Page 14 of Jasper

“Look up the local power company and see if they can come out and give us some electricity. I’ll unload the truck while you do that.”

“You just want those donuts.”

“Maybe I do.” He grinned and went back outside.

Sloane sighed and started making calls. It wasn’t just power; they’d need internet too. She had to keep up with what was going on with the trial for which witness had been murdered.

It took her about two hours to get agreements to come out and turn on the power, the water, and the internet. Since she was staying at Jarrod’s house, she had to tell them she was his cousin and had permission to turn everything back on. Not that they took her word for it. She promised to have Jarrod send them an email. She then had to email Jarrod, explain what was going on, and have him send an email to all the utilities involved.

She was lucky that wherever Jarrod was, it wasn’t the middle of the night. She’d had all three utility companies call her back with the promise of coming out first thing tomorrow.

So, for tonight, they were stuck with no electricity or running water. Jasper had gone out to the well and collected water in some buckets they could use to flush the toilet. She grimaced just thinking about it. No hot bath for her either. Her fingers were numb from cold, and all she wanted to do was curl up next to the now roaring fire and sleep.

But such was not the case. The animals had to be fed. Cows, chickens, and horses. She loved horses, but smelling that barn had not been pleasant. Jasper seemed pissed the second he walked inside. It wasn’t until later that he told her the animals hadn’t been properly taken care of. The horses’ stalls hadn’t been cleaned in what looked like weeks. He said he’d have to have the vet come over and check them out.

The chicken coop wasn’t much better either. The poor things looked half-starved. She let Jasper handle them, though. She’d been attacked by a chicken when she was five and never got over it. Granted, it had been protecting its chicks, but still. Flogging her had not been necessary.

“Pigs need fed too.”

Her head snapped up when she heard that. “There’s pigs?”

Jasper laughed. “Yes, sweetheart, there are pigs. They eat just about anything, but there’s feed for them by the horse feed. If you can do that, I’ll get the chickens of mass destruction fed.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. He’d laughed his head off when she explained why she wouldn’t go near the chickens. Nasty little attack animals.

Okay. Pigs. She found the feed bins and several large pails sitting beside the containers. She opened it and scooped out enough to fill two. There were six, but she knew she’d only be able to carry two. She wasn’t Mr. Muscles over there. It took her a good twenty minutes to get the gross things fed, and her hands were sore. There might even be blisters later. Well, probably not.

One thing was for sure. She was right when she assumed she wasn’t cut out for farm life. Green Acres wasnotthe place to be, as that old TV show her grandmother made her watch claimed.

Rubbing her sore hands, she trudged along the dirt path that led back to the main house, which was now shrouded in shadows. Night was beginning to fall, and with it, the cold would get worse. Jarrod warned her how cold it could get up here when he offered her the house. At that point, she hadn’t cared. She was in fear for her life, but now that she was here and experiencing it firsthand? She might have thought to flee to California instead. At least she wouldn’t be freezing her ass off right now.

As soon as she walked in, she felt the shift in the temperature before she heard the crackling of the fire. She kicked off her boots and ran for the living room where the massive fireplace sat front and center.

Jasper was standing with his back to her, going through a pile of blankets. A large mattress was in front of the fire, complete with a sheet. There was a pot sitting in the fireplace too. It smelled suspiciously like tomato soup.

Her stomach growled.

Jasper’s shoulders shook with his laughter.

“Sit down and get warm, Sloane. I’m trying to find blankets that don’t smell like mothballs.”

“The ones on the beds…”

“Nope. The beds were stripped bare and everything stored in trunks full of mothballs.”

“Why on Earth would he do that?” She sank down on the mattress and got as close to the heat as she could without setting her hair on fire.

“Because his deployment was for a year. He closed up shop.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t known that. She assumed he’d be overseas for only a few months. Every time he left, it scared her. Jarrod was the only family she had left. Her parents were gone, their grandparents passed when they were in high school, and Jarrod’s mother had Alzheimer’s. His father had never been in the picture. The two of them were it for each other. Whenever he went overseas, she prayed every single night he’d come home safe. Sloane didn’t know what she’d do if something happened to Jarrod. He was more like a brother than a cousin.

Jasper brought three quilts over to the mattress and draped one around her shoulders. “These are the least offensive of the bedding. Everything needs to be washed, but until the power comes on, we’re SOL.”

“Well, hell,” she muttered, and Jasper laughed. “What?”

“It’s just weird hearing you cuss. I didn’t think you did.”

“I cuss when the situation warrants it.”

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