“You need me to remind you how I turned your world upside down last night?”
Lainey cast her eyes to the sky and prayed for the patience to not kill him.
“Actually, I was here to see if I could buy some eggs.” She braced herself for the fertilised jokes that would surely come.
Jake shrugged. “Help yourself. There are boxes in the kitchen. These have all been laid this morning.” He rubbed at his hand.
“A hen peck doesn’t hurt that much.” Her brother might be a doctor, but he was horrendous with pain, and she knew the signs of a man trying to milk an injury.
“It does from Willow. She’s sitting on at least three eggs and if I can get them out from under her, she’ll go have something to eat.”
“Broody hen?”
“Broody pekin. This is the third week.”
Lainey risk assessed moving closer. She doubted Jake would tip her back and kiss her again given they didn’t have an audience. She was pretty sure that last night had just been to piss her off, and to get whatever attention he craved, which was clearly a lot.
The man had a problem.
He also had a spectacular arse.
“Aren’t pekins broody most of the time?” Lainey had spent most of her life around farms. She was familiar with pekins, bantam hens with a fluffy tail and feathered feet. They went broody as soon as the first snowdrop appeared and after that it was a battle to get them off an egg that someone happened to lay.
Jake nodded. “Pretty much. It’s like whack-a-mole. One stops being broody and two others start. Willow’s managed to hide about half-a-dozen eggs and she’s refusing to let me anywhere near.
“You don’t want to hatch them?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’m picking up a pekin rooster this week, and I’ll separate the bantams from the big girls.” He stopped speaking suddenly and stared at her, his expression looking like it’d been hit by a blizzard. “How much do you know about hens?”
Lainey shrugged, feeling tension creep up her spine. “Clearly more than you give me credit for. How much do I owe you for the eggs?”
“Consider them a house-warming present.” His eyes didn’t leave hers. “I suggest you treasure them.”
“Always.” She chanced it and took the few steps needed to get to the basket where he’d placed the eggs. There looked to be about twenty in there already. “Do you use the hens for meat?”
“No.” The answer came quickly. “Eggs only. Liana, one of the farm hands, likes to show some of the bantams, and we sell the pullets to backyard chicken keepers. I don’t farm animals for meat. The cows are used for milk, the pigs are rescues or I’ll breed and sell them on, but I don’t slaughter my own. My uncle thinks I’m mad.”
“You’re blocking a good income.”
“I’ve heard it before. But there are other farms locally that do it well, and I won’t take income off them. I make more from the music festivals I’ve held and the camping set up than I would do from meat.” He looked at her with narrowed eyes, ones that she recognised from Shay when he was about to say something she wasn’t going to like, such asI slept with your best friend.
“What?” She detested when someone was too slow to explain.
Jake shook his head. “You know I have permission to hold a weekend long music festival this summer? It was granted nine months ago, before you bought that place.”
Her mouth opened and closed a few times while she bit back words. “No. It was probably mentioned but I haven’t taken it in. I’ll have clients here for therapy by then – the noise… how busy will it be?”
“It’s half a mile from here over three fallow fields. You’ll hear some noise if the air’s still, but traffic won’t be coming this way. It shouldn’t impact you or the animals. And you know, it might help loosen that stick you’ve got up your arse if you have some fun there.” The light blue eyes he possessed altered from looking serious to wicked in half a breath.
Lainey didn’t have time to even think of a retort. The gate burst open, causing a pretty gold feathered hen to flutter in a panic.
“Lainey!” Imogen’s voice was almost at panic level, a stage usually only reached when the internet slowed down when she was sales shopping. “We’re locked out – unless you have keys?” Immy looked and smelled as if she’d been mucking out. Luckily, neither Lainey nor Jake were going to care about that.
“Isn’t the side door unlocked?” Lainey swore that was open.
“No, Brains. I’d checked that before running here. And you didn’t put the catch on the back door.”
Fuck. Lainey felt her shoulders sink. She really, really needed to get the day off to a good start. The person bringing her new client was basically here to assess whether her farm would be placed on the list to recommend to clients, some paid for by the hospital itself. This was a big deal.
