“I’d like that,” Reese said.
We were interrupted by the back door opening, but it wasn’t Charlie. Nash trudged into the room and held out the egg basket. “Where do you want these?” he asked.
My insides heated when his eyes met mine. We did a good job of not reacting to one another beyond casual politeness when we were anywhere but the guest house, but I had to admit, it was getting more and more difficult to not be able to touch him whenever I wanted.
“Were you checking my chicken coop for intruders, Agent Nash?” I drawled.
Since Reese was looking at Nash and not me, I sent him a little smirk right before I closed my lips over the edge of my coffee cup and made a big production of swallowing. Nash’s jaw ticked briefly, and I knew he was remembering the blow job I’d given him the night before as Everett had slowly fucked him from behind.
“No, your daughter asked me to bring them inside. Something about a chicken gone rogue? You’ve got some seriously fucked-up animals, Fortier,” he said, even as he reached down to pat Happy’s head.
“I second that,” Reese said with a smile.
I rolled my eyes at him and said to Nash, “You can just leave those on the counter. There’s coffee.”
“Thanks. Do you want me to go with Charlie?” Nash asked. “She said something about finding ‘that darn chicken’ before it ended up in someone’s stew pot?”
I laughed. “No, she knows not to leave the property, and Zeus is out there. He’ll keep an eye on her.”
Nash grabbed a cup of coffee and came to the table. I barely suppressed a smile when he sat down next to me. It was all I could do not to react when his leg deliberately brushed mine beneath the table and stayed there.
“Where’s Everett?” I asked.
“He wanted to lie down for a bit. Guess all that gardening wore him out,” Nash said innocently as he took a sip of his coffee.
“Seems to be going around,” Reese murmured as he continued snapping the ends off the beans.
Nash and I both looked at each other, but managed to refrain from reacting to the comment.
“Your dad was telling me that you grew up in this house,” Reesesaid. “Was it like this when you were a kid?” he asked as he motioned toward the back yard.
“No, not at first. My parents bought this place right after they got married. To save money, my mother thought it might make sense to try and live off the land as much as they could. The vegetable garden was pretty straightforward, but things got complicated when she bought a few chickens from the farmer who lived down the road.”
“How was that complicated?” Nash asked.
“After the chickens stopped producing eggs, the plan was to slaughter them for meat. Only, she and my father had made the mistake of naming the chickens. Since chickens can live several years after they stop producing eggs, my parents knew they’d be losing money to house and feed them. So they tried to follow through on the plan.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “It didn’t go so well. The first chicken who stopped laying eggs was named Sunshine.”
“Had to be your mother who named her that,” Nash interjected.
“She did,” I agreed. “Because Sunshine loved to just sit out in the sun for hours at a time. Anyway, so once Sunshine was past her prime, it was time for her to get the axe… literally. My parents spent a good hour trying to get up the nerve to do the deed. They kept sticking Sunshine on the chopping block, but neither of them could go through with it. So they took her to the farmer to have him do it.”
“And did he?” Reese asked.
“Nope. My mother grabbed Sunshine at the same time that my father screamed at the farmer to stop. The poor guy tripped and ended up cutting off the tip of his own finger. My parents had to pay his medical bills.”
Nash and Reese sat there for a full five seconds before both men burst out laughing. I waited until they’d settled to say, “After that, every animal who ended up on the Fortier property got a reprieve, whether they were contributors or freeloaders. My mom would rescue any animal in need and if she couldn’t find it a home, it cameto live here… didn’t matter that it meant she and my dad needed to tighten the purse strings even more.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman,” Reese said.
“She was,” I agreed. “She’d try to save anyone who needed saving, but kids and animals were her soft spot.”
“Can I ask what happened to her?” Reese asked.
I nodded, though my throat immediately tightened up. “She was working late in her classroom one night about eight years ago. She disappeared on her way home. Her car was found on the side of the road a few miles from our house. But she was nowhere to be found. We thought maybe the car had broken down and she’d walked and maybe gotten hit by a car or something, but her car was fine, and we scoured every inch of the road and surrounding properties between there and here. She was just… gone.”
I could feel my heart rate picking up as the memories began to return to me one by one.
“God, Gage, I’m sorry,” Reese said. “I shouldn’t have asked…”
