Page 47 of Mother Clucker

As if things hadn’t been serious up until now?

She continued, “You might want to objectively read the comments and take into consideration some of the suggestions.”

“Such as vegan dog food?” I scoffed.

I’d never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. Dogs were carnivores. Pure and simple. No amount of earthy crunchy do-gooders commenting on this damn video was going to change nature.

She lifted a shoulder. “Sure. It would save a lot of chickens’ lives.”

I could have argued. I was extremely proud of myself that I didn’t.

Debating the issue would get us nowhere. Certainly not where I wanted to go, which was back to bed. I glanced at the time on her computer before I flipped the lid closed.

The sun would be rising in a couple of hours and I was more than done with video commenters for now.

“I will take it into consideration,” I said, standing and grabbing her around the waist.

“Really? You will?” she asked, looking hopeful.

“Sure. When I get back to Texas.” I would read them all, consider how stupid the suggestions were and move on.

“When is that?” she asked. “Your going back to Texas, I mean.”

Did she look a little sad about me heading home? Bastard that I was, I enjoyed knowing that.

“I’m not sure yet.” But I was sure I didn’t want to discuss it now. Not when there was so much better we could be doing. “Now come on back to bed.”

She sighed and let me lead her toward the bedroom. “You’re right. We do need to get to sleep. I have my first volunteer shift at the shelter early in the morning.”

Sleep? Yeah. No. That wasn’t what I had in mind at all.

“How about I write Anna another check and you skip that shift?” I suggested, liking that idea a whole lot.

“No, Mr. Moneybags. I promised them that I’d be there and I’m going to be.”

In the bedroom I tossed her onto the mattress, enjoying how the T-shirt rode up and gave me full access to what I craved most.

“We’ll see about that,” I said as I spread her legs and kneeled between them.

She argued with me until I got my mouth on her. Then, magically, she was quiet.

Well, quiet for a little while, until she was writhing and chanting my name over and over. But I didn’t mind that. Not at all.

18

Heather

I wasn’t late, but I certainly wasn’t as early as I’d planned on being on my first day at the shelter. And I definitely wasn’t focused.

I’d been hoping to start work on building the shelter’s Instapost account during my shift, but my head was so full of David I kept wandering around in circles forgetting what I’d been about to do.

Luckily, kittens and puppies weren’t all that demanding. And the older dogs were just so grateful to get a pat on the head, they were no trouble at all.

But having my brain spinning with ideas for Strickland’s PR revamp, combined with memories of sex with David, all intermingled with thoughts about when I might see him again, was a trifecta for distraction.

“Heather?”

“Hmm?” I spun and found Emily had been speaking to me. “Sorry, what did you say?”

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