Once free of the knot, the cow spun around to take over for Seth. She vigorously licked the calf’s face—nose, eyes, ears.
Seth fell back onto his haunches. He tugged one glove from his arm, pulling it inside out, then did the same with the other. “I don’t love that they’re out in this wet weather, but I don’t think she’s got the energy to make it back to the barn tonight.” He wadded the gloves into a ball. “At least it’s not supposed to be too cold. Mainly just wet.”
It was up to the cow, now, Josie supposed. They’d done all the good they could.
Josie could still feel her adrenaline pumping frantically through her veins when they got back to the barn. She had to rally several intentional breaths before her heart steadied into a slower pace, one that matched the methodic saunter of the horse beneath her.
There was an eerie quality to the ranch that she couldn’t pinpoint, and it wasn’t until they’d untacked their horses and sent them to their stalls with a flake of hay for the night that she realized they’d done it all in near darkness.
“Power’s out.” Seth glanced up at the barn lights that remained dark even when he flicked the switch up and down on the wall. “Must be from the storm.”
“Well, there go my plans to take a hot shower and sit by the heater to thaw for the rest of the evening,” she grumbled, only half kidding. “Any chance you have a generator I can borrow? As luck would have it, my old one broke.” Which was one of the reasons she had been so happy Seth had an electric hookup for her trailer at the ranch.
“We do, but ten bucks says my dad’s got it hooked up to the beef freezers. Last time we had an outage, we lost over a hundred pounds of meat.”
“Shoot. I imagine that must’ve been costly.”
“More frustrating than anything. But let me give Dad a call and see what I can work out. He might have an extra around here somewhere.”
Josie shook her head swiftly. She definitely didn’t want to get Seth’s dad involved. “No. Don’t do that. I’ll be fine. Really.”
Seth gave Josie an unreadable look that made her stomach clench. “Normally this isn’t something I would ever say to a woman, but you really do need to shower, Josie.”
The groove between Josie’s eyebrows puckered in blatant offense. “Well, gee, thanks.”
“I’m only saying that because…” He moved close and took a clump of her sodden hair between his fingers. “It looks like you’ve got more than just rainwater in your hair.”
When the strands in question waived in front of her face, it instantly hit her. Bile rose into her throat. “Is that…?”
“Cow manure?” Seth’s expression fell somewhere between embarrassed and empathetic. “I’m afraid so.”
Oh good grief. As if being cold, wet, and bedraggled wasn’t enough, she had to smell like cow crap, too. Josie groaned so loud her back molars vibrated. “I must’ve landed in a pile with that last big tug.” She gave Seth an irritated, if not jealous, sneer. “And would you look at that—you managed to get by completely unscathed.”
“Must’ve narrowly missed it,” he said with a full belly laugh, complete with his hand clutching his stomach. He was having too much fun with this.
“Totally not fair.” Now that Josie had gotten a whiff of the putrid scent, it was all she could smell. Her nostrils burned from the sour aroma. “Heater or not, I’ll have to get this cleaned up. I’m gonna have to just suck it up.”
“Or come back with me to my place.”
The words were so out of the blue they made Josie gulp. “What?”
It took Seth a second to find his voice, and even when he did, it came out as a stammer. “I just mean…I’ve got a fireplace...” His eyes were saucers, like his own words took him by surprise. “A fireplace you can sit in front of to warm up after you wash your hair.”
The thought was enticing for multiple reasons. But still, showering at Seth’s did strange, strange things to Josie’s brain, along with every other part of her body. Unfortunately, she was out of options. “Okay. I suppose that’ll have to work.”
Once she accepted the invitation, she didn’t second guess it. There was no reason to shiver alone in her rickety trailer when promises of warmth and comfort were well within reach. It wasn’t until Seth opened his front door and Josie stepped over the threshold that she wondered what the heck she was doing.
Seth’s home was small but not cramped, masculine but not quite a bachelor pad. Family pictures hung just a touch off kilter on the wall immediately to the right of the front door, and they ranged from full color portraits to the traditional grayscale of times past. There was a crumb-coated cookie sheet on the stove top in the open kitchen and a spatula on the spoon rest. An overstuffed, leather recliner was the focal point of the quaint living room. It had cracks and creases along the arms, right where Josie imagined Seth’s elbows would rest when he read the morning paper. A plaid couch that looked far less used ran along a wood planked wall and it faced the direction of an old box style television that had such a thick layer of dust, Josie wondered if it had even been turned on in the last decade.
Seth reached for her jacket and hung it next to his on a hook on the wall. “Bathroom is down the hall on your left.” He flicked his finger to indicate the path for Josie to follow. “Clean towels are under the sink. Soap and shampoo and all that stuff are in the shower.”
“Thank you. I won’t be long.”
She padded down the hall. The bathroom door squeaked shut as she locked it into place, and out of habit, she flipped the light switch. Nothing. Of course. The power was still out and she knew that but it had been a reflex. She fumbled her way in the direction of the shower, but her foot met the base of the toilet with a loud smack. “Oomf!”
“You okay?” Seth’s voice carried from the other end of the house. She heard his footfalls steadily encroaching until they stopped just on the other side of the door. For a moment, there was no sound at all. Then a light knock. “You alright in there, Josie?”
She pulled on the door handle and swung it wide in surrender. “I think it’s just too dark in here for me to shower.”
“I can get some candles—”
“No!” Josie spat the word. “I mean, no. That’s not necessary.” A candle-lit shower in Seth’s bathroom was not going to happen. “I can just wash my hair in your kitchen sink if that’s fine with you.”
“Absolutely.” Moving around her, he pulled back the plastic shower curtain. The rings scraped on the rod in a grating sound. He reached for a bottle of men’s shampoo and tucked it under his arm, then stretched to grab the conditioner. “Okay. Got everything we need. Let’s go.”
“We?”
“Yes, Josie. I’m going to wash your hair.”
All air whooshed right out of her lungs. “Umm…Seth. You don’t have to—”
“I know I don’t,” stood as his answer and before she could protest, he was down the hall and far enough away that he wouldn’t even be able to hear it.
15