Jace walks out.
Carli looks up at me. “No kissing,” she says softly. I swallow and then chuckle.
“I wasn’t even thinking of kissing you. Not at all. Get your mind out of the gutter, Chuck.”
She slaps at me playfully. “You were too. I saw your eyes. They had that look.”
“Maybe that’s just the way I look at you.”
“Hmmm.” She smiles softly. “Maybe.”
She takes one of the lamps from me and I follow her to the pens where the original heaters blew.
Carli sets the baby piglet down to help me install the lamps.
“He’s a runt,” she says. Then she smiles up at me. “You just saved his life.”
“Looks like you were saving his life before I ever got here.”
Carli ignores my comment and reaches up to hook a lamp overhead. I stand right behind her, inhaling deeply.
“Did you just sniff me?” she asks, giggling as she turns to face me.
“What?” I ask. “I like how you smell.”
She shakes her head, but she’s smiling.
Jace returns with the other two lamps.
I follow him to the two other pens. I install one lamp and he hooks up the other.
“Is your dad okay?” I ask him after all four heaters are hung and running.
“Yeah. Why?”
“He seemed a little winded.”
“He’s getting older. We’ve been working hard.”
“Yeah. Makes sense.” I run my hand through my hair. “It was good to see him.”
“He’s always glad to see you. Anytime your name comes up he calls you his other son.”
I smile. Though, that would make me Carli’s brother—which, I’m definitely not.
“I’d better get going,” I tell Jace. “We need to hang out soon.”
“Hanging out?” he chuckles. “What’s that?”
“You’re only proving my point,” I tell him.
“I’d love some time with you when my hand’s not stuck up the backside of a hog,” he says. “Maybe next month. Meanwhile, you know where to find me.”
“I do.”
“I’ll walk Cody out,” Carli offers.
Jace’s face scrunches with confusion.
