Page 101 of Filthy Fae

“They probably think you’re bringing them food,” Cody said. He skirted around the cows on the loose, though. “Just give them a good slap on the ass to get them moving.”

“Won’t they kick me?” I asked, watching with suspicion as Cody smacked their asses.

“Hya, hya,” he said, really getting into it.

I stepped up beside him and gave the last cow a gentle swat. There was a chunk of fur on its rump that was matted and crusted with something of a greenish hue that looked suspiciously like poop.

She didn’t move.

“You gotta let her really have it,” Cody said. “Urge her along.”

“Hya?” I said, giving her a little swat, thankful I was wearing gloves. Unlike the horses, she did not look super clean.

“Say it like you mean it,” Cody said. “Put some authority into it.”

“Move, you big poop-dropping cud-chewer,” I yelled, smacking her ass for all I was worth.

The cow moved! She started following the two Cody had gotten going. Cody smiled and shook his head. “That’s one way to do it.”

“I did it,” I yelled, pumping my fist in the air. Without thinking, I threw my arms around Cody in celebration. He stiffened, his hands dropping to my hips and holding me back a few inches so our bodies didn’t touch below the chest. It was the most awkward hug in history.

I quickly pulled away. “Sorry.”

Cody rubbed his jaw where a nasty bruise had formed. “I don’t guess you should go doing that,” he said. “I’d like to keep the rest of my teeth.”

“It didn’t mean anything,” I said indignantly. You’d think I’d been hitting on him, not celebrating my victory of crusty, hostile cows.

Without a word, Cody stepped around me and trotted ahead to block the cows from going past the hole in the fence. I waved my arms and chased them down the road. Pretty soon, they’d lumbered up the step from the road to the pasture and gone right back through their fence.

“I can’t believe they went back in so easy,” I said as Cody picked up the broken fence and examined the wire. “I thought they’d put up more of a fight. They basically walked right back into their cage.”

“They’re herd animals,” Cody said without looking up. “They like to be together.”

“Still,” I said. “Seeing as how they were free for a second, I figured they’d make a run for the border.”

Cody smiled and shook his head. “They’re not that smart.”

“Obviously not,” I said.

“You’re really something, you know that?” he said. Before I could answer, not that I had an answer to that, he had hopped down onto the road and was jogging toward his Jeep. A minute later, he was back with a pair of plyers and a small roll of wire.

“You just carry that around in your car all the time?” I asked, edging away a little. He seemed pretty normal, but I couldn’t think of any reason to carry wire around unless you were a serial killer. Or, you know, you needed to fix a fence.

“It was in my tool box,” he said. “Here, hold this.”

He held out a piece of wire, and I decided that I would know about it if he was a murderer, so I stepped closer and took it from his gloved hand. He held the broken pieces of fencing together while I wound the wire around it. After repeating the process with the other two strands of wire, he stood and brushed snow off his clothes. Unlike me, he wasn’t wearing snow pants, and it occurred to me that he must be freezing his balls off out here. And now I was thinking about his balls.

Get a grip, Amber. This is the enemy.

The problem was, he didn’t feel like an enemy. He felt comfortable and familiar.

“Thanks,” I said, shoving my hands in the pockets of my parka. “You didn’t have to do all that. I know it’s a little convenient for me to say that now that it’s done, but—”

“Not a problem,” Cody said. “Need a lift back to the house?”

“Um, no,” I said. “I should drive the side-by-side.”

He gave me a doubtful look. “I can drive that if you want to get the Jeep?”