James didn’t comment, but he couldn’t help but inwardly be thankful. He hated to think about her having been here through that all alone. He hated thinking about the terror of that night and how much worse it could have been.
Ally moving away, sliding off her stool brought him back to the present.
“Give me about an hour, maybe an hour and a half and we can go do something.” She rinsed her plate and loaded it and a few other dishes in the dishwasher before disappearing into the front of the house. Her footsteps on the stairs were almost silent, but the floors creaked over head as she moved around up there.
James shook his head at the memory of her dancing in front of the stove and finished cleaning up the kitchen.
Chapter 20
Ally tried to calm her racing heart as she threw off the oversized t-shirt and pulled on her jeans. Nothing too nice, not yet. She’d just get it dirty mucking around with the animals. She could always change later, before they left.
What would he want to do? Should she direct him into Blackjack instead of Garrett? It was about an hour and a half away, but there was a lot more to do, and more variety to places to eat too.
Once she was dressed down to socks, she’d slip on her shoes as she headed out the door, she headed back down stairs to take care of the kitchen. Then she’d see to the animals.
Upon reaching the kitchen, she found it already clean. She stood staring a moment, then realized James must have taken care of it. She wondered where he’d gone, but assumed he was in his room. She’d thank him later. Instead, she stepped into the muddy shoes next to the back door and headed out. Feeding and milking were two things that couldn’t be skipped, so out to the barn she went, whether she wanted to or not.
Ally sat in the front seat of his double cab pickup as they sped toward Blackjack. As she’d suspected, once she’d agreed to go do something, he’d found something to do.
“I’m still blown away you could milk six sheep in the time it took me to do one.” James glanced at her then turned back to the road.
Ally watched him instead of the road, she’d seen that a million times, but she was going to remember as much about this visit as she could. She wanted to be able to pull out the memory once he was gone and relive it as often as she wanted.
“I’ve had a lot more practice. And the second one didn’t take you as long as the first.”
James shook his head. “It’s a lot more work than I thought. I can’t imagine doing that every day.”
“Twice every day.”
“Twice?” He turned to her, his brows high.
She couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. “You’ve milked cows, right?”
“Once, a long time ago.”
“How many times a day did you milk them?”
“Twice a day, but I didn’t do it for long. It was just while the neighbor was out of town when I was about twelve. My dad and I took care of the farm for them. It was only two though, not the twenty you have.”
“I have to have that many, actually I’m looking at picking up a few more. I’m only getting about six gallons of milk a day, It makes a decent amount of cheese and soaps, but the demand is growing so I need more animals to keep up with it.”
“And more animals means more wool, so more income on that side too.”
“Exactly. As I get the capital, I’ll upgrade different parts of my operation so it takes less manual labor and increases production, at least where I can.”
“Like?”
“Other than more animals, which will increase my labor as well as production, I’m looking to pick up an electric drum carder.”
“To replace the brushes.”
“Exactly.”
“How much time will that save you?”
“Hours and hours. Though I do a lot of that in the evenings, sitting in front of the tv or in the winter when it’s too cold to do much outside.”
He frowned and glanced at her. “How much do those run?”
She wondered why he wanted to know.
“I’m sorry. That was nosy. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s fine. I was just curious why you’d want to know.”
“I’m interested in what you do.” He shrugged one shoulder.
“A good one, new, runs between two and three thousand. I might be able to find a used one for between one and two though. I’m keeping my eyes open. I have been for a while and I almost had enough saved up.”
“But?”
“But I burned up the pump in the lower well leaving it on when we were holed up in the barn for the fire and now it needs to be replaced.”
“How much is that?”
“About five hundred.”
“The insurance won’t cover it?”
“I’ve asked, but they haven’t gotten back to me. I don’t think they will. They’ll say it was either act of god or normal wear and tear and it will be up to me.” She turned and looked out the window a moment, then turned back to him. “Anyway. I’ve got some people asking for my cheese at the different markets, even when I don’t have any with me because there’s nowhere to keep it while it’s still too warm.”
“Have you considered getting one of the coolers that plugs in inside your truck? If it’s cooling to and from then it might stay cold long enough for the market.”
That wasn’t a bad idea, she’d have to look into it and how well the coolers stayed cold when they weren’t plugged in.
“I could do that for some, but others,” Ally shook her head, “I think they’re still too hot, at least in the summer and most of them don’t let you keep your car close enough to be of use. Though some offer electricity. I’ll have to see what I can do. I think having it there and available more of the year would help my cheese sales.”
“Is the cheese the only thing you don’t offer year-round?”
“Pretty much. Sometimes I run out of soaps, but only when I’ve managed to outsell the stock I have with me. I’m getting better at taking enough to not run out, but not have to hall my entire inventory with me.
“Last winter I ran out of what’s called bare roving. That’s the stuff that’s combed and twisted into long thick strands,” she held up one hand to show him how big around, “but not dyed. I was out for a few weeks until we sheared, and I had time to process more. This year I won’t dye so much in advance.”
“Sounds like you’ve got everything well in hand.” He didn’t sound surprised.
She was surprised he didn’t try to tell her how to run things or tell her where her mistakes were. He’d offered a suggestion, something she hadn’t thought of and she would check it out. Most men, with the exception of her father who wasn’t interested enough to even ask about her farm, tried to fix everything. It felt like they tried to find something, anything, she was doing wrong and educate her about why it was wrong and how to do it better, or tried to take over and fix it themselves. James was the only man she’d told about what she was doing who listened with a real interest, and hadn’t tried to fix anything. It made her like him just a little more.
“You said you had something in mind for this afternoon. Care to share or is it going to be a surprise?” She was tired of talking about her work, even as much as she loved it. If she played her cards right, she might even be able to get him to tell her more about himself.
Chapter 21
James glanced across the cab to where Ally sat with her feet curled under her as she sipped the milkshake she’d gotten as they walked along Main Street after dinner. He liked having her here in his truck. Any time he was with her was time well spent, in his book.
“Today was great.” Ally watched out the window at the changing landscape. “I haven’t had that much fun in I don’t know how long.”
“Then it was about time.” He shot her a smile. “I’d like to say let’s do it again tomorrow, but I have to get home. I wish I could stay longer, but I’ve got a job waiting for me in Hawthorne.”
“I wish you could stay too.” Sh
e reached across the console and rubbed his upper arm. “I’ve enjoyed having you here. I wish we had more time.”
“Me too.” He covered her hand on his arm with one of his, squeezing gently before releasing it.
“Hawthorne, that’s where you grew up, right?”
“It is.” James couldn’t help but be impressed she’d remembered.
“Are your parents still there?”
“They are.”
“Will you get a chance to see them?”
“I’m sure I will.” He shrugged as he kept his eyes on the road. “I don’t know how much time I’ll have, but I’ll see them a couple times while I’m there.”
He was kind of looking forward to seeing his folks. So far, he’d never found anyone who could make lasagna like Mom. She’d make it for him while he was there, she always did. His dad would complain about the fancy meal, but more out of habit than any real distaste for what was served.
James surprise washed through him and he turned to frown at her a moment before focusing on the road again. He wanted to watch her longer to get a better idea of whether or not she was teasing but he wanted to stay on the road to. Did she really feel that what he did was as crazily dangerous and stupid as chasing tornados?
They fell quiet for a moment and James wanted to say something, but didn’t know what, not without being able to see her face and her reaction.
“What’s the plan for tonight?” He hoped that was a safe subject. The last thing he wanted to mar their last evening together, at least this trip, with a fight.
“I’ve got to milk again and bring the animals in for the night.”
“You pen them up every night, don’t you?”
“I do. Loose they’re easy pray for a wolf, bear, or mountain lion to pick one off. At least in the pen they’re all together and it’s harder for a predator to separate one from the herd.”
James could understand that. Predators sometimes went after cattle when food was scarce, but cattle were bigger, and harder to kill. Sheep and goats would be easy prey.
“What do you normally do after that?”
“Usually after milking, I do stuff in the house, whether it’s carding or spinning. I don’t normally eat until then either, but we’ve already eaten.” She shifted sliding her feet down onto the floorboard as she found a new position to sit in. “I watch tv for a couple hours while I process wool, then I typically shower before bed. That’s my exciting life. I’ll get up tomorrow and start all over.”
“And you love it.” He glanced at her again.
“And I love it. There are a lot of things I could do. I could be keeping someone’s books. I could work in an office or shuffle papers for a doctor or dentist, even up here. But I’d be miserable. I love my critters and my farm. My dad thinks I’m wasting my life up here. Hiding from the world and throwing away my money. He has about the same amount of understanding in what I do as he cares why I love it. That is to say, none.”
“I’m sorry.” He hated that she’d grown up with parents like that. His had been busy, keeping the ranch where he’d grown up running and supporting them, but they’d never been too busy to make sure he knew they loved him or Michelle. If James had something important going on, whether it was kindergarten graduation, a little league baseball game or the year he’d been nominated for homecoming king, he knew his parents would be there cheering him on. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to look up for them and not find them there, supporting him. That she’d lived that way all her life bothered him.
“Why?”
“I find it incredibly sad that they never supported you the way they should have. They weren’t there for you, they didn’t encourage you to do things that make you happy, they didn’t…” he trailed off shaking his head. “It’s almost like they don’t care. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.”
“It is what it is.” She sounded resigned.
He got it. She’d not known anything different and you can’t miss what you never had. Still, he hated that she hadn’t had the supportive system he believed all children should be raised with.
“I do a lot of lifting and a fair amount of swinging an axe, but bending over like that to milk, that kills my back.” James leaned backwards, arching his back as he rolled his shoulders, listening to the joints crack and pop as he moved.
“It takes a little getting used to. It’s also good motivation to get faster at milking. The faster you get done, the less you have to stand like that.”
“I don’t know how you can do that for an hour at a time, twice a day.”
Ally smiled. “It doesn’t usually take a full hour. I can usually get the milking done in a little over half an hour. Like I said, it motivates you do to it faster.”
“You mean my helping slowed you down?”
She didn’t answer, just smiled as she went about her evening routine, double checking the corral gate and checking the water trough among other things.
A little while later they sat on the sofa together. They’d both changed clothes into pajamas neither cared to sit around and relax in the things they’d worn to tromp around with the animals. Ally’s hair was damp and sweet smelling as she leaned against him, a pair of pointed metal sticks in her hands moving quickly enough he had a hard time following exactly what she was doing. He knew she was knitting, that was obvious, but exactly how that worked, he had no clue.
“What do you like to watch?” she’d asked when she’d handed him the remote.
“I don’t know, I don’t watch much tv.”
“What kind of thing do you like? Action, crime, comedy? I watch a lot of mindless stuff like the cooking show I was watching last night. It lets me work on whatever I’m working on, or think my way through something, and gives me company too. But there’s a lot of other stuff on there.” She nodded toward the remote in his hand.
James paged through the different lists about what was popular right now, what was new and what Netflix suggested for her.
“I don’t know. How about a comedy? Something we can start anywhere and not need to know what’s going on.”
“Sounds good.”
James settled on a sitcom, one he’d heard about but never seen and they spent the evening snuggled together on the sofa, enjoying being with one another without feeling the need to question every move or comment.
After a couple hours, Ally yawned for the third time in ten minutes. James waited until the episode they were watching ended then shut the tv off.
“Hey.” Allison turned to look at him. “Why’d you do that?”
“Because it’s getting late. You’re tired and we both have long days tomorrow.”
“I’m used to long days.” She scowled at him for a moment.
“So am I. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to rest when we can.”
Her lower lip poked out and she gave him a fake pout. “I was enjoying sitting here with you.”
“I was enjoying it too, lambchop.” He bent and brushed a soft kiss on her nose. “I’ll come back when I can. And we can keep calling and texting. This visit only confirmed what I’d already suspected.”
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What’s that?”
“This relationship’s worth the difficulty of a long-distance relationship. You’re not the kind to string me a long and do whatever you want here where I can’t see it.” James trailed a finger along her jaw. “You’re the kind that works their ass off for what you want, not gives up at the first sign of difficulty.”
She blinked and raised one brow. “You thought after the fire I might walk away when things got hard?”
“No,” James said with a chuckle, “but I thought what we felt might be because of the fire, because of the high emotions and the high stress time we spent together. It wouldn’t have lasted this long. And yet, I can’t keep you off my mind for more than ten minutes straight.”
One side of her mouth curled in a wry smile. “I guess it’s good to know I’m not the only on
e.”
“Not by a long shot. Why don’t you go on up? I’ll turn everything off and be right up.”
“All right.” She went upstairs while James turned off all the lights on the ground floor and headed up the stairs himself.
At the top of the stairs he found Ally waiting.
“I thought you were going to bed?”
“I am, but I wanted something first.”
It was James’ turn to frown. “What?”
Her lashes lowered and she took a step toward him. “A good night kiss.”
A slow warmth spread through him. “I think I can manage that.” He stepped close and wrapped one arm around her as he slanted his lips over hers.
She melted against him, soft and pliant. James couldn’t help but wonder if she would respond as well once they finally got to bed. He wouldn’t be finding out tonight. After a moment he broke the intense kiss and stepped back, keeping a hand on her until he was certain she was steady on her feet.
“I’m not taking you to bed, just to leave you in the morning. We’ve got all the time in the world for that, but not tonight.”
Ally smiled. “All right.” She spun the heel of her bare foot and headed for her door. “But don’t think I’ll let you get away with putting me off for much longer.” She disappeared into her room with one last smoldering look over her shoulder.
James headed for the bathroom and a cold shower.
Chapter 22
Ally waited for her alarm to go off. She lay staring into the darkness for the third morning in a row. She hadn’t been able to sleep more than a couple hours a night since James had left. She didn’t understand it. It wasn’t like she’d spent even one night beside him. Why should his absence keep her from sleeping? Yet, here she was.
Jumping Feet First Page 11