I’d told myself those excuses in the dark of night. Kendrick had said the same, said he still trusted me. It didn’t change thefact that I’d let my dick control my brain at the wrong moment. “Doesn’t matter what they did.”
“I think it does.” Austin cut himself off. “Bottle’s about empty.”
“Good.” I pulled the needle out and pressed over Ebony’s side for a minute so there wouldn’t be bleeding. “Put all the stuff in the bucket.”
He did as I instructed. “Now what?”
“Now we clean up.” I felt Ebony’s ear, noting the warmth. She flicked it in annoyance. “Then we’ll see if she can get up and—” I broke off as the cow peed a lake into her straw. “That’s a good sign, too. Come on.”
Austin didn’t mention Miguel or anything I’d said as we got the supplies set to rights in the feed room. When we came back out, Ebony had already heaved herself up and the calf was on her feet, nursing.
“Yay!” Austin smiled at me. “It’s like magic.”
“Can be.” I tried to be blasé, but relief eased my strung-tight nerves and I couldn’t fight the beginnings of a smile. “She’s looking good. We’ll want to supplement her feed with calcium for the next couple of weeks at least.” Figuring that out would be John’s job, or the boss’s next time I called him. “But she should do okay.”
“And are you okay?” Austin asked softly.
“Huh?”
“That was some pretty tough stuff you told me.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Was just the truth.”
He nodded slowly. “So, if I tell you I’m not Miguel, will that make a difference? I don’t need to flirt with you on the job. I know when I’m on the clock and when I’m off, and I can be professional.”
I couldn’t explain how I was still messed up with this. “Tonight, I was about to, well, whatever we were doing back in the cabin. We almost missed seeing Ebony go down.”
“If we’d gone to sleep, we’d have missed her too. If we’d taken the dogs out or read a book, whatever. The next time you looked, you’d have noticed. You can’t be on duty twenty-four seven.”
“Stop being logical.”
Austin laughed and reached out, gripping my shoulder, then stroking a finger up my neck. “Maybe we should make out right here, where you can watch her out of the corner of your eye.”
“You said you knew when you were on the clock.”
“Yeah, but it must be after eight and we started at six a.m.” He slid his finger to my lower lip. “The cow’s on her feet. Does that clock ever stop?”
“I…” I met Austin’s eyes, the deep blue of an evening sky. His mouth drew my gaze lower, held it. “I don’t know.” I shivered.
He lowered his hand. “You have to make the next move. I’m good at following orders. You tell me to stop and I’ll stop.”
I wondered if Austin knew how much that appealed to me. “Let’s clean up the stall and head back to the cabin. We’ll have a couple of hours before I want to recheck Ebony.”
“I can do a lot with a couple of hours.” Austin didn’t follow that comment with a smile or an eye-fuck. He simply grabbed a pitchfork and began sorting the wet straw out from behind Ebony. Taking care of the cow, like I asked, keeping his eyes on his work.
By the time we’d trudged through seven or eight inches of wet, still-falling snow, I’d second-guessed myself half a dozen times. The dogs greeted us when we entered the cabin, tails wagging, but pretty quickly, the lure of the blanket I’d put down for them near the heater outdid humans, and they curled up together.
Austin shook the snow off his parka and slipped it onto a hook. He tugged off his boots one by one and wiggled his toes.“Wish I’d had time to get my snow boots out of Dad’s house, but I didn’t dare go back.”
“Fuck. I should’ve noticed.” The snow was well above the tops of those cowboy boots. Austin’s feet were probably soaked. “You’re gonna get frostbit if you don’t watch out. Do you have dry socks?”
“Yeah, I guess. I ran some through the laundry.” He bent and slipped the wet ones off, straightening with them in one hand. “Your floor’s not that cold, though.”
I stared down at his bare feet on my tile floor. Shouldn’t have been sexy at all. Was, in some way I couldn’t define.
“Seth?” Austin was using that gentle tone again.
I’d probably been staring too long. I raised my gaze. “Yeah?”
