Stripes on her backside stung from his hand rubbing her skin, but not too much. She’d had worse sunburns. “That’s kind of weird.”
“Oh, little kitten. You haven’t begun to see the weird yet.”
“That almost scares me.”
His deep voice was right by her ear. “It’s meant to.”
She turned her head back. Blaze was beside her face, almost nose to nose with her, and smiling. “How long can you stay?”
His head tilted, and he looked more serious. “Until we deal with the White Russians.”
“Being home makes them seem so far away.”
The light pressure of his hand on her back moved upward to rest on her waist. “They’re coming.”
“I know.”
“And I’ll be here.”
She snuggled closer to his big, warm body in the sheets. “I know, but after that?”
His shoulders shifted as he rolled on his back to look at the ceiling. “You won’t need me around here.”
“Well, not that Ineedanybody—”
“Of course not.”
“But you’re halfway useful around the farm, what with milking HowNow and doing the feeding. You know, for a city boy.”
“I’ll take that as the most backhanded of compliments.” But a smile warmed his voice. “But you know I can’t stay.”
“You don’t need to. I’ve been doing it all myself for years. Honestly, I started doing the bulk of the work in high school because my parents were starting to get sick at that point.”
“And you’re good at it,” he said.
She couldn’t even keep the farm above water financially. “Not really.”
“Yeah, you are, even if you’re modest. Could I ask you a favor?”
Not that she had anything of value he would want. “Um, sure?”
“Some of the veterans that I counsel have become friends. I can vouch for their character and their actions. Even though they are holding down jobs and look like they’re doing well enough, they aren’t.”
“Of course, I’m open to anything to help our veterans who served our country.”
“The Fourth of July is tough for them, with the fireworks and performative patriotism. It would benefit their mental health if a few of them could get away from the cities into the countryside. The fireworks are really the worst. They’ll start the pyrotechnics shows this Saturday, even though it’ll only be July first this weekend.”
“You don’t think the White Russians will be here by then?”
“No one’s been poking around yet, according to your whisper network, right?”
“Nope. The University of Iowa is on summer recess, so it’s just the graduate students and us townies around.”
“So it’ll be quiet. That’s good.”
“But it’s three days from now. The house only has three bedrooms.”
“They could camp out. These guys are used to tents or less. We can fire up that grill on your back patio to feed them.”
