Page 37 of Not Looking
“You got it. See you later.”
“Later.”
“Well…” I muttered after a few seconds. “Guess I should do something useful.”
I welcomed the cool of the morning as—instead of turning wood—I cleaned out Russy’s run, and the chickens’ coop and run.
It was approaching noon once I was done, and I hopped into the shower to wash the filth off before Kerry arrived.
I’d finished lunch and had just sat down to sort the morning’s eggs into keep or sell piles when he breezed through my front door.
“I have arrived!” he declared with a grin before leaning down to scratch behind Russy’s ears.
I smiled. “I see that.”
He strode over and plopped himself on the opposite side of the table. “I sure hope you didn’t call me to help you sort eggs.”
I chuckled. “No, but you can take some if you want. As long as they’re the ones that need to be washed.”
He shrugged. “Free eggs are still free eggs, even if I have to wash off a bit of shit before cooking them.”
“Lots of people get squeamish about that.”
“Not that I blame them,” he replied with a nod. “But nature kind of figured it out.”
“Yeah, but when all you see at the store are pristine eggs that were washed before packaging. People get used to it, even if leaving them unwashed is the better choice.”
He laughed. “I hear ya there. So… what did you want to talk about?”
“Did you want to talk first, or check my newest pieces first?”
He shrugged, stood, strode to my counter, grabbed an empty egg carton, and returned. I passed him an egg that would have otherwise gone into my personal stash, and he nestled it into the container.
We fell into silence for several seconds.
“So what’s bothering you?” he started.
I sighed and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. “An alpha.”
“Whose ass do I need to kick?”
I chuckled. “Nobody’s, yet. Unless you decide I need a good ass-kicking.”
“Ooooook?”
I scrubbed a hand down my face, then shifted to meet his eyes. “So there’s a new guy at the mill.”
“Is he hot?”
I paused and thought about Craig—his black hair and short beard; his kind brown eyes. “He’s good-looking.”
He nodded. “Ok, so you have an alpha problem, and it sounds like it’s the new hottie at the mill.”
“I didn’t say he was hot.”
“You said good-looking, which is close enough. Gonna tell me about it?”
“I guess… at first… I assumed he was just a flirt. A bit clumsy about it, but you know how some alphas can’t help but flirt with anybody?”
