“I miss you, Carli.”
“I miss you too,” I say, leaning on the handle of my manure fork.
He steps one step closer to me. “You look beautiful.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I look up into his eyes. Then I glance out through the open barn doors, checking for my brother. “Bet I smell great too.”
Cody steps closer and takes an exaggerated sniff. “Mmmm.”
I laugh and then stifle my laughter. “Cody!” I whisper-scold, smacking his chest.
“What? You do.” He’s the picture of innocence—only not.
He reaches up and brushes a hair out of my face, and before I can say a word, he glances around, leans in and places the sweetest kiss on my lips.
I want to linger—to grip his shirt, to tug him to me, to run out of the barn, hop in a truck and go somewhere alone with him.
Jace’s voice is the first one I hear. Then his boots on the concrete. Chet answers Jace.
What were we thinking?
I jump backward, pushing Cody’s chest.
Cody jumps back.
The hog in the pen with us startles, shifts, and lunges sideways, bumping Cody in the back of the knees with a loud, sharp squeal.
Cody loses his footing, but regains it, stomping his foot down into the hay—and a pile of manure.
“Ahhhh!” he shouts as the loud squishing sound fills the pen. “Ugh”
“Cody!”
Jace is at the pen in an instant—his eyes flitting between me and Cody. His brows draw in. “What is going on?”
We both practically shout, “Nothing!”
Cody stares at Jace, his face neutral. I glance down at Cody’s boot. He definitely stepped in it. Right in it. The boot’s coated in straw and manure all the way over the toe.
Dad enters the barn at the far door. “Cody, could you help me unload this feed?”
Cody looks down at his boot, scuffs it twice on the hay, and shouts, “Coming!”
He strides down the aisle, right past my dad, manure and all.
Dad asks, “What is that smell?”
Cody keeps walking, straight out of the barn to the feed delivery truck, not saying a word, as if he just struts around town coated in pig poop all the time, thank you very much.
Jace’s brow furrows. I chuckle.
“Did he just march out of here with a boot coated in hog droppings?”
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “Yeah, he did.”
I finish mucking stalls and am at my cabin cleaning up when I get a text from Cody.
Cody: Meet me tonight.
