“Mom! Mom!” Miles screamed.
“Your mommy isn’t here!” I yelled at him as I laughed. “Are you sure you were in the Marines? You big chicken!”
Miles shot me the finger and then headed toward the fenced-in area for the chickens. Miles dove over the small fence, rolled on the landing, then jumped up and kept running. I had to admit it was a turn on to see him in action. A big turn on, even if it was because he was running from a rooster. Some things could be overlooked, after all, when you witness a fine specimen of a man in action.
“Impressive roll!” I cried out as Rowdy came to a stop at the fence. Turning, he started to walk away, clearly bored with the whole game now.
“Is the bastard gone?” Miles called out from around the back of the chicken coop.
“Seriously, you’re afraid of a rooster, Miles? You’ve been shot multiple times, but a feathered friend sends you running and screaming?” I asked as I waited for him to stop looking around for Rowdy.
Miles pointed to the retreating Rowdy. “That isn’t a feathered friend. He had the look of the devil in his eyes.”
I laughed.
Miles opened the gate and looked around before rushing to my side. He took my elbow and led us to his truck.
“Stop laughing, Kynslee.”
I tried to stop. Honestly, I did, but I laughed harder, especially when I started watching it replay on video.
“You filmed that?” he said, shocked.
Nodding, I really tried to stop laughing. “I can’t…believe…you’re afraid…of a rooster!”
“Ha ha. You clearly don’t remember the goose incident.”
I stopped walking and looked up at him. “The goose incident?”
He frowned and looked around again. When he spotted Rowdy, he picked up the pace, practically dragging me to his truck.
“Yeah, that fucking goose my father had. The damn thing used to terrorize the hell out of me when I was like five. That scars a person, Kynslee. For life.”
Placing my hand over my mouth, I couldn’t hold back the snort laugh. Miles opened the door for me, and I stepped up into his truck.
“Did you grab your purse?” Miles asked.
“Do you need a purse after what I just witnessed?” I couldn’t hold back the laughter but the scowl on his face told me I needed to rein it in. “No, I have everything on my phone case,” I said, holding up my phone.
“Then let’s get out of here.”
The moment he shut my door, Rowdy went on the attack again. He made a beeline straight toward Miles. Another scream and Miles was in the truck. Panting. Hard.
I chewed on my lip, trying oh-so-hard not to start laughing all over again.
Miles gripped the steering wheel like his life depended on it.
“Did the goose ever catch you?” I asked, trying to keep my tone serious.
“Fuck yes, he caught me! Little bastard nearly killed me when he knocked me down and gripped me like an eagle picking up a fish out of a lake. All I saw was his wings beating down on me over and over again. Shit went on for like five minutes before I was rescued.”
A laugh-snort almost slipped out, but I quickly contained it when Miles glared at me.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. So a goose nearly killed you. When you were five? I don’t remember hearing that story.”
“That’s because I blocked it from my memory until your damn rooster came charging after me. Oh, yeah. A few times he nearly got me. I had to hide up in my father’s deer stand once for two hours. I was crying the entire time. I could hear my mom calling, and I was scared to call back for fear the goose would find me. My mother was pissed and was ready to call the cops, thinking I had been kidnapped or something.”
I blinked a few times as I stared at him. “Wow. Okay, well, clearly you grew out of that.”
He shot me another dirty look. I focused on my folded hands in my lap.
“Your rooster looked like he wanted to kill me. He’s probably a reincarnation of that goose and has been waiting patiently for me to come back home so he could have another chance at me.”
I was positive my jaw was in my lap as I stared at him. This man was trusted with a gun and assigned to serious, very dangerous missions. Go figure.
“You’re serious right now, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Hell yes! He had the same eyes.”
Opening the truck door, I went to get out when Miles grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting out of your truck. You’ve lost your damn mind!”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Just get back in. We’re running late now.”
I shut the door. “Where are we going?”
Miles simply smiled. “You’ll see.”
“Since when did you get into surprises?”
He shrugged. “I’ve always loved surprises. Don’t you remember?”