Page 32 of Mother Clucker

11

Heather

Yes, I was stalking David Strickland. But only because I didn’t trust him not to mess up the shoot.

I’d finished my work for the day and June, the head of my department, was away and wouldn’t know I’d snuck out to check on the production. And of course I wanted to see Rowdy.

But those were the only reasons I was there at the chicken farm today. Definitely not because I wanted to see David again.

And speak of the devil . . . I’d barely parked my car and gotten out when he came striding out of the front door of the house.

“Hey. Surprised to see you here.” He was breathless by the time he made it over to where I was standing by my car.

I peered at him against the sun glare. “Hey, yourself. Boy, it’s busy around here.”

“Yup. Sure is. Been like this since yesterday. Lots and lots of people. We should probably try to stay out of the way.”

I guess I should have been grateful he was concerned about messing up the shoot, but something told me otherwise.

He was . . . nervous, if I had to put a name to the vibe I was getting from him. His usual slow, sultry drawl was set on double time today. He was almost babbling.

Something was up and I intended to find out. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Well, I mean, just the shoot.”

I glanced around, not trusting him. I spotted a bunch of chickens scratching around in the dirt by the house. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Where’s Rowdy?”

“He was enjoying his new girlfriends last I saw him.”

“And when was that?”

“Just before.”

“And where is he now?” I was starting to panic as the sea of white chickens slowly moved farther into the yard and there was not one flash of red feathers to be seen.

“I found him!” Drew yelled. “He’d gone back into the coop for a nap in one of the nesting boxes.”

I lifted my brows high and leveled my stare on David. “Was he missing?”

“No. Not at all.” In the face of my silence, he finally continued, “Maybe just for a couple of minutes. But as you can see your lazy bird is too pampered to go anywhere. He knows right where he wants to be.”

“Thank goodness for that.” I glanced at the hens. “Why are they all out anyway?”

“First of all, get that judgmental tone out of your voice, missy. I believe you were the one preaching free-range chickens to me just a few days ago. And Drew always lets his laying hens out in the mornings. He’s been keeping them all in until Rowdy got accustomed to being here. The only reason they’re out today is because your company’s crew wanted to get Rowdy on camera without the cage.”

At the end of his mini rant I heard the unspoken, so there.

“Okay.”

He stared at me, as if trying to evaluate if I was really going to let it go with a single word. He was right to be dubious, because I wasn’t quite done yet.

“But next time, maybe you should keep an eye on him so he doesn’t wander off.”

“If there is a next time. They are wrapping this up today.”

“Wrapping up the sizzle reel that we’ll use to sell the idea to a network. If the project gets the green light, we’ll be back to shoot for at least a month to get enough footage for the first ten episodes,” I explained.

“Jesus, let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” he mumbled under his breath.

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