Page 10 of Her Juicy Cherry (Sweet Treats 2)

Abby squints her eyes.

“Who would think that it’s wrong to shear sheep?”

I shrug.

“Well, sometimes vegans get carried away. There’s nothing wrong with their decisions, but I think the bases of some of their decisions are exaggerated, like this sheep thing.”

Rhea butts in then.

“Yeah, but you guys are city girls. 4-H isn’t anything, and it doesn’t count. I was raised on a farm, and the sheep get cut while they’re being shorn. It’s a brutal process.”

I nod.

“That’s true, but the shearers are paid less if the sheep are injured. And professional shearers know what they’re doing. They’re able to subdue the sheep and shear an entire sheep within minutes. You’re right. Some sheep do get injured, but mistakes are made in any industry, and it could happen to anyone. It’s an accident.”

Rhea shrugs.

“I’m just saying, I’ve seen some unhappy looking sheep.”

I sigh.

“Well, sheep don’t get it. They don’t understand that being shorn is a part of life, and you can’t really explain it to them either. They’re sheep, after all.”

Rhea’s about to snap something in retort, but suddenly, there’s a tap on my shoulder. It’s a man who was introduced to us as the foreman of Cherrywood, Bill Thompson. He’s heavyset and graying with a shock of iron-colored hair.

“Bosses want to see you,” he grunts before jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “In their office.”

Rhea immediately cackles, opening her maw to show stained brown teeth.

“You’re in trouble already? We haven’t even been here twenty-four hours! Ooooooh.”

I merely shoot her a tight smile and nod at Abigail.

“I’ll see you guys later okay?” I say, picking up my tray and dumping my leftovers into the trash. I hate to waste food, but then again, Hank and Huck have summoned me, and I’m excited to see my two gorgeous bosses again. There’s a mystery about these men that I’m dying to figure out, and this is my opportunity.

“See you back at the dorms,” says Abigail with a shy smile. “I hope everything goes okay.”

Rhea merely grunts and swallows another huge spoonful of mashed potatoes.

“Hardly,” she cackles again. “Someone’s in big trouble!”

I have no idea what she’s talking about. How could I be in trouble when I only just got to Cherrywood? But I smile wanly and march off with my shoulders set straight. Hank and Huck have something up their sleeve, and it’s time to find out what it is.

7

Hank

We hear rapping down the hallway, and I step out of our lab to motion to Courtney. Sure enough, she’s in front of our office, looking confused.

“Over here,” I gesture. “This way.”

She perks up, her sizeable chest bobbling slightly.

“Oh okay. Sorry, I thought Bill told me to find you in your office.”

I nod.

“He did, but we’ve decided to move the meeting into our lab.”

Courtney strolls down the hall and steps into the lab. Her eyes grow wide as she marvels at the space. It’s not something you find in most farms, that’s for sure. We remodeled the main building of the farm so that it has all of the regular things: a reception room, a dining hall, bathrooms, even a billiards room. But we also blew out the back and constructed a lab for ourselves. It’s gleaming white with polished cement floors. The space is illuminated with fluorescent lighting and filled with robotics. The shiny steel structures make it look like we’re NASA, but even better. We’re not going to the literal moon; we’re taking people to Heaven, but in a different way.

“What is this?” gasps Courtney, her brown eyes wide. She looks beautiful with curly chestnut hair, a pouty mouth, and a sweater that hugs her ample curves. Her ass is encased in tight jeans, which highlight their swell and roll.

Huck strides over, and he’s even wearing a lab coat, like a mad scientist.

“Hank and I like to tinker,” he says by way of explanation. “We mentioned that we used to work tech jobs in San Francisco right? Hank and I are engineers at heart, even if we’re also farmers now.”

Courtney looks stunned.

“But I thought you gave all that up when you purchased Cherrywood. You were downsizing and trying to find a simpler way of life.”

I chuckle deep in my throat.

“Yeah, sort of. We gave up high stress jobs in San Francisco because we weren’t interested in working for others anymore. Besides, being a techie in Silicon Valley isn’t all that. We still had a boss, and we couldn’t choose our own projects. Plus, some of the projects were just flat out boring. I spent an entire year once debugging a piece of software. By the time that was done, I was ready to pull out my hair. That is, if it ever got truly debugged, which I doubt. It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of programming. Sometimes, you can’t find bugs until a piece of software is actually being used.”

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