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I thought she was bluffing until she was waiting for me by the chicken coops at six in the fucking morning.
“What the hell?” I muttered. She leaned against one of the fences, wearing those fruit leggingsagain,looking so out of place I thought she was pranking me.
“You know, I’m not usually a morning person. But I will be when I have a point to prove.”
“You were up this early yesterday.”
“That was a result of me being in a new place. I was looking forward to blissful sleep the next night, but you justhadto open your mouth.”
“You’ve made your point,” I muttered. “I won’t open it again.”
“Good. But I’m still learning how to take care of the animals.”
“One pile of poop and you’ll run.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been in these fields since I could walk. I used to love finding cow patties. Trust me, I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll ruin your fruit pants.”
She opened her mouth and then paused. “My what?”
I gestured to her bottom half. “Those designer things.”
“The—” She covered her mouth, and her voice came out choked. “You mean my Lululemon leggings?”
Son of a bitch. She was laughing at me. “I don’t care to know the name.”
“If my leggings are ruined, they’re ruined. Now, come on.”
I expected her to walk around to the gate with me, but she put one foot on the bottom post and then hiked her leg over the fence.
“What are you doing?”
“Going over.”
“I installed a gate my first summer working here, princess.”
She shrugged and hopped over anyway. “Oh well. Jumping fences will keep me young.”
I paused. That wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words.
I knew Mollie was his granddaughter, but I’d not seen any similarities until now.
“You coming?” she asked. “Or am I going in alone?”
I shook off my shock and went in through the gate. I gathered the feed and walked up to the door of the first coop. Mollie was already fiddling with it.
“You should wait.”
“Why? Because I don’t know what I’m doing? News flash, Mister I Can’t Talk to a Woman to Save My Life: I can figure it out.”
The real answer was that Hennifer would attack her. While most female chickens didn’t get territorial, she did.
I was going to be nice and warn her. Now I wasn’t.
Mollie got the latch open and Hennifer burst out of the coop.
“Aw, she’s so cute.”