“Yeah. We do. Want me to run them over?”
“Could you?”
“Sure thing. I’ll be right there.”
I turn to Luke. “You got that for a minute? Buckners need some heat lamps.”
“I’ll help you load ’em up,” he offers, dusting his hands down his jeans and following me around the barn to storage.
We each grab two lamps and set them in the bed of my truck and then I take off for the Buckners’ farm, checking the clock on the dash as I turn onto the main road.
Carli won’t be at work yet. But she might be in her cottage getting ready.
I turn into the Buckners’ driveway, pulling up close to the farrowing barn. Carli’s truck is parked just to the left of mine. I glance around before grabbing two lamps and walkingtoward the open doors. Warming newborn piglets trumps figuring out where Carli might be.
As soon as I enter the barn, my question is answered. She’s there, in full work mode. A piglet’s snuggled inside her shirt, his little head peeking out through the neck hole just above the button. I chuckle. Why is this sexy to me? A woman with a pig in her shirt.
“I have to get going, Jace,” Carli says, obviously unaware that I’ve entered the barn.
Jace is squatting below her in the pen, tending to a sow.
“Lamps are here!” I shout.
“Oh!” Carli’s head snaps up. “Cody. Hi.”
“Hey,” I say, taking a good long look at her.
She blushes, balancing the pig with one hand and tucking her hair behind her ear with the other.
“I brought heat lamps,” I say, holding them up as if the clunky metal boxes don’t announce themselves.
“Great!” she says, stepping out from the pen and walking toward me.
Jace speaks up, reminding me we have an audience. “Thanks a lot, Cody. I could have run to town, but that would have taken a whole lot more time.”
“Hey, Cody,” Mr. Buckner says. I hadn’t seen him at first. He’s in another pen off the opposing aisle of the barn. Chet’s working in the stall next to him.
“Hey,” I say, the sudden awareness of Carli’s dad’s watchful eye pouring over me like a bucket of ice water. I shuffle my boot lightly on the concrete.
“Good to see you,” he says, holding on to the rail and rising from his squatting position slowly.
“Good to see you, too.”
“Yeah.” He nods. “You’ve been a stranger lately. But I understand. Calving and farrowing season.”
“That, and McKenna’s got us hopping preparing for her wedding.”
“Isn’t that somethin’,” Mr. Buckner says. “I can’t believe she’s old enough to be getting married. Seems the girls were just chasing one another around like barn cats only a few years ago.”
“Daddy!” Carli says, glancing at me with that blush rising up her neck again.
Don’t worry, Carli. I know you’re not that little girl anymore.
Mr. Buckner lets out a sigh. “I think I’ll go check on my wife. Thanks again, Cody.”
“Anytime,” I tell him.
Carli watches her dad walk out, her brow drawing tight. She looks back at Jace. His lips thin and then he stands. “I’ll grab the other lamps. Carli, help Cody get those hung and then you can get ready for your day in town.”
