Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

this six-foot-two man who used to be able to wrangle a pig, run away from a rooster.

He’s offered to help feed the chickens with me before, but today our rooster took one look at Alex and came charging at him like he was a matador in a bullfight.

“What the hell is wrong with this bird?” Alex yells as the rooster takes a nip at his ankle.

“He’s trying to assert his dominance.” I giggle. “You know he’s the only male in the house full of ladies. You’re stepping on his ground.”

“He didn’t do this the last time I was in here.”

“I guess he’s a lot like you. Moody.”

“I’m moody?” he jests, just as the rooster crows, with his neck feathers puffed out as he leaps up to attack Alex again. Alex drops the feed bucket and jumps over the wired fence to get away from his little fowl attacker. “Fucking bird.”

“Aww, is Alex afraid of a little bird?” I’m doing whatever I can to hold in my laughter.

“I’m not afraid. I just didn’t want to end up kicking the damn thing.”

“You know, I think you’ve been living in the city too long; you’ve lost all your country blood.”

“Um, the roosters weren’t fucking demons when we were growing up.” He lifts his jeans to expose his ankle, showing off the little scratch marks. Only little drops of blood have been spilled.

“I think you’ll live.” I shake my head and close the carton on the eggs I collected.

“I’m going to, but he won’t because I’m going to cook him up next time he pecks at me.”

I giggle. “See, you’re moody.” I climb over the fence and join him. “But I’ll protect you next time.”

“I think I’ll leave the chicken feeding and egg collection to you.”

“Or maybe next time you start acting like a giant asshole, I’ll make sure to stick the rooster on you,” I tease.

“I’m glad to see you think you’re so cute.” He narrows his eyes at me and flicks my braid back over my shoulder. “Hey, I want to ask you about something I’ve been thinking about the last couple of days.”

“What’s that?”

“As you know we have a lot of empty land.” He waves his hand around the empty field and the pond. “This was functional once.” Long ago when his grandparents owned it, it was used as farmland, but Liz didn’t keep up with it, especially after her husband died. She wasn’t a ‘farmer.’ She kept the stables for the horses, kept the chickens, and sometimes cows, but other than that, she loved the quiet of the land. “I was wondering if we should do something with it.”

“You’re asking me if we should do something with it?”

“I am. We have tons of land. Liz never did much with it, but maybe we should.”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I remember Liz having goats once. They were fun.”

“But do we really want to take on more animals?”

“No, I guess not, especially since you can’t even get along with a rooster.”

“I’d like to point out he is the asshole in this situation.” Alex stabs his finger at the rooster, whose head swings over at him and he flutters his feathers as if he’s ready for another attack.

“Well, I guess there is a first time for everything.” I laugh.

“Look at you,” Alex murmurs as he smiles at me, brushing his hand down my cheek.

“Look at me what?” I question staring down at my coveralls. I’m speckled with dirt from working, but I think I look fine. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” he says as his thumb draws along my lips. “You look good smiling. I hope I get to keep seeing more of it.”

I squint my eyes at him. “You keep acting like I never smile.”

“You don’t.”

I scoff. “I do.”

I smile.

Don’t I?

He tilts his head. “You don’t always truly smile or laugh. Like you don’t truly eat and sleep. But when it happens, I have to embrace the moment. Because you really are beautiful when you smile, June.”

Oh, wow.

A true Alex Wilks complaint.

“Thanks, and you really shine when you’re nice.” Alex chuckles, from deep in his chest, I’m sure remembering my not so long ago backhanded comment about not knowing nice if it bit him in the ass. “But I think I owe you for helping me eat a lot better lately too.” I wink. Over the last few weeks, meals at the Wilks house have taken a new turn. Who would have guessed Alex eating me was the thing to help relax me during a meal. I’ll be sure to inform my therapist next time I see her. In turn, I think all the sex has been helping me sleep better. I still have the occasional nightmare, but a late-night orgasm tends to chase them away. It also helps things are so much lighter between us.

Alex smirks and kisses the top of my head. “Speaking of which, do you have any dinner plans tonight?” He grins wickedly.

“I don’t know.” I shrug and kick up my leg playfully with a wink. “We’ll see.”

He grabs a hold of my ass and presses his mouth to my ear. “I do hope they are with my tongue,” he mutters seductively, making me shiver all over.

Gah, how normal is this?

Hold onto it, June, never let it go.

“I think it’s something that could be arranged.”

“Good because I was looking forward to another night of fish tacos.”

I shove his shoulder and he stumbles backward laughing. “You’re the worst.”

“Alright, Alright. Now back to the original question. What do you think about growing some crops or even maybe a garden to start?” he asks as he tugs my hand and we move across the muddy, yellow grass field, to make our way back