Page 84 of The Last Second Chance
“So I started a list,” Joey said, bustling into the room and flopping down in the chair behind her desk.
“Let’s have it,” Jax said, handing her a mug.
“Snow removal is going to be the priority, obviously. But since we have some advance warning, I want to get all the horses lunged and exercised since they won’t be seeing the pastures anytime soon.”
“We’re going to need some help with that,” Colby predicted.
“I think I’ll call in some favors with the students. If I can get four or five of them in here before lunch, we should be in good shape.”
“Problem solved. What’s next?” Jax asked, comfortable letting her take the lead.
“You and Carter already stocked the straw for bedding so we’re good there. But we need to double check the furnace in the stable and the barn and I think it would be a good idea to add some extra insulation to the pipes to make sure nothing freezes. I don’t want to be hauling water to the horses from the house.”
“I’ll see what we’ve got left over from last winter and then I can make a run into town for supplies,” Jax volunteered.
“Great. I’ve got a shopping list, too, if you’re going into town.”
“No problem. So snow removal, I’m thinking we should keep the Jeep over here to dig out here and at the brewery. We should be able to clear at the farmhouse with one or two of the ATVs. Colby and I can hook up the plows to them today.”
“How about the generators?” Joey asked.
“Gas tanks were filled last week for the brewery. I’ll check yours and the farmhouse while we still have some daylight,” Jax told her. “We’ve got a portable one in the garage we can roll out for emergencies.”
“If we work our asses off today, we just might earn ourselves a nice little vacation,” Colby said.
“I wouldn’t say no to a little R and R,” Jax said, giving Joey a wink.
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Before the first flakes fell, Jax gave Joey a hand turning out the horses. Six students showed up to help lunge and ride in an effort to get everyone’s energy out while they still could. If the forecast was even close to accurate, it would be days before the horses saw the pasture again.
While Joey saddled up one of the spunkier mounts, Jax, Colby, and Waffles made sure the furnaces in the barn and stables were up to the challenge of a winter storm of epic proportions.
In the barn, he gave the pigs, Dixie and Hamlet, some extra bedding and threw a ball in their box stall for entertainment purposes. Dixie’s curly tail wiggled with pleasure when he gave her a quick pat. One stall down, Clementine, the evil goat monster, was safely secured. But that didn’t stop her from charging the gate when she saw Jax.
Her demonic little hooves scrambled at the wood and her ears twitched. Clementine’s creepy yellow eyes glowed under the barn’s fluorescent lights.
“Clearly not enjoying your captivity, are you?” Jax asked smugly. “You’re not so tough when you’re behind bars, are you?” He took a step closer.
He wasn’t sure if it was possible, but it looked like the goat narrowed her eyes at him. Pressing his luck, Jax waved his left hand at her and when the goat followed the movement with her satanic gaze, he swooped in with his right and patted her on the head.
It wasn’t anything his brothers hadn’t done before. Joey and the girls regularly gave the four-legged beast ear scratches. Hell Evan and Aurora could hug her around the neck. But one pat on the head from Jax and the goat lost her shit. She sprang at the door, hooves clamoring. Something close to a scream erupted from her goat throat.
Jax jumped back in case the enraged goat managed to levitate over the door.
Waffles, fearless defender that he was, jumped at the door and barked three short yips.
Clementine stared down the furry bodyguard and Jax could almost hear her calculating the odds that she could take Waffles in a fight. After a tense few seconds, Clementine must have decided the odds were not in her favor and she slowly retreated, sliding down the inside of the door and sauntering over to her feed bucket.
“You’re getting an entire plate of bacon tonight,” Jax told the dog. Waffles blinked at him in understanding. The dog returned to Jax’s side, tail wagging happily. They wandered down to another large box stall where Carter’s latest charity cases were happily munching on hay. The two neglected Jersey cows that Dr. Ames had guilted his brother into taking in were already putting weight back on.
“You ladies have everything you need?” he asked, glancing at their bedding and feed and water buckets.
One of them swung her wet nose in his direction and lowed.
“I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll bring you some bread as a special snowed in treat tomorrow.”
The Jersey’s glossy brown eyes remained interested in him and she approached the gate. She stuck her nose between the slats and sniffed at Waffles. Accommodating as always, Waffles tolerated the sniffing.
