Finding Home

Chapter Sixteen

Devon left right after breakfast, I always hated to see him go but I know he loved his job, and he would go nuts being on this farm twenty-four seven. I joked that he should become a forest ranger, that way he could be stationed only five miles from here.

"Too much of a temptation being that close but not being able to touch you" he said that morning while we were lying in bed cuddling. One of the things about Devon whenever we were together his hands one way, or another had to touch some part of my body.

After he left, I decided that I needed to spend some time with my animals, I saw they were enjoying the pasture, so I went in to check their stalls and make sure everything was how I wanted it.

After shutting the door, I saw Tom mucking out the stalls, and of course he had to be wearing no shirt. I could not help it; I swear these guys in this area were a special breed.

He was muscular, and broad shoulders, which tapered down to his waist. He had a tan that when the sun hit him, he was a golden brown, and with a bit of a blonde shaggy look for his hair that fell a little bit past his eyes and touched the top of his shoulders.

He could have easily passed as a model type and his piercing blue eyes; my butterflies woke up and I had to squash that real fast. "Good morning" I said hoping he did not notice for a moment that I was drooling over his body.

Tom turned around with a small smirk on his face, "Good morning, Athena," he said. "Everything going okay this morning?" I asked as I walked over to where he was.

"Everything is going great; animals have been fed and are out doing their thing, so I thought I'd get to work on their stalls" he said leaning against the stall door.

"Okay cool" was all I said as I mentally kicked myself for sounding like a complete idiot.

"Well, I'll let you get back to doing what you were doing, I'm just going to go see my babies" I said smiling at him and walked away to go into the pasture.

I could feel Tom watching me, but I did not turn around. I went to the pasture door and called my babies. They all looked up and they came running towards me. I greeted each one and loved each one.

After I loved each of them, they would go back to the pasture. "I have never seen animals behave like they do with you, sure dogs but not pigs, sometimes goats or horses but not like this" Tom said as he came to stand beside me.

"We have a bond, when you are on your own in the middle of nowhere and no one else to talk to, you spend a lot of time together, and I have created trust between each one" I said looking up at him.

I saw something shift behind his eyes, but I could not place what it could be, so I chalked it up to the lights playing with my eyes. "Did you sleep okay last night?" I asked as I went to turn and walk into the barn.

"I slept pretty good" he said as he walked next to me. "Well, I was thinking around twelve that you guys could come up to the house for lunch" I said as I stopped at the main barn door.

"We will be there" Tom said with a smile and he watched me walk away before he shut the main door.

"Oh, for heaven's sake Ath, get your hormones in check" I whispered to myself. I went into the garden barn to check on my plants that I was babying. They were shipped right from Hawaii.

I loved tropical plants, and, in the wintertime, I would keep them in my house, I have had them for two years now, and I was not about to stop now.

Derek and Darryle were hard at work at tilling up the soil, one was tilling and the other was adding the fertilizer to the soil. Every week I have been doing that and I notice a substantial change in my plants during the winter months.

They thrived more and produced an abundance of veggies for me.

"Morning you two" I called out as I went to my plants to see if they needed water.

"Morning Athena" they called out in unison. That made me smile, it was as if those two were twins as they were the same height and built and their hair color were identical.

Both had light brown hair that was kept short and neat, their eyes were a golden-brown color as well. Family genes were strong with these ones.

"Lunch should be around noon" I called out so they could hear me over the machine. Both guys nodded and went back to work. Not big on talking, but I was okay with that one.

After seeing my plants did not need any more care, I went to the house to clean up after breakfast and to do a load of laundry. I washed by hand the bedsheets and went outside to hang them up.

After that was done, I went in the house and grabbed my one radio that I would play when I cleaned house, I needed music to help. Silence and cleaning never go hand in hand.

I put in a CD that I had from years ago and started to mop the floors then on to the bathroom. Once everything was done, I went into the kitchen to figure out what to have for lunch.