Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Even if I always vowed to myself that Nina, being my family’s first and only choice, was the last woman I would ever marry.
CHAPTER 12
Nina
By late afternoon, I learned there was a new meaning to the word roasting. I didn’t think it got this hot out here. We aren’t in the South, after all. Maybe it’s the house trapping the heat in. The small farmhouse feels more like a sauna at the moment.
I tried venturing outside twice, but the shimmering sun out there chased me back in. Even if inside is stifling, at least it won’t sizzle me to a crisp in literally a hot minute.
I have my phone turned off, and I’m trying to concentrate on one of the books I found in the office, one door down from the bedroom. There are only those two rooms besides the bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen. The house is small, but even still, it’s a far cry from the one-room farmhouse a lot of these places used to be. The second room is pretty tiny for a bedroom, and it was a good choice to make it into an office. I felt weird and snoopy about going in, but the door had been open since I first, um, barged my way in here, asking for a shower, and I doubt the room would be unlocked and inviting if something was off limits in there.
My choices were mostly books about finance, and the English major in me cried out in protest. I might soon be on my own, living in the real world, and then I might have wished I’d read those books, but I just couldn’t do it. I chose one on alternative medicines instead, something about healing the mind, soul, and heart, along with the body. I was surprised Thaddius had something like this in his collection of no-nonsense business tomes. Yes, tomes. All business books should be called tomes. Oh, and law books too. Definitely tomes.
The writing is good, and I can follow all the concepts even though I know nothing about doctoring, but it’s just so hot in here. I can feel beads of sweat racing down my temples, tickling the back of my neck, and prickling under my T-shirt in the back and the front. I have pretty perky boobs, but this day is so hot that it’s proving to me that boob sweat can be a thing, even for me. My legs feel clammy, and my thighs keep sticking together under my skirt, even though I have them pulled up under me on the couch.
Tap, tap, tap.
I look up from the book. I haven’t been able to concentrate. It sounds like someone is pecking at the glass in the kitchen.
When I remembered how a chicken flew in through the window yesterday, I set the book aside and rushed into the other room.
Lo and freaking behold, there is a chicken out there, though I don’t know which one it is. It’s brown and speckled, and it looks very, very hot. The poor thing probably needs a drink. How do chickens drink water? Well, I know how, but out of what? Should I fill up a bowl of water and bring it outside?
Thaddius probably has food and water out for everyone. He seems like he truly cares about his animals. He surprised me by considering what I said about knocking the balls off the male sheep.
But not as badly as he surprised me by offering marriage as a way to thwart our families and save them at the same time.
Or when he laughed about his super expensive blender biting the dust due to my own dunderheadedness.
As soon as I open the window, the chicken flutters its way inside. There’s a sill on the outside that it was standing on, which probably makes getting into the house so much easier. Well, that and the house isn’t tall. It’s all just one level.
I try and get the chicken to drink out of a bowl of water and then out of a plate, but it’s not interested in the water at all. She—I believe it’s a girl because Thaddius said there aren’t any male chickens here to fertilize the eggs—struts around the place. She doesn’t peck the floor or flutter about. She’s walking in circles, then looking at me.
I know it’s crazy, but I swear this bird is trying to tell me something.
I lean out the window, trying to see if I can see Thaddius to call him over to talk to him about the chicken’s weird behavior. Maybe there’s something wrong with it. If it’s crying out for help, I’m not just going to ignore it.
I don’t see Thaddius, but I do notice the sky has turned an ominous yellow. I think it’s just the sun above the clouds, which have moved in without me even knowing it. The last time I stepped outside, it was just full-on sun, blue skies, and not a single cloud out there, but the sudden clouds would explain the wet feeling in the air.