Montana Unbranded by Nadia Nichols

Author:Nadia Nichols
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Superromance
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DANI DESCENDED THE porch stairs and marched right past Joe, heading for the barn again with her dogs by her side. She hadn’t looked at him when she went into the house, either, and he was sitting right here on the porch bench. He pushed to his feet and started after her. She ignored him when he caught up.

“Mind if I tag along?” he said.

“Suit yourself.” She kept walking. She had her hands shoved in her jacket pockets and her shoulders were rounded over as she walked.

“Look, I’m sorry if I offended you by something I said or did.”

“You didn’t offend me, Joe,” Dani said. “Whatever makes you happy, do it. That’s what most men usually do, isn’t it? You want to go back east tomorrow? Go. I don’t care what you do and it clearly wouldn’t matter if I did.” She came to an abrupt stop. “Strike that from the record,” she said when he swung to look at her. “I care very much if you hurt Molly. She’s my best friend, she’s pregnant and her wedding’s coming up, so if you can find it within yourself to think about what might be best for her, I’d be very grateful.”

She resumed her determined walk toward the barn. Joe hesitated a moment before following her. He sensed he was treading in dangerous territory. So he silently followed her out behind the barn to a corral with pole-and-wire fencing that surrounded a weather-beaten shed with a rusted tin roof.

“No, stupid!” he heard a boy’s voice say as they opened the corral gate and walked toward the shed. “That’s not how Badger showed us to do it.”

“She keeps kicking the bucket over,” another voice said. “She won’t hold still!”

“Anyways, Badger doesn’t know nothin’ about goats,” a third voice said.

“Neither does Charlie,” a fourth voice added. “They think they know everything.”

“Yeah, and I don’t believe that story about him and Badger milkin’ that wild longhorn cow,” a fifth voice pitched in.

Joe was right behind Dani when she pushed open the shed door. All five boys looked up from the goat that was tethered to the wall. The rest of the milk goats milled restlessly in the enclosed space. Joe saw a tipped-over stainless-steel pail under the tethered goat and a bale of hay and a couple buckets of water against the other wall. Dani closed the door behind them and addressed the situation with brisk efficiency.

“Hey, Jimmy. Pony said you might need help milking your herd before supper. I grew up on a dairy farm so I can give you a hand, if you like. Many hands make light work.”

“Cows aren’t the same as goats,” Jimmy said, picking up the small pail and looking defensive. “They only have two tits, not four.”

“That’s teats, Jimmy,” Dani corrected as the other boys snickered. “Goats have two teats, and it doesn’t matter how many teats an animal has, they all function in basically the same way. I’ve never milked a wild longhorn but I milked a wild mustang a few days back, and my technique worked on her, too.

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