Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Then there were the women.
My God, even the elderly Mrs. Henry had stared.
Me, I stared probably more than most.
But he hadn’t turned around. He’d kept his head forward, had paid in cash, and didn’t look around as he made his way to his truck.
The only animation on his face at all had been when he’d opened his truck door and a German Shepherd had licked his face.
Now, I was standing less than ten feet away from him again at the feed store, and he was haggling with an old man about pricing for hay.
Hay which I needed, too.
Bad.
I’d been buying it from the feed store since my supplier had passed away, and I hadn’t found any since that I could get without using a trailer—a trailer in which I didn’t have.
I was also over spending nine dollars and fifty cents a bale, which was bad since I went through it as fast as I did.
I was listening unrepentantly to him talk with the old man and suddenly his eyes turned to me.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
There was no anger in his voice. In fact, there was nothing. No inflection. No, why are you staring like a weirdo. Nothing.
“Yes, actually. I need some hay, too. Can you get us both some, me one round roll like you’re getting, and I’ll pay you for the use of your trailer?”
He stared at me so long that I started to fidget.
Why had I done this? Could I leave without him seeing?
I glanced around and saw that I was in the middle of Tractor Supply, and the only thing around were the chicks that they kept in a large, six-foot cage to keep all the kids and people from reaching into the bins and petting the babies.
There was a very large metal yard art chicken that was standing about four feet away from me. Although it would’ve hidden my upper body significantly, the spindly legs wouldn’t have done the job.
Needless to say, there was nothing for me to hide behind to shield my embarrassment.
When I finally looked back up to see if they were still looking, it was to find the old man staring at me like I’d grown a second head, and the big man, Evander, staring at the old man like I hadn’t just interrupted his conversation.
I chose to run while I still had a chance.
Except, as I did, the box of chickens that I had in my hand started to go wild at the movement of my body.
I chose to keep going, knowing that at first, I’d be covered since the chicks in the bins behind me were making just as much noise as the ones in my hand.
When I’d come in here, it sure as hell hadn’t been to buy more chickens.
In fact, I’d been adamant with myself. I would not get any more.
I had twenty-six at home and that was more than enough due to the size of the coop and the yard that I now had them in. If I got any more, I’d be pushing it.
I knew it. Yet, that hadn’t stopped me.
It’d all started with me just going for a look.
Barred Rocks. Bantams. Rhode Island Reds. Copper Marans. Oh, and ducklings, too.
Then I saw the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and I became lost.
I’d seen a photo of the Blue Laced on Facebook a few months ago, and I’d fallen in love.
But when I’d gone onto the hatchery’s website and seen that they don’t ship the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes in anything less than an order of fifteen, I’d been able to corral myself.
Fifteen chickens, no matter how freakin’ cute they were, weren’t on the table for me at this point.
I was already pushing the limits of my twenty acres, and I didn’t have the room to add any more pens to it without taking away from my giant ass’s grazing pasture.
Jack Jack, my ass, was also the reason I needed a freakin’ round bale of hay.
The bastard ate and ate. And ate.
He also decided that he no longer liked my goats and had started picking them off one-by-one when they came near his hind legs.
Which meant I had three goats in my backyard that chose to shit on my porch non-stop.
Then my UPS driver delivered my boxes directly in the shit.
Yeah, I needed more room. Yesterday.
And I needed six more chickens, Blue Laced Red Wynadottes or not, like I needed a hole in my heart.
Yet, there I was, darting down the aisles to hide from the man who looked at me like I was crazy.
So, I was staring at trailer hitches, when I didn’t even have a trailer to hitch, wondering how long I would have to wait before the big man left, putting me out of my misery.
Jesus! What had I been thinking when I’d asked him if he could bring me a bale of hay?