Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
He sighed, shaking his head. “Yep, that’ll be the llamas. Clem decided she wanted some a few weeks ago. For some reason, they love that ladder. Any chance they get, they steal it.”
They stole it? How did they steal it? Llamas didn’t exactly have hands.
“First they knock it over, and then they pick it up with their mouths and trot around with it,” he told her as though reading her mind. “Craziest thing you’ve ever seen. I swear, Clem really knows how to choose her animals.”
“Hey, I didn’t choose most of these animals,” Clem said, putting her hands on her hips. “They chose me. And Chuck Roast, stop eating that tire. Lily needs that car to leave.”
“Lily’s leaving already?” Jaret asked.
A knot tightened in her stomach. Obviously, Clem wasn’t interested in listening to anything she had to say, and she couldn’t blame her sister. Why would she want to listen to her?
“Well, yeah, at some stage, after she’s explained everything.”
Relief filled her.
Jaret found the ladder, then helped her down, and she walked with him toward her sister.
Chuck Roast turned, saw her coming, and put his head down. Then he started to charge. Lily let out a squeak of fear and turned to run, but Jaret wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Hold it,” he told her. “You’ve got to hold your position with Chuck Roast. He likes to play chicken.”
“Chuck, leave Lily alone. She’s not used to your games,” Clem told him.
He snorted smoke out of his nose. She was certain of it. And no, it wasn’t just a trick of her mind. That steer was the devil.
She should just go. This was terrible. Nothing about today was going right. But then some chickens walked past her. And following along behind them were the cutest little baby chicks she’d ever seen. They were like fluffy balls of yellow sunshine.
“Oh my, I thought the piglets were cute, but these guys look even cuter.”
“You like the baby chicks?” Clem asked.
“How could you not like baby chicks?”
“I don’t remember you liking anything about this property when we visited as kids.”
“No, I know. The truth is, I did enjoy some parts of it. I just couldn’t let that show because I didn’t want Mother to find out.”
“You didn’t owe her anything, Lily. Just because she was our mother doesn’t mean that we had to like her. She’s the one that should’ve taken care of us, protected us.”
“I know,” Lily said. “But if I kept doing what she wanted, most of her attention would stay on me and off you.”
She hadn’t meant to say that, and she was aware of both Clem and Jaret staring at her.
She kept her gaze on the little chicks as they moved past. They were so small and delicate. She was worried about them.
“Will they be okay? Will any of these other animals try to harm them?”
“Nah, they know that Drumstick will peck out their eyes if they go after any of the chicks,” Clem said.
“Drumstick?” she asked, looking at the mother chicken. She didn’t look very violent.
“The damn rooster,” Clem said, glaring up at the rooster. It glared back down at her from the barn roof. Lily was kind of glad to see that she wasn’t the only one the rooster seemed to hate.
“Come inside, Lily,” Jaret said. “We’ll get you some coffee.”
“Thanks. That would be great,” Lily said, following them into the house. It was kind of bare and a lot of things looked unfinished, but it was going to be gorgeous when it was done. “The house is starting to look really good, Clem. The whole place is. You must have put a lot of time and effort into it.”
Clem grunted and sat down as Jaret got them some coffee. “We had to rebuild after the fire. While we did that we stayed with Alec, Jaret’s brother. I wanted to stay here in a tent but Jaret refused to. He’s a little delicate.”
Jaret turned and gave Clem a look. Yeah, he looked really delicate.
“However, as soon as the place was habitable, we moved in.”
“Did you drive that car all the way from Boston, Lily?” Jaret asked.
“No, I took the bus to Freestown,” Lily said. “It was only when I got here that I realized that having a car might make life easier, and there just happened to be one for sale on the side of the road. The seller gave me a good deal.”
“Hmm, did he? Where was this car on the side of the road?”
“Not far from the bus station in Freestown. I could have waited for a bus into Haven, but there wasn’t one until tomorrow, and I wanted to get here. So, I figured if I bought the car, at least it would give me a way to get around and a roof over my head.”