Page 44 of Crew

As the night stretched on, they stayed side by side. He encouraged her to go to bed, but she was determined to stay with him, and he loved her for it. His early bird would be grumpy in the morning, but he didn’t mind her grumblings when it meant they could head to bed after Grey took the next shift and he could drive her wild.

They would keep each other safe, and the herd too.

Colton could fuck all the way off. The farm belonged to the Little River Herd, and damn anyone who thought they could take it over.

After staying with Crew outside for his patrol shift, they headed to bed, and she was supremely thankful for the blackout curtains in his room that allowed them to rest. She positively loved waking up next to him. She loved everything about her life right now, except of course, for the crazy ex-herd that was like a dark cloud over them.

Shaking the thoughts of Colton and his herd from her mind, she focused on the day ahead. She and Crew had slept through breakfast but were up in time for lunch. When she went into the walk-in pantry to find chips to go with the chicken salad sandwiches Tris had left for them, she realized they were out of them. And quite a lot of things.

“I have a thought,” she said as she sat down at the table with Crew.

“About chips?” he asked, arching a brow at her.

“Sort of. We’re out, by the way.”

“Bummer.”

“Yeah, and that was my thought. Routines have obviously gotten upset here with everything that’s going on, plus adding me into the mix has made Tris’s awesomely organized caretaking job have to use more supplies than usual.”

He hummed. “She usually would go shopping at least once a week. We kind of put the kibosh on that because of everything going on. So what’s your thought?”

“It’s clearly not safe for me to go out, or hell, probably even me and Tris together to go out and shop.” He gave her a disgruntled noise of agreement. “And it would be really selfish of me to take one of you with me because we need all hands on deck. So I’d like to do a full inventory of everything, from what we use in the house to the livestock, and have things delivered.”

He sat back in the chair and gave her a long look. “I think it’s a great idea, but you’re working your ass off, you know. Around the farm and in the house, you’ve been monitoring the security systems, and you’ve been sticking with me for the patrol shifts too.”

“I know. Everyone agreed to an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

“Yeah, baby, but all the hands don’t have to be yours.”

She smiled. “Fair enough. But let me get with Tris and we’ll order whatever supplies we need, and then I’ll do something low-key and unhelpful.”

“What would that be?”

“I don’t know. Watch TV?”

“Sure, I’ll take a break with you when you do, okay? But just don’t burn yourself out. It’s really easy to do.” He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Our herd is small, and normally we wouldn’t have issues like this where we’re trying to keep on top of the farm life and also defending ourselves against another herd. It’s making our lack of herd members an issue.”

“I can’t wait until things get back to normal.”

“Me too, love.”

“I think,” she said, as they finished their sandwiches, “that I’m just restless and anxious. It’s making me want to keep busy.”

“I get that, I’m the same way.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Let’s just promise to keep each other from going crazy trying to do it all.”

“Sounds good to me.”

* * *

Zara moved an empty box and placed it underneath the kitchen table as Nancy lifted a crate of canned goods and set it on top. “That’s the last of the delivery from the grocery,” Nancy said with a sharp exhale. “With so much food, we’ll be well-stocked for emergencies for a while.”

“I hope so,” Zara said. She grabbed a bag of potatoes to sort.

“If not an emergency, maybe a barbecue?” Tris asked as she walked out of the pantry with an empty box. “After restocking the spices and sauces in the pantry, I was thinking it would be a perfect time to have a barbecue.”

“It would,” Nancy said. “And since we just stocked the fridge and freezer with meat, I happened to notice several racks of ribs.”

“And that watermelon,” Tris said.

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