Page 10 of Fibre and Ink

“Private property!” I shouted a few times. No response.

Hayes’s guard donkey brayed, which could mean there was someone about, or he could just be responding to me calling out.

Inconclusive.

Opie was a good noisemaker though. His braying carried for ages on a still night. Hopefully between the two of us, whoever it was had been scared off.

The moon was full and visibility was good, but I couldn’t see anything but the odd firefly and my alpacas.

Whoever had been here, they were gone now.

I did a circuit of the farm anyway.

The usual night beasties dove under cover at my approach, the crickets quietening and then getting back to full volume as I walked past.

I returned to the farmhouse.

Aster was in the doorway, wearing a Sacramento University T-shirt and flannel shorts. He looked pale in the moonlight, frightened. I averted my eyes from the roundness of his chest, knowing that wasn’t a part of the real him.

“Anything?” he asked, pitching his voice deliberately lower to sound braver.

“Couldn’t see a thing, the herd was disturbed though. I think you did see someone, but they took off.”

Aster nodded and stepped back to let me into the house. His arms wrapped around himself and he looked out the kitchen window, like he was expecting someone to appear there.

He was terrified.

“Come on.” I pulled my boots off. “It’s over now, whatever it was.”

I pulled the door shut and flicked the lock, mostly for Aster’s peace of mind.

“Sure,” Aster said.

We went back upstairs together.

Aster kept glancing over his shoulder and he jumped when one of the steps creaked. What he’d seen had truly spooked him.

I knew it was a bad idea but I couldn’t stop myself from offering. “Why don’t you sleep in with me for the rest of the night? It’s a king-sized bed, it’s not... I don’t mean anything by it. I just want you to feel safe.”

Aster looked at me with wide eyes. “Really? Yeah, um, if you don’t mind, that’d be great.”

I hopped into bed and patted the other side. I didn’t want to make a big deal in case it made it even more awkward.

Aster climbed in, careful to stay on his side of the bed and not touch me.

It was sweet.

He rolled to his side, facing away. “Thanks, Mick,” he said softly. “I promise I’m not this much of a baby. It’s just so quiet out here, it really shocked me to see a person.”

“I get it,” I said. “Night night.”

I turned so my back was to his and closed my eyes, willing sleep to come.

Only, getting to sleep when your entire body is alert to a hot guy in bed with you is not easy at all.

Unbidden, Pete’s voice sounded in my head. “Just something wrong with you, Mickey. You’re frigid or something. I don’t get it, and it doesn’t feel like you do either. There’s no way this can work.”

It was the worst reminder, but at least it helped me to relax about Aster’s proximity.