Page 29 of Till The Cows Come Home
I breezed through the milking, embracing the dangerous peace it brought my mind, allowing my thoughts free rein instead of the suppression I’d grown fond of. The familiar motion was all it took to trigger memory after memory, and I spent the majority of my time unintentionally unearthing the good that I’d forgotten. In the time it took me to milk, I’dalready allowed myself more forgiveness than I’d managed the past three years. Evidently, crediting my parents for all the things they did provide for me forced me to tilt the scale, opening my eyes to which side held the most weight.And I walked back to the house with a lightness I hadn’t felt grace my body in a long time, a newfound confidence humming under my skin.
I kicked off my boots, padding to the kitchen to sneak another cup of coffee, and when I walked past Miles’ cracked door, I heard the faint sound of the shower running. Although the guestroom bathroom had a door of its own, I closed the exterior door to the bedroom for added privacy. Our encounters were never dull and in order to stay on my productive roll, I needed to be without distraction, which included avoiding accidental naked run-ins.
Fully expecting to scale the mountain of documents, I chugged my coffee before making my way to the dining table, but instead of the disaster I remembered, I was greeted with sorted piles littered about. I grinned to myself, realizing the lumberjack’s exhaustion probably stemmed at least partially from the effort I was admiring. As I identified each pile, a slight pang of regret creeped through me, settling heavily in my gut as I realized the immensity of the task I’d accepted.
I was gonna need more coffee.
Engulfed in the largest pile, I hadn’t noticed the water shut off, and my eyes briefly rose from my work when I heard Miles walk out of his bedroom door. He was donned in a mere towel, and panic ensued when he didn’t notice me sitting at the table, instead walking straight to the coffeemaker, pouring himself a cup before turning around.
“Shit!” He jumped, causing his towel to slip just slightly, revealing the deep channeling below his hips.
“Oh god” I mumbled, ducking my head back into the piles of papers.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” He chuckled, and as I peeked through the stack, I watched as he set his coffee on the counter, readjusting his towel back to a more appropriate level.
“Why did you traipse out here when you knew you were having company? I closed your door!”
“My company is early,” he growled.
His comment stirred something in me. Maybe it was his tone of voice or maybe it was the stubborn woman inside me, but I refused to cower to a half naked man. I sat up straight, no longer hiding the looks I’d been stealing moments ago, allowing my attention to trail from his bare feet upwards until my own gaze settled back to his face. I couldn’t help but mirror the fire engulfing his own eyes when I finally spoke.
“I apologize that my efficiency put us in such a predicament.”
“Are you going to do anything about it?” he grumbled, gripping the counter as if the moment he let go he’d do something about it himself.
I took my time deciding, taking in the way his veins coiled around his arms as his grip continued to tighten.
“No,” I finally huffed, “I’m busy.”
A deep laugh escaped him as he propelled himself off the counter.
“Very well.”
Still smirking, he made his way slowly across the kitchen until all I could see was the large expanse of his back disappearing into his bedroom. As soon as he was out of sight, I got up, briskly making my way to the kitchen sink to splash cold water on my face. After patting it dry on a hand towel I poured myself a glass of water attempting to quench my sudden thirst. I had so much to do and although the distractions were entertaining, I needed to avoid them today if I wanted to get anything done.
Settling back at the table, I picked up the first paper again. A registration. While not technically necessary, registering each cow was an official way to keep track of lineage and ownership, but it seemed as if that wasn’t the case for any calf born here in the past three years. All the registrations were incomplete, most including just the calf’s name and ear tag number. Though, as I thumbed through the pile, I saw some included the parent’s names, others just the mother, and some with both parents but no corresponding numbers. I set the paper down, realizing I’d have to leaf through records playing detective, and even then I’d probably need a miracle to find the information I needed beneath the mess.
As I sorted through this conclusion, Miles emerged from his room, thankfully fully clothed this time, and as he made his way next to me at the table, the smell of pine hit my nose. I choked on the irony, silently chuckling to myself. Of course, the lumberjack smelled like a forest.
“Do you have free time today?” I asked, knowing that I needed the answer to be yes.
In order to accomplish this, we’d need all hands on deck, largely because most of the information I needed resided in the depths of Miles’ head.
“I need to feed quickly and then I’m yours until the evening milking.”
“How about I clean so you can just go straight to laying down fresh feed? That way things can move a little quicker.”
My suggestion was met with the scraping of his chair, and after releasing his legs from the confines of the table, he grabbed his discarded boots and began lacing one.
“Sounds perfect.” He smiled, grabbing his other boot and tugging it on.
As he finished his laces, I walked to the door, slipping on my own rubber boots before securing my egg apron around my waist. I’d brought it in when I decided I was staying thismorning, but I’d forgotten to collect the eggs before I came in. If I was here I was going to give Peaches a few minutes of love, and gathering their bounty was an easy way to secure the time.
“What isthat?” he asked, pointing to the apron.
I could tell he was stifling a laugh, but I didn’t care. I was past being anything but unapologetically myself.
“It holds eggs. Not all of us have giant man hands that can palm a full dozen.”
