Rescued by the Farmer Read Online Free Page A

up on his hind legs and rested his tiny front hoofs on the dividing wall. Reaching over, she scratched between his sprouting horns with a smile. “All they want is to be fed and have a safe place to sleep. Whoever gives them that is their hero, and they love you to pieces.”
    Drew didn’t respond to that, and she glanced over to find him studying her with a somber expression. An angry glint appeared in his eyes again, and she recognized it from when he’d noticed the healing bruise on her cheek. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, but his grim look stayed in place.
    “Are you talking about these critters,” he asked gently, “or yourself?”
    His perceptiveness was unnerving, to say the least, and she clamped her mouth shut to avoid stammering in shock. Once she regained some of her composure, she replied, “Let’s just say I can relate to where they’re coming from. I’ve been in some places that I have no intention of ever going back to.”
    “Making a better life for yourself,” he added, eyes now twinkling with approval. “Good for you.”
    “I hope so. Seeing as I don’t have much choice but to keep going forward.”
    She wasn’t usually so honest with someone she barely knew, and she held her breath waiting for him to ask her to clarify what on earth she was talking about. Instead, he gave her an encouraging smile that warmed her all over.
    “That’s a great way to look at it,” he said. “I think that’s a good strategy for all of us.”
    Did he really? she wondered, or was he just being nice? As he got back to work in the stalls, she pondered their brief discussion in an attempt to sort through her conflicting feelings about him. She’d grown so accustomed to guys who said what they thought she wanted to hear, she was constantly on her guard around them. Because of that, she wasn’t sure how to read Drew’s wide-open, friendly personality.
    Could it be that by some crazy stroke of fortune, she’d stumbled across a truly honest, straightforward man who said what he meant and meant what he said? Stranger things had happened, she supposed. She just couldn’t recall the last time they’d happened to her.
    While she was lost in her brooding, the end door swung open, and Sierra came through lugging two old-fashioned milk bottle carriers filled with what looked like large plastic baby bottles topped with oversize nipples. The residents of the baby section went bananas, bleating and calling for their breakfast while Drew hurried forward to lend a hand.
    “Those look kinda heavy,” he said as he took them from her.
    “They are,” she acknowledged, a bit breathless. “Thanks for the help.”
    “Well, you know how that works.”
    Narrowing her eyes, she nailed him with a suspicious glare. “I’m not doing your laundry like I had to when my poor Angels lost the World Series to Cincinnati.”
    “Nah, nothin’ like that,” he assured her smoothly, setting the formula down on a nearby hay bale.
    “Then what?”
    “We’ll talk about it later,” he said with a wink. “Who gets fed first?”
    “I think he does,” Bekah replied, laughing as the determined pygmy goat climbed on his buddy’s back trying to get at the bottles.
    “You can start with him,” Sierra agreed.
    When her meaning sank in, Bekah shook her head. “You mean, you want me to do it?”
    “Sure. They know how to eat, so you just hold the bottle up for them and wait till they’re done.” Bleating up a storm, the little goat was butting his head against the wall, and she laughed. “Here, let me show you.”
    She climbed into the pen and lifted him out. Grabbing a bottle, she set him on his feet and sat down on the sawdust-covered dirt floor beside him. Eager for his breakfast, he latched on to the nipple and sucked down the formula like it was his last meal.
    “Wow, he’s really going to town,” Bekah commented, patting his wiry brindle coat while he ate. “Are they all this easy?”
    “The trick is to keep