Sam nodded, they all started working the hogs. Moving them out of their comfortable home and into a trailer seemed cruel, but she wasn’t about to become a vegetarian over it. She liked her bacon too much to give it up.
The majority of the hogs were blocked in, and her brothers helped Sam get them into the smaller run that would lead them to the trailer. Of course, the ornery one had to be near her. She pushed it with the tip of the board, but it merely rolled on its side in the mud. The chaos in the rest of the pen hadn’t reached this one’s brain yet. Or it just didn’t care. Maybe it didn’t have a brain. One too many dunks in the mud pit, perhaps.
“You’re making me look bad,” she muttered to the pig. It snorted in response. Maybe a different tactic was in order. “What if I promised you some good slop tonight? The very best carrots and potatoes? What if I dump my whole plate in your slop bin? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
The pig finally got up and meandered toward the gate.
“Good pig. Who’s going to get a big apple with dinner tonight?” She followed behind with her board positioned between the pig and her. “The biggest pig in here, that’s who.”
Proud of herself and her pig, she couldn’t help beaming at Sam as the animal kept heading his way. His gaze followed the hog, but then those blue eyes focused on her and she stopped in her tracks. His lips curved into a smile so genuine that her grip loosened on the board and her heart beat a little harder.
As if sensing her resolve slipping away, the pig turned. It happened so quickly she didn’t have time to brace herself before the hog plowed into the side of her board and around her. She tried to turn, but the ground beneath her feet was wet for the pigs to wallow in, and the ground slipped out from under her. She set the board into the mud to try to keep herself from falling.
Ethan and Wes would never let her live it down if she fell into the pig muck.
* * *
Sam couldn’t do anything but watch as Nicole’s feet went out from beneath her. The twins were already after the last hog. Sam rushed over to where she fell and knelt in the muck next to her. His pulse raced with fear. She could be hurt. The mud squished beneath the knees of his jeans. The wetness reached his skin. The board lay across her chest. She’d landed faceup in pigpen mud. It covered her back from head to toe.
“If he thinks he’s getting an apple now,” she muttered angrily, “he has another think coming. I can’t wait to have bacon when I get up. And maybe some ham.”
Sam couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips or the relief that flooded through him when he realized she was okay. Even down, she kept talking. He pulled the board off her and tossed it to the side. When he turned back to Nicole, she looked at him as if he were an alien.
“What?”
“Oh, don’t stop. Darn it. I finally get a full smile and it’s over before I can fully appreciate it.” She pushed up on her elbows. The mud sucked at her back and hair. Her face scrunched up. “Oh, that’s so gross.”
“I smile.” He pulled off his brown work glove and brushed some mud off her cheek with his thumb. The touch hadn’t been anything other than an attempt to clean off her cheek before the dirt got in her mouth, but electricity sizzled through his blood. He almost missed her slight intake of breath and widened eyes, as if she felt it, too.
“I’m not sure I can get out of this...mud.” Her smile was softer than the normal grins she gave him. “Would you mind giving me a lift, please?”
He nodded and stood, leaning over and offering his hand. She grabbed his wrist, and he yanked her up. He hadn’t been thinking. The motion pulled something in his chest near his scar. It was enough to take his breath away for a moment.
“Sam? Are you okay?” Her bare hands touched his cheeks, and she lifted his head until she was looking into his eyes. At some point, she must have taken off her filthy gloves. Her forehead was wrinkled with concern.
He focused on the mixture of green and gold within her eyes and took slow breaths, willing the pain away. The color was soothing, like a field of spring grass, soft and damp with morning dew. Her eyes searched his, as if she was looking for some reason why he was acting as if he were an old man trying to catch his breath.
“I’m okay.” He straightened away from her hands and took in a full breath. He rubbed at his chest. He’d felt like an old man before the surgery on his heart. The doctor assured him that he’d feel young again once he was done healing.
“Did I hurt you?” She covered his hand on his chest with her own. “I’m going to blame the mud, because surely I don’t weigh that much if you can bench-press a bull.”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it. Heck, he didn’t want to help it. She always said the oddest things. “I thought it was a cow.”
“If I weren’t covered in more mud and...ew, other stuff than you, I would so hug you right now, Sam Ward.”
“I’ll remember that next time you try to hug me.” He gave her a half smile, which seemed to please her to no end. He hoped she’d forgotten about his chest pain. He didn’t want to see that look of concern that always filled his brothers’ eyes when they looked at him. He’d had a bum valve. It was all fixed now and he should have no issues living his life. Except the odd strain on the healing scar.
“I don’t suppose you are going to let me into your truck looking like this.” Her eyes danced as she met his gaze.
“Brush the mud off and quit playing around, Nik.”
Nicole winced at her father’s voice. “I’m not playing, Dad. I’m fairly certain this is more than a brush-the-mud-off situation.”
“Oh, I can’t go on, either,” Wes yelled. His green eyes twinkled with mischief. “I have a little mud on my pants. I can’t help anymore. I think I’ll go inside and play Xbox for the rest of the day.”
“Shut it, Wes,” her dad said. His gaze went over Sam and her. “Looks like neither of you are up to going into the sale barn, Sam. The boys and I can take the hogs in for you. Hose her down and send her home if you don’t mind, Sam.”
Sam watched the emotions run through Nicole’s eyes. Pain, embarrassment, resignation.
“Yeah, I’ll make sure she gets home. Thanks, John,” Sam said.
Before the twins were born, Nicole had been John’s little helper. After the boys, though, no matter how much she acted like one, her father still preferred to spend his time with them. She could never find her way back into the favorite slot. These were just a few of the secrets shared between best friends in the tree house they’d built.
He couldn’t imagine the pain of having her folks split their family in half. What must that have felt like for her? Had she felt like the last one to get picked? If her mother hadn’t moved so far away, would Sam and Nicole have been split up?
“You ready to get hosed down?” he asked as the truck doors slammed behind them.
She lifted her eyebrow at him. “You aren’t serious.”
“How else are you going to get all the pig smell off you?” Sam flicked a chunk of mud from her shoulder. “I can’t exactly let you into the house
