Would Ed be required to help? Darcy clomped up the steps of the verandah and called through the door. “You guys ready yet?” He spotted Tess and smiled. “Want to come look at the lambs?”
She glanced back at the bedroom.
“Ed’ll sleep until ten,” Darcy said. “Leave him a note.”
The other men got to their feet.
“Let me grab some shoes.”
She hurried back to the bedroom. Ed didn’t stir, even when she made a little more noise. She sent him a text, and the ding of his phone also didn’t wake him. Tess grinned and returned to the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the table before joining the men outside where they waited for her.
They crossed the yard to the pens where sheep and baby lambs were gathered.
The low bleating was the only sound in the cool morning air, and the small lambs leapt over imaginary objects, their gait a little unsteady. So cute! Matt was over by a gate, and Tess stayed outside the yard while the rest of the guys and the farm dog, Bennet moved inside, following Darcy’s instructions to herd the animals towards Matt. As the sheep reached the gate, Matt shifted it, letting the ewes go into one pen and the lambs into another. Separating mother from child.
Tess’s heart ached as the bleating became cries of anguish, and she moved around the yards to the lambs’ pen. Darcy joined her. “They’ll be reunited soon enough,” he said. “We have to tag and vaccinate them.”
He climbed into the yard and gestured her in. “You can keep them company if you want.” He scratched a lamb’s head.
Without as much grace as Ed’s older brother, she climbed over the fence, and the lambs trotted around her. She knelt down, patting their soft wool, and grinned as they butted each other out of the way to get her attention. Here were some animals she wasn’t scared of. She wanted to take them all home.
“No naming them,” Darcy warned, and strode away.
Tess barely noticed, so utterly charmed by the young animals. She had a million questions to ask, but all the men were busy, so she crouched to give the lambs her complete attention.
“Named any of them yet?” Ed’s call pushed through Tess’s rapture. He stood leaning on the metal fence, watching her.
How long had he been there? “Darcy said I wasn’t allowed to.” She smiled and shifted to her feet, wandering over to him. It felt right to lean over and kiss him, so she did.
He grinned at her. “That’s because any lambs that get named can’t go to the slaughter house. Just don’t tell Lara.” He pointed to a couple of sheep which roamed around the camping area. “That’s Flotsam and Jetsam.”
She focused back on the cute babies she’d been playing with. They were all going to end up on someone’s dinner plate. It almost made her convert to vegetarianism.
“Don’t do it,” Ed warned. He brushed her arm, and tingles spread through her, distracting her.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You should have woken me.”
“I wanted to let you sleep.”
“I would have rather spent the time with you.”
A glow filled her. She’d always felt the odd one out, first at home where she didn’t meet expectations, and then at university when she always had to leave to go to work. But now she felt as if she belonged and had someone who wanted to be with her.
“If you’re done with the lambs, I thought we could go to the gulf. You might be interested in the place the Retribution sank.”
She perked up. She had been wanting to explore his family’s history. “That would be great.” She glanced over her shoulder. “You don’t have to help?”
A frown flittered across Ed’s face. “Nah. There’s enough people.” He raised a hand and called to Darcy, “We’re going to the gulf.”
Darcy nodded. “Yeah, but you’ve got dinner tonight. Take a radio.”
Ed gave him a thumbs up as Tess climbed over the fence, and they walked hand in hand back to the house.
“Have you had breakfast?” Ed asked.
“An apple.”
