met.
No lamb rescues today but a Hereford cow needed a little assistance with calving. I could tell she wasn’t impressed by my presence, but she let me help her without too much stress, for which I’m grateful.
I’m unsaddling Scout when Dallas finds me again.
“All good out there?” he asks, leaning against the stable wall.
“Yep,” I say, then give him a run down of the calving. Have to admit, I’m looking forward to his reaction. I’m feeling more than a little smug about it.
“You didwhat?”he asks, voice rising on the final word.
Scout tosses her head. “Woah, chill out,” I say to Dallas, while running a soothing hand down Scout’s face. This was not the reaction I was expecting and I want to snap at him, but that’ll only upset the horse more. “I helped a heifer with her calving. Mother and baby are fine. I’ll keep an eye on them in the next few days, but there shouldn’t be any issues.”
“Uh, no I’m not going to chill out. What were you thinking?”
“That a cow needed help and I was there to give it to her?”
“And what if she hadn’t appreciated your help?” He swipes the cap off his head and roughly runs his hand through his hair. I absolutely do not notice how hot he looks when he does that, or remember my own fingers tangled in the thick, sandy-coloured strands. Him touching his hair is always the biggest reminder of what we did and I have to fight back the memories again. Now is not the time to be thinking about his hair. “What if you’d been hurt? You’d still be lying out there in that paddock.”
“But I’m not. I’m fine. Not a scratch on me.”
Dallas takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “You cannot do shit like this. Trying to calve a cow, alone.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” I do snap this time. I step away from Scout, closer to Dallas. His height pisses me off because I’d really like to be glaring down at him in this moment.
