“Yes,” his mother answered.
“Where they are?”
“Listen.” Jace signaled them to stop. “What do you hear?”
Eddie’s eyes widened. “Chickens?”
“You’re right.” They rounded the corner of a shed. “There they are.” A high wire fence surrounded the pen, holding in rusty red chickens along with a handful of black-and-white hens, white feathers circled with a black border. He opened the gate and let Dianne step into the enclosure. Skip knew it was off-limits and sat back. Eddie stayed with the dog.
The chickens circled Dianne, clucking. “They’re pretty.”
“Surprised?”
“I am. But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“They need feed and water.” He showed her the feed in the nearby shed and how to fill the waterers. “Now, you need to gather the eggs.”
“Where are they? Do they hide them?” She peered under the feeder.
Chuckling, he pointed to the henhouse. “There are nests in there. Have a look.” He stood at the doorway, watching as she discovered eggs and nestled them in her basket.
Having checked each nest, she stopped in front of him, hereyes bright. “I have twenty eggs. Look.” She lifted the basket for his inspection.
Only the eggs weren’t what held his attention. He’d seen eggs countless times. But never had he observed that glow on another face. He touched her cheek. “One would think you’d discovered gold, not ordinary eggs.”
Light brimmed from her eyes. “This is better’n gold. You can’t eat gold.”
“True.” But never before had anyone valued gold less than a basket of eggs.
“Look, Eddie.” She leaned over to let her son touch the eggs. “The chickens have given us eggs. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Eddie nodded. “I likes chickens.”
“Me too.” She favored Jace with a sunny smile.
“Let’s take them to the house.” He draped his arm across her shoulders as they returned. Not that he could explain why he did something so bold. But he’d found a thread of connection between them at her enjoyment of this simple chore. It kind of reminded him of his sisters.
Every step of the way, she ran her fingers along the surface of the eggs, a little humming sound rumbling her lips.
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. Not because he mocked her but—“Your joy at getting the eggs makes me glad to be a farmer. Chet never allowed me to say we were farmers. Although, we did almost exactly the same things. He insisted we were ranchers. ‘Cows are what we grow,’ he’d growl in that deep voice of his.”
Dianne looked into his eyes. For two heartbeats, neither of them looked away. Then they both blinked and turned their attention to the path, a distance of two feet between them.
He had no idea what just happened, but something had.
They reached the steps and stopped.
“I need to put away my eggs and start the pies.” But she didn’t move.
“I’ll move my things to the bunkhouse.” He only needed togather the items he planned to take to the cabin. He didn’t care what happened to everything else.
He accompanied her inside and grabbed up his satchel where he dropped it earlier. But rather than rush away, he paused at the door and waited for her to look at him, a smile warming her eyes.
“After supper, I’ll show you how to look after the cow and calf.”
“I’d like that.”
He headed outdoors, his insides as sweet as honey. She only agreed to learn how to take care of the cow, but her words felt more like a promise.I’d like that. As if she meant she liked having him around.
