Page 16 of Out on a Limb
Unsuccessfully.
It would figure he’d open up now.
“You don’t want to know.” He grabbed the bin from the back end.
But I did want to know.
Which is why I had to leave it alone.
“I do want to know.” So much for leaving it alone.
“I’m not sure my pets are anything you’d be interested in.” Andrew’s eyes skimmed to the chicken on my back. “Your pet might, though.”
Chapter Four
Andrew
COLLETTE’S CHICKEN STARED at me from his spot on her back.
Taunting me with his beady little eyes and white mohawk.
Making me want to think this woman might not be exactly what I’d convinced myself she was.
Because the woman I thought she was, would definitely not be carrying a chicken in a backpack.
But she also wouldn’t have been out digging ditches in the sweltering heat until she passed out.
So maybe everything I thought I knew about Collette was wrong.
I tried not to watch as she worked with the staff to remedy a problem that affected us all. Collette didn’t dish out orders from the comfort of her air-conditioned office the way her grandfather did.
The woman dug in and helped get shit done.
Even when it was hard.
Even when it was hot.
Even when it was messy.
It reminded me of someone I used to know.
“Anybody see any more?” She slowly spun in place, scanning the last bit of the garden we had left to search.
“I think we got them all.” I wanted this to be done. I didn’t like the pink flush of her cheeks. I’d watched her drop once, and I wasn’t in a hurry to have it happen again.
“We probably missed a few, but we got most of them.” Collette let out a long breath that almost sounded like a sigh.
That meant relief.
And it made two of us.
I twisted the cap off the bottle of water I’d been nursing and passed it her way. “Here.”
She took it immediately, which was surprising.
But not as surprising as when she crouched down, working the bag off her back and freeing the chicken inside, before pouring out a little of the water into a dip in the dirt.
The chicken immediately started pecking at the puddle, tipping his head back as he drank the water down.
