“Alright, so take about two hours for your lunch—you can go to the worker’s shack I showed you if you want—then come back here. I’ll have Solomon or Silas meet you here for onboarding paperwork.”
“Do they really all have ‘S’ names?”
Elizabeth paused in mid-step of her quick exit. “Rich people,” she said as an answer, and Nova instantly knew exactly what she meant.
“Wild.”
“Anyway, once you finish your onboarding paperwork, feel free to head home. You’ll be paid for the full day, so don’t worry.” Score! “Have a nice night. I look forward to working with you.”
“And I look forward to working with you.”
Elizabeth gave a nod then hopped into a golf cart beside the pens, racing off as much as a golf cart could. Nova watched her leave and waited until her boss was out of sight before throwing both of her hands in the air and letting out a squeal.
Yes!
Life definitely hadn’t been easy for Nova lately, and landing a job as a vet tech that paid very well was basically going to change everything. She had been so sure that she was going to have to tuck tail and go back home to her family in the UK that she could hardly believe she had landed the gig.
Good luck was definitely not something she normally had. And the fact that her boss was a black woman in a male-dominated field? Bonus.
Once she was done squealing, she turned around to lean against the pens and look out at her new kingdom—metaphorically speaking, of course. A large sow came trotting up to her, Peggy if Nova remembered correctly.
“Hey there, big lady. Come to officially greet me?” Nova laughed, pressing her leg to the slats of the fence so the pig could sniff at her. She knew better than to stick her hand right in front of an animal that wasn’t acquainted with her yet.
But Peggy just sniffed for a moment then honked several times, talking up a storm. Nova listened, thoroughly amused. Elizabeth had said that Peggy was a character—actually, the word she used was diva—but it was fun to see that character on full display so soon.
“Is that so?” she asked, chuckling at the very vocal creature. “Tell me more. Tell me all the gossip.”
Peggy grunted then proceeded to launch into another long series of snorts, squeals, and sounds. It was pretty entertaining, and Nova was so enthused that she almost missed a slithering streak go right by her foot.
But she didn’t miss it, and her head snapped in the direction of the movement.
Was that a mud snake? Nova hadn’t seen one of those in a while.
“You hold that thought, Peggy,” Nova said, turning away and following after. She should probably leave the thing alone, but it was by a place where it was pretty easy to get trampled or hurt by a worker. Maybe even eaten up by a pig. And while Nova believed in the circle of life and all that; she also really, really loved reptiles.
Besides, it was her lunchtime. If she wanted to spend it following a snake, who was to stop her?
Hurrying along as best she could, she kept her eyes on the black and red snake as it scuttled along. They were nonvenomous, and probably great for helping to keep the mouse population down, but it would do better maybe away from the parking area and more towards the fields. And hey, if it changed directions and went to safety, she figured that she could just enjoy watching it shimmy along.
The whole demi-chase was going great until she lost it somewhere around the back of the barn. One moment it was there, the next it was just… gone.
Huh, that was disappointing.
Oh well, it wasn’t like she was going to pick it up and keep it. It didn’t look injured, and there was no reason it needed to be helped. But still… didn’t mean she couldn’t maybe possibly hold it for a solid thirty seconds or so.
Nova turned in place a moment, hands on her hips. She was pretty sure the lil’ guy was long gone, but she figured walking once around the barn wouldn’t hurt.
Taking her time, she ambled along, looking for him all curled up in some corner. She was maybe halfway around when she heard a yelp. A yelp that distinctly sounded like a non-snake-liking person coming face to face with a snake. As someone who loved reptiles, it was something she was used to hearing more often than she liked.
Rushing around as best she could with her bum knee, she came right around a corner of the barn to see a truly giant man with a shovel raised above his head, the mud snake cornered between two pieces of equipment and desperately trying to find an escape.
“Hey! Stop that!” she cried. There was no reason to kill an innocent, non-venomous creature that actually helped the ecosystem of the ranch. Maybe it was crazy of her to object, considering how some people felt about them, but just because they freaked some people out was no reason to murder one.
But the man’s bulging arms—seriously, he had a lot of muscle—were already coming down. He wasn’t going to stop.
A problem that Nova had occasionally was that her logic sometimes came second to her emotions. It was something that her family had complained about since she was a kid, but it hadn’t changed even into her adulthood.
And that was how she ended up charging forward and tackling a guy with at least eighty pounds on her.
Well, her mother had always said she had more heart than head. And that was the last thought that popped into her head right before she crashed into a solid wall of muscle.
Umph.
3
Salvatore
Sal was having a very strange day.
One minute, he was standing there, about to kill a snake that he’d just cornered, the next it felt like someone threw a bale of hay at him, hitting him right in the side.
He hadn’t exactly been expecting to be tackled while going about his day on the ranch, so he stumbled, his foot slipping on the loose gravel around the western side of the barn. The next thing he knew, he was falling to his knees and the shovel in his hand was bouncing off somewhere else.
What was going on?
A groan sounded from in front of him, shaking him from the surprise of the situation, and he realized that there was a woman splayed out on the ground in front of him, her face twisted in a grimace.
“What on earth did you do that for?” he snapped, not even getting up on his feet yet. He was too sideswiped by the entire situation. Had someone really just assaulted him on his own ranch?
“What do you mean, what on earth was that for?” she snapped back, working her way to sitting up. She was taller than he expected, their heights much closer even with her on her tuchus. And she was glaring at him like he was the one running around tackling people, her dark brown eyes using far stronger language than her mouth was. “You were going to kill a snake.”
“Yeah,” he retorted like it was the most obvious thing on earth, because it was. The woman in front of him had to be insane. “Because it’s a dangerous animal!”
“Mud snakes are harmless and help reduce the amount of vermin that can become a problem in a farm setting,” she snapped back. “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.”
He got to his feet, glaring down at the woman, but the impact of the stare was lessened when she started to rise too. Granted, she swayed slightly, pinwheeling her arms to catch her balance, and that was when he noticed the brace on her leg.