Page 56 of Mother Clucker

“She’s not my girl.” The unspoken yet echoed through my brain. “And no. Not yet. I’m fixin’ to.”

Rowdy caught my attention as he angled his head and stared at me with one beady eye.

In all likelihood he associated my voice with getting to go for a ride in the truck to see Trixie. But right now he seemed to be accusing me of not taking care of business with Heather.

“She was in the middle of working a volunteer shift at the shelter when I saw her,” I explained. Whether to Rowdy or Drew, I wasn’t sure.

Drew tossed the feed into the trough, then closed and latched the door. “That was this morning. How long do they work those volunteers over there? She should be done by now.”

“Yeah. I guess.” Why was I procrastinating?

I was only leaving for like five days. Then I’d be back—this time. Next time, probably not. I couldn’t live in Drew’s guest room forever.

Hell, I couldn’t even get my own place here because the truth of the matter was, at the end of the day, all business operations stemmed from the Texas office. They always had. It made no sense to move them to California. Even with the enticement that was Heather.

I grabbed my cell to text her, then decided to just call. I wanted to hear her voice. I hit my screen to connect and waited through the rings.

Finally she answered. “Hi.”

I smiled at the deep sultry warmth in her greeting. How could one short word, two tiny letters, make my heart speed?

“Hey,” I said back. “You still at the shelter?”

“No. I just got home.”

“Wow. Long day there, huh?”

“Actually, my shift was only two hours. Then I met Lucy at my place and we drove the two and a half hours together to Coronado.”

“Why? What’s there?”

“Navy SEALs.”

“Uh, what?” What the fuck?

She laughed. “We had to meet with them for the adopt-a-thon. I can’t wait to tell you all we have planned.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait either.” I realized I sounded a lot less excited than she did, even though I was dying to know why she’d spent five hours on the road to see some Navy SEALs, plural, meaning more than one.

What did that mean? Was that one for each of them? One for Heather and one for Lucy? Like a double date?

Christ. I set my beer down, not having a taste for it anymore as my gut twisted.

“Can I come over?” she asked.

“Yeah. That’d be great.” I’d been more hoping for an invite back to her place, but I wasn’t about to say no to her offer. Especially now that I was competing against some frigging SEAL for her attention.

“Perfect. Just let me change out of this dress.”

Dress?

She’d worn jeans to come out with me. She’d worn a dress to see the SEALs. My mind went to bad places imagining what this dress looked like. Or more, how much skin it revealed.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing you in this dress of yours.”

She laughed. “Well, I mind. These heels are killing me. See you in a little while.”

“Yup. I’ll be here waiting on you.”

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