Chapter 13
Troy
If getting up at four in the morning sucked, getting up an hour earlier was even worse.
As I stumbled into the kitchen and put the kettle on, I worked hard to convince my body this was worth it.
One, two, shit, make it three heaped spoons of instant coffee, then I was pouring the hot water over it and taking a long sip.
Black as pitch coffee tore through me, maybe adding an extra heartbeat here or there, but as I came abruptly awake, I remembered why I was up so early.
I had to make amends for the shitty way I’d treated Mackenzie.
If I’d talked it over with Charlie or one of my brothers, they’d say I was a bit late to the party, but better now than never, right?
I turned on the hotplates, then started filling frypans with bacon, sausages, and fried eggs.
A glance at my phone told me that a traditional American breakfast also included pancakes and maple syrup.
We had eggs, milk and flour, but maple syrup?
I dragged out some golden syrup and looked it over, wondering if that would do the job.
Whisking up some pancake batter, I whistled to myself as I turned sausages, flipped bacon, until a rusty voice interrupted me.
“What’re you doing?”
God, Mackenzie looked cute right now. Dressed in some kind of flannel pyjamas, she stood in the kitchen doorway, rubbing at her eyes.
“Back to bed for you,” I said, turning the heat down, then trying to steer her back down the hall.
“What? No. Gotta feed the cattle.”
“I have to feed the cattle,” I replied, thankful for that heart starter of a coffee. It meant I could direct her calmly without biting her head off. “You said breakfast in bed, remember?”
“What…?” That owlish look had me smiling. A blink, then another blink, before she stood up taller. “Is that—?”
“Your breakfast?” I replied. “Yep, so toddle off down the hall and…”
My voice trailed away as she approached the hot plates, poking the different frypans with a spatula.
“You did this for me?”
The fact she sounded so shocked had me wanting to kick this Alex’s butt all over again.
“I believe the order was breakfast in bed, not having to feed the cattle early in the morning, and…” For a moment I racked my brains, then it came to me. “Shovelling kangaroo poo so you can cuddle more baby animals.”
“But I wasn’t serious. Troy…” She turned around to face me. “That was just a joke.”
“Charlie always says I take things way too literally.” Ducking behind her, I flipped the pancakes just in time, the faces still golden brown. “You told me what you needed for me to make amends and so…” I slid some eggs, bacon and other things onto her plate. “Off to bed with you.”
“No.” The plate was removed from my grip and held close.
“Nope. I’m here to work.” As if in counterpoint, she let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
“And if that means feeding cows at the ass crack of dawn, that’s what I’ll do.
” Collapsing down onto a chair, she consulted with her plate.
“After a nice big breakfast.” A glance my way and I saw the twinkle was back in her eyes. “You made me pancakes?”
I nodded, then put the golden syrup on the table beside her.
“We don’t have maple syrup, but we do have golden syrup.”
“What the hell is…?”
As she opened the squeeze bottle, I turned back to the hot plates.
The bacon was a little crispier than I liked it, the sausages a bit on the crunchy side, but as I served myself, I found I didn’t care.
The way she hummed over her food, picking up a knife and fork and then digging in, was what held my attention.
As I sat down opposite her, I caught her running commentary.
“Pancakes are good,” she declared, “but I don’t know what that stuff is, but it’s no maple syrup. You need the real stuff for pancakes.”
“Costs almost as much as gold in Australia,” I informed her, cutting into my fried egg, the yolk oozing onto the plate. Her eyes widened, and I ended up shaking my head. “But I’ll get Charlie to put it on the list.”
“You don’t have to.” Silence reigned for a moment as we both chewed our food, but then Mackenzie swallowed. “Like this is more than I was expecting.”
But some part of me wanted her to grow accustomed to getting what she wanted, and that wasn’t a helpful impulse.
She’s only here for six months, I told myself.
Mackenzie works for you. The power dynamic, the fact that some bastards used farm stays as an opportunity to abuse female workers, sat heavily on me, but then, she smiled.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone try to make amends like this before.” Her eyes narrowed. “What time did you get up to start cooking?”
“Three,” I groaned, taking another long sip of coffee.
“Three?” she spluttered. “Oh my god, you’re gonna be foul today, right? Maybe I don’t want to help out.”
“Put three times the usual amount of coffee in my cup,” I said, holding up the tall mug. “Spoon is damn near standing up in the thing.” She stared fixedly at the cup. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t so grumpy this morning.”
Her lips twitched and that had mine moving. Frowning couldn’t stop the smile from coming. I shook my head, turning back to my food, because otherwise I’d just sit there and stare the whole morning at that smile of hers.
“Eat your breakfast,” I growled, “because if you’re coming—”
“I’m coming.”
So an hour later, that’s how we came to be idling through the paddock.
Mackenzie was focussed on tossing the feed out for the cattle and I…
I was way too focussed on her. Should’ve had my eyes on the field before me, because if I did, I’d have seen the big rock and made sure to miss it.
Instead, the ute lurched to one side, forcing me to jerk my eyes away from the rear vision mirror, but when I did, Mackenzie’s yelp cut through the morning quiet.
“Shit…!”
I cut the engine, but not fast enough, because while she was doing a very good job of staying in the tray, that didn’t include being able to keep her feet when the whole car was rocking from side to side as it climbed over the rock.
Her arms flailing, a thin scream, and then she was going flying over the edge and I was right there with her.
Didn’t even remember opening the door. Just throwing myself through the air, my eyes entirely trained on her until my arms snapped around her ribcage.
And we both landed with a splat on something hot, sticky, and very smelly.
“Are you alright?” My hands were everywhere at once, not waiting for an answer before trying to reassure myself. “Mackenzie!”
“Ugh…” Her groan had me trying to roll upwards to see what was the matter, but she held out her shaking hands. “Is that… cow shit?”
I couldn’t hold back the bark of laughter that was more relief than joy. With a shake of my head, I found myself grinning.
“Well, shit happens…” The cattle started to moo as they edged closer, unable to work out what the hell this was. “Especially if you’re in a field full of cows.”
“You…”
Her little growl, the splat of her hands as they hit my shirt, then slid across my chest. It made clear that she was fine. I’d take that win, but now I needed to get us up and out of this mud/shit pit, and that was a whole lot harder.
“Stop wriggling!” I snapped, because we were both trying to clamber free at the same time. “You’re just digging us deeper.”
The cows watched in incomprehension as we clawed at the muddy ground, not getting anywhere for our efforts.
“But I…!”
“You need…”
We both paused, staring at each other, then her eyes slid down the front of my body.
“Are you…?”
Her peeling her body away from mine was a welcome thing and a loss I felt deeply. Particularly my dick. It throbbed like a sore tooth, making clear Mr. Happy would be content to wallow in the mud all day, if it meant Mackenzie kept wriggling against me.
“If this is some weird farmer scat fetish, I am getting on the next plane home,” she said.
“What?” I shook my head. “God no. It’s not the damn mud and cow shit…
” My eyes met hers, seeing the fear, the revulsion there.
“That’s disgusting, it’s just when…” There was a huge lump in my throat, trying to stop myself from talking, but this wouldn’t be pushed down.
“It’s just when a pretty girl is pressing her body against mine, I start reacting. ”
“You think I’m pretty?” That vain little flush in her cheeks had me laughing, because a mud encrusted lock of fair fell with a slap across her face. She recoiled, moving like lightning and jumping to her feet. “No, you can’t. I’m covered in mud and hay and shit…”
A dramatic gag had me struggling up into a standing position.
“This is a farm, Mackenzie. If I let a little mud get in the way of things…”
My hand was moving of its own accord, wanting to push that strand away, but she shrank back.
“Nope, no way. I don’t care how hot you are. I draw the line at being touched with crap covered fingers.”
“So you think I’m hot?” I asked, echoing her previous question.
“Of course you are.” She flapped a hand in my direction.
“My mom said to find me a Hemsworth and then you jumped over a fence and swept me into your arms like a hero from a movie. You’re big, strong…
” That had me edging closer, because all of my concerns from this morning evaporated in that moment.
“And covered in disgusting mud.” Flicking her hands, she made a small sound of distress.
“Can we just shove the rest of the hay out and call it a day? I need a hot shower, stat.”
“Of course.” Striding over to the ute, I saw there wasn’t much hay left. I dumped the remainder onto the ground, then kicked the bale to separate it into sections, making it easier for the herd to get to. “But we might have to wait for the shower.”
“What? No! I’m disgusting.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at me. “You are too.”
“And you’d be surprised just how often we farmers get in this kind of state,” I replied.
“We either climb back into the car and smear shit and mud all over the seats or…” I nodded to the path that led down the hill.
“We can wash up in the watering hole down below. Get clean enough to pull on my spare sweats and then have a proper shower at home.”
“Water…” she panted. “Clean. Now.”
“As you wish, milady.”
I offered her my arm, willing to escort her down the hill, but for some reason she knocked me back, instead stalking off in front.
That was OK. Her butt might be covered in mud, but Mr. Happy didn’t care at all.
He was about to get up close and personal with a beautiful naked girl and that was all that mattered.