Page 47 of Cabins Cows Critics
He shrugs.
“Actually, I’m not sure what his qualifications actually are. He knows his stuff, though.”
“And he just showed up here one day with a baby cow in his arms?”
“Yeah, it was the night of one of the biggest storms in the state. He flipped his truck, swerving to miss the thing, and we were the closest lights he could see, so he just picked it up and carried it here.”
“And then stayed?”
“That’s what happens on the Beaker Brothers Ranch. It’s a magnet for creatures big and small that need a place to fit in.”
“You needed fitting in?” I ask, and Wendy shushes me.
“I’m trying to listen,” she whispers, and I turn my attention to Sally-May, and she goes through the filling options she’s partially prepared for us already. I choose cherry, because it’s in a jar she’d made a few summers ago, and the cherries look plump pushed up against the glass.
“Apple for me, please,” Atlas asks, but Sally-May hands him a jar of peaches in either juice or syrup with the same style handmade label on the jar as my cherries.
“Apple is all gone. You should have been listening,” she chastises, and I stifle a laugh.
“Sorry,” I say, but he shrugs.
“Everyone loves a nice furry peach.”
One of the sisters giggles, whispering to the other.
I try twice to open and lift the sealed top on the jar but the fucker won’t budge.
“I thought these things had screw tops,” I say, and Atlas takes the jar.
“There’s a trick to these,” he says, grabbing a small knife from the middle of the table that he used to trim his pie edges, and then slides it under the rim until we hear a soft “pop.”
“Thanks,” I say as he hands it back, and I get my first whiff of the delicious cherries inside. “Wow.”
“That was a particularly good batch,” Sally-May says, handing me a teaspoon. “Go on, have a taste.”
I dip the spoon in the dark red liquid pooling over the spoon like blood, just as Connor walks in the back door. I slip the spoon under one of the cherries and bring it up to my mouth, salivating in anticipation, then lock my gaze on Connor as I pop it slowly into my mouth. The delicious tart and sweetness hit my tongue, and my eyes flutter closed as a soft moan escapes my lips before I swallow and return my gaze to him.
“So good.”
Everyone tastes their chosen filling, chatting about how amazing each one is, as Connor walks around the table, I turn with the jar still in my hands.
“You look like you enjoyed that,” he says with a smirk.
“It was the second-best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”
Chapter nineteen
Connor
HOLDING ON
Haydenbouncesthroughmydoor right on eight, and I leap from the bed and kiss him immediately. I haven’t gotten an alert all day, so I’m hoping that means they’ve given up their search for me.
“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” I say, releasing him. “Don’t worry, I know your mind’s been on other things. How is the book coming?”
His face lights up with a brilliant smile.
“It’s amazing, at least I think it is. I figured out my killer today.” He glances around with a confused frown on his face. “Where’s Lulu?”
