A/N: Hey ya'll! I'm still not dead. This chapter took an embarrassingly long time for me to get to a point where I was happy with it. On top of that, harvest season has had me working over 50 hours a week for a while.
Funnily enough, the day I finished writing this chapter, I got a comment on the last chapter asking if I'd be uploading since harvest season is over. While, at the time of writing, we are not done yet, by the time I get this proofread and it gets posted, we may very well be done. Also, after Thanksgiving I will be between jobs so I *should* be able to devote more time to this. (I know I know, "I've said that before," life is funny like that.)
I appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy! Also, for those of you that celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving!
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Chase continued working away at sweeping out the larger of the calf pens in the barn. The process was taking him longer than it usually would have, largely due to the soreness in his right arm. He was able to move it a decent amount without issue but after a full morning of using the cobweb brush, the soreness was rearing its ugly head. Not that it was unbearable, but it was definitely slowing him down.
"It's gonna storm tonight," he reminded himself, "just keep it up for the next hour or so and you'll be stuck inside tomorrow anyway."
As he neared the halfway point of getting the pen swept, he heard something shut off and looked up reflexively. Then he realized that he had heard the generator shutting down. With that realization, he took a moment to scan his morning's work.
The night before, all of the floor joists and the beams for them had been covered in cobwebs, any horizontal surfaces had been covered in the best part of a decade's worth of dust, the floor was also covered in dust, the feedroom had been full of cobwebs, and the water bowls had filled with chaff, among other things. Now as he looked around, all the cobwebs he could reach had been swept away, the dust had all been swept away, the water bowls were cleaned, although none of them worked, and he was on the last thing he wanted to get done for the time being, namely, sweeping the old bedding and chaff out of the pens. His plan was to sweep everything from the smaller pens into the larger pen which he would then sweep out to his compost pile in the lean-to.
As he looked around, his eyes landed on the only other person in the barn. The same woman who he owed his arm, if not his life, to. Sarah had taken to exploring the barn at her own leisure and was in the main pen looking out through the windows into the lean-to. She was wearing the same jacket from the night before, he could tell by the dust marks on it, along with a toboggan and a pair of sweatpants. He assumed that she had to have another layer on under those, but there was a chance the cold didn't bother her.
As he looked her over, his eyes ended up wandering to her ass and legs, which he'd never really taken a decent look at before. Largely because every time he'd seen her, she'd been wearing sweats. He couldn't really see much but it did seem to be decently sized and have a pleasant shape to it. He could hardly see anything in terms of the rest of her lower body but, judging from her more athletic build, he was willing to bet that her legs were amazingly toned.
"I guess I should have paid attention when I first saw her this summer." He thought, smiling in spite of himself. He'd been so caught up in the fact that he'd just settled a deal for his farm that he'd neglected to pay her much attention. He pondered the fact that he had only started paying much attention to her after the day he'd injured himself. Now he found himself wishing he'd been paying attention earlier when she wasn't wearing winter clothes.
About then he realized that he had gotten a little tunnel-visioned, and then, as if she knew it had happened, she turned around and looked at him. Even though he had just been caught, he wasn't too concerned about it. After all, she'd caught him before.
"What are you looking at?" She asked, a bit of a knowing smile on her face.
He responded with a relaxed half-smile and a question of his own. "I was gonna ask you the same question."
"I was just looking at the pile of what we threw out there yesterday." She answered pointing to the lean-to.
"Hmm." He replied, hoping he might have dodged the question.
"Yeah. Now how about you?" She asked, the smile back on her face.
"What about me?" He replied, playing along with the little game she seemed to be playing.
"What were you looking at?" She repeated herself.
"Well, the most interesting thing I can see." He replied as matter-of-factly as he could. That line had gotten a decent response out of her before, so he figured it wouldn't hurt to use it again.
Her response was a smile and an eye roll. He smiled in return and went back to finishing up the pen he was sweeping. The brief break had allowed the pain in his arm to subside somewhat so the last half of the pen went significantly faster than the first had.
As he pushed the pile of old dust, chaff, and bedding across into the largest pen, he heard Sarah's voice. "Do you have another broom around here?" She asked.
"Umm," he thought out loud as he looked up towards her, "there's probably another one in the milkhouse."
"Ok." Was her only reply before she headed disappeared into the milkhouse. He then finished pushing the pile into the large pen and headed for the other of the smaller pens.
"Found one!" Sarah called from inside the milkhouse as he was walking into the next pen. He looked up and found her walking out with the broom she'd found.
"You wanna help huh?" He said sarcastically.
She just looked at him with an expression that seemed to say, "Seriously?"
He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the reaction he'd managed to elicit from her. "If you insist, you can take that big pen and sweep everything towards the east end of the barn." He said, indicating both the pen and the direction he wanted it swept.
"Ok." Was her response and she set to work. At that point Chase returned to his work and before long he had gotten everything except for the large pen cleaned out. He pushed the pile of dust and chaff into the large pen on the north side of the barn. By that point Sarah had gotten about three quarters of the way across the pen and he joined her to finish the last little bit.
As they started pushing all of the material out to the pile in the lean-to, he was interrupted by an incoming call. He stepped out of Sarah's way as she finished up and answered the call.
"Hello?" He said as he put his phone to his ear.
"Hey Chase," came his grandpa's voice from the other end, "how are ya holding up down there?"
"Not too bad." He replied. "Out in the barn right this second."
"Aren't you supposed to be taking it easy?"
"Yeah."
His grandpa was silent for a second or so. Then he replied, "You stubborn son-of-a-gun."
Chase laughed, "Just like your sons and your father's son." He said.
"Yeah yeah, I know, Meier genes. Besides that, what are you doin' in the barn right now anyway?"
"Getting stuff cleaned out since I don't trust my arm enough to get back to wrenching."
"I guess if it keeps you busy. Anyway, I called to let you know that we just got put on a blizzard warning that's supposed to hit here this evening. They listed off just about every county north of Fort Dodge and said the storm's heading south to southeast, so you're probably gonna get buried down there too."
"Guess I'd better keep a radio by me."
"You'd better. They're saying that widespread power outages are likely so be prepared."
"Actually, this place has a generator and I checked to make sure it works and it has fuel, so I should be alright on that front."
"Well, that's good to know. You still should probably keep up on the weather."
"I will. Thanks."
"Alright Chase. Have fun in the barn and don't work too hard. Your uncle and I are gonna head out and make sure the barn's all closed up before that storm hits."
"Alright you two have fun with that."
