Forever's Embrace (Forever In Luck Series Book 2)

by J. Darling

  “So, you’re recycling poo?”

  He nodded. “You got it. In the past, it used to be a huge pile somewhere on the farm, and we’d turn it from time to time, letting it compost for use as fertilizer on the fields when needed. We had more than we could ever use, and it was pretty much a loss. Further, we used to have to purchase bedding materials to augment what we were able to produce on our own, but with rising costs on sand, sawdust, wood shavings, hay, and straw, we had to look for alternatives, and manure is the one thing we have in abundance around here. So we’re trying this, and it’s paid for itself already in under four years. It’s Nik’s deal really. He’s into the overall functioning of the farm, not to mention he has an inventors mind and the skill to see things to fruition.”

  “Hmmm, very interesting,” she replied. “I want to see how this works.”

  He grinned. “You sure about that?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, if you say so. Take a deep breath, and we’ll head in. It’s stinky and noisy, so we can talk when we come out. Ready?”

  She nodded.

  Emerging several minutes later, Jake looked at Jules. “Well?”

  She stood thinking. “The two vats in the floor?”

  “Filled with slurry awaiting processing.”

  “End result virtually sterile, you say?”

  He nodded. “Yep, ninety-nine percent pathogen free, better than any of the traditional bedding materials we’d been using, not to mention cheaper. We’ve seen a reduction in mastitis, and an improvement in leg and hoof health. The cows love it because it a fine granule, making it soft and comfy. Which is basic to Dairy 101, happy healthy cows produce more milk. Come, I’ll show you.”

  Walking back through the barn, down one of the long corridors, through the milking parlor and past the carousel, they entered another long wing.

  “In addition to the four main wings, there are two more smaller ones, this one here, and another one a straight shot across the barn. That one is where we keep cows showing signs of sickness, this one is the maternity ward, expectant moms to your left, baby pens to the right, and group pens beyond them down to the end. As you can see, our mama’s to be love their comfy beds, as they are choosing to be here rather than outside. They get plenty of good feed and clean water, and are essentially pampered princesses.”

  Jules chuckled. “Of the whole entire farm, this is where you like to be the most, isn’t it?

  Jake took in the surroundings. “I spend a fair amount of time here.” Taking her hand, they walked down the aisle, coming to one of the calving pens. “Here’s a sweet little girl you’ll be interested in. Its Annabelle’s calf.”

  A little black and white head popped out of its pen at the sound of his voice, then pranced over to him looking for his attention. Soon all the calves in the vicinity were calling and looking for him.

  Jules started giggling, then called out, “Daddy’s home! She’s so cute. Can I touch her?”

  He nodded. “Sure, she loves being scratched behind the ears.”

  Reaching out, Jules touched the calf. “She’s so soft! Hey sweetie pie, aren’t you delightful.”

  “You can name her if you want.”

  Jules gasped. “Really? Can I? I’d love to!”

  “Go for it.”

  Just then the calf’s nose butted her hand, sniffed and huffed, then pranced off, running in a circle before coming to stand in front of her again.

  “She’s soooo cute, she’s playing with me. Let’s see, since she’s adorable, likes to flit around, and is Annabelle’s, I think I’d like to name her Tinkerbelle. Or is that one already taken?” she asked, looking at him with batting lashes and a huge smile.

  He chuckled. Tinkerbelle wasn’t the only one playing, he thought. “Nope, and we’ve never had a Tinkerbelle, so it works fine. It suits her. Good job. Let’s go log it in the ledger and we’ll finish the tour.”

  Stopping in the farm’s office, located near the main entrance of the barn, Jake went to a shelf unit and pulled out a ledger, wrote in some information, and put it back on the shelf.

  “What are all these?” Jules asked, looking over the shelves holding numerous books.

  “Ledgers, log books, data on the farm. Nik wants to get it all on computer, but it’s kind of hard because dad isn’t interested. He likes the old way, says he’s electronically challenged, and that hell will freeze over before he goes computerized. So we’re working on him, trying to get him to learn. We just got him to agree to carry a cell phone in the last year, so its baby steps around here.”

  Nodding to a large map on the wall, Jake said, “That’s a map of Luck Township and the Village of Luck.” Stepping to it, he pointed, “This is where the farm is. We own all the land outlined in red. Most of Luck is relatively flat, but the northern part, where we live, has some rolling hills. The hillier parts we use mostly for grazing, the flatter areas are haying pastures and farmland for feed crops. Throughout the property, unto the Gandy Dancer Trail here on the western edge, are various patches of forested land that Kris and Nik like to hunt on.”

  “Wow! That’s quite a bit of land. How long has your family been here?”

  “Since the mid-eighteen hundreds,” he answered, as he took her hand and led her out of the office, heading towards the main door. “They emigrated from Denmark, we’re Danish mostly, with a little German and Norwegian mixed in.”

  “Wait, you didn’t show me what’s down that hall,” she said, looking back the way they came.

  Not going there, he thought, no way. So, he simply smiled and shook his head as he kept walking. “It’s nothing, just a bunch of storage.”

  “Oh, okay,” she answered, following him.

  Stepping outside, he pointed and said, “That building over there is the shop where we work on the equipment and do repairs. All those buildings over there house equipment and such, and this larger one by the silo, is the feed shed where we store the various food supplies needed to sustain the herd. That big piece of equipment next to it is equivalent to a kitchen food processor. We dump in the various feed materials and let it mix, then we haul it to the barn and feed the animals. So that’s it, that’s the farm.”

  She snuggled up to him and looked into his eyes. “Thank you. It’s a very nice farm. You and your family have every right to be proud of it. Now what’s on the agenda?”

  “Ice fishing. We’re going to see if this city girl can catch dinner.”

  *****

  Riding along in Jakes pickup, Jules was giddy. Clutching her bait bucket full of shiner minnows, she studied her very own fishing license. If she was in Chicago right now, she’d be sitting at a desk sorting and analyzing mountains of data, making inferences, developing hypotheses, and proposing studies. Gosh, what a difference life in the country was compared to the big city, with its zillions of people all going about their business, doing busy things, often times without fulfillment or value.

  She loved the farm, all of it, everything about it. It was amazing, and the scientist in her wanted to go beyond the macroview of the tour and see its operation on a microscopic level. With rapidly advancing technologies, she saw several areas that could be improved, increasing their efficiency and the bottom line.

  Peeking in her bucket, she watched the little minnows dart around. “What kinds of fish are we going to catch?”

  Jake glanced over. “We hope for walleye, but panfish would work too.”

  “What are panfish?”

  “Smaller fish, like bluegills, crappies, and sunfish.”

  She peeked in the minnow bucket again. “What lake are we going to?”

  “Bone Lake, it’s only ten minutes or so from the house. Kris keeps an ice house there, so we’re going to use it. Mine’s up north at the cabin.”

  Jake turned and headed down an incline, passing a sign that said “Public Access,” then went over a series of bumps and they were on the lake. Rolling down their windows, he told her to take off her seatbelt. Doing what he told her
to, her heart started to pound. She quickly put her license down and grabbed the door handle. “Um, Jake, is it safe?” she swallowed hard. “I mean, ah, shouldn’t we walk, maybe?”

  “Relax, you’re safe. I’ve got you. You do know how to swim though, right? Just in case.”

  “Jake!” she said in a panic, “Take us back, I don’t want to fish!”

  Driving on, he laughed and laughed.

  Hugging her bait bucket, she glared at him. Her heart was about to jump from her chest and he was teasing her. Then he pulled up to a little shack of a building. That was the ice house? Why her bedroom closet looked to be bigger. “How long are we going to be here?” she asked warily.

  Still getting his jollies from her discomfort, he smirked and said, “Till you catch enough for dinner. Wait here while I go in and turn on the heater. We’ll give it a chance to heat up a bit before we go in.”

  “What? No way!” she practically shrieked. Shaking her head adamantly, she said, “I’m not staying out here alone. What if this thing falls in? You’d never find me. No way! I’m coming with you.” She grabbed her stuff and suddenly had a thought. “Wait! You have a heater going when you’re on ice? I want to see this heater thingy. Quit laughing at me!”

  His head had fallen against the back of the seat, he was laughing so hard. She smacked him in the arm. “I’m frightened to death and you’re laughing at me!”

  “Okay…okay…,” he uttered, as he sat up trying to get control. “It’s just that you’re so damn funny.” He fell back again, laughing some more.

  “Well that’s just great, glad I could be a source of entertainment for you,” she grumbled. “How thick is this ice?”

  “A couple inches.”

  “Jake!” she squealed. “Get us off here now!”

  He howled with laughter again.

  That did it. Pulling out her phone, she dialed Linnie’s number. He took the phone and hit disconnect.

  “Give me my phone,” she demanded.

  “Jules, look at me.”

  “No,” she said angrily, as she put out her hand. “Give me my phone.”

  Handing it back, he grabbed her hand and kissed the back. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I was just having a little fun with you. You’re safe, I promise.”

  Her phone rang. Answering it, she put it to her ear. “Linnie?”

  “Yeah, you called?”

  “I’m on some Bone Lake, next to Kris’s ice house, with this wretch you call a brother. He drove out on the ice with his truck, and told me the ice is only a couple inches thick. He wants me to stay in the truck while he goes in and lights a heater and lets it warm up inside. I don’t know what world you people live in, but the one I come from has heat melting ice, and trucks falling through thin ice! Please come get me, now.”

  CHAPTER 8

  “Jules, take a deep breath, he was just teasing,” Linnie said, trying to reassure her. “Trust me, you’re safe. Let me talk to him.”

  Taking a deep breath and then letting it out, Jules handed him the phone without looking at him.

  “Yeah,” Jake said. “Aha…yeah, I did…I tried…I know…I will…promise…I promise…no…yes… mmhmm…alright.” Then he handed the phone back.

  “Yes,” Jules said, in a hoarse whisper.

  “You’re safe. The ice is a few feet thick, the truck will not fall in, and a heater can be, and is, used safely on the ice. He was just having fun with you, and knowing my brothers, he’s probably trying to get you to wait in the truck while he checks the ice shanty out to be sure there are no playboys laying around, or pinups and panties hanging on the walls.”

  Jules gasped. “You’ve got to be joking! Tell me you’re joking.”

  Linnie laughed. “I wish, but I did warn you, there’s great fun to be had in an ice house.”

  “Oh sure, another warning is it? The way you carried on about it, it was more of an advertisement. I’m going to quit listening to you, Linnie Sanders, it just gets me into trouble every darn time.”

  Linnie giggled. “Lesson number two, now that he’s upset you, make him grovel. Making up can be so much fun, you’ll see. You’re in control, so stick around, catch a fish or two, and have a little fun canoodling.”

  Jules dropped her head against the window. “Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding. So not feeling it,” she said exasperated.

  Linnie laughed, and said, “Ahhhh, the joys of having a man in your life, they take you from happiness to irritation within seconds. The good thing is, it can go the opposite direction too. Have fun, but not too much fun, and catch a walleye for me. I’ll see you later tonight.”

  Hitting disconnect, she sat back in the seat.

  Reaching over, Jake took her hand and kissed it again. “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

  “…he upset you, make him grovel.”

  She stared out the front window of the truck. “Go clean up the playboys, pinups, and panties. I don’t care to witness the Albrecht boy’s indiscretion.”

  He sat there staring at her, then said, “I told you its Kris’s shack, not mine.”

  “Save it, not interested.”

  He let out a long sigh and got out of the truck. Grabbing a box of supplies from the back, he took it in with him.

  Digging in her purse, she found a stick of clove gum, opened it, shoved it in her mouth, and tried chomping her stress away. Soon he emerged, coming to her side and opening the door. Helping her out of the truck, he held her arm as she shuffled along the ice and into the little shack.

  Well, it’s nicer on the inside than on the outside, she thought, as she entered. Small though, very small, and with the way she was feeling towards Jake right now, even smaller.

  Setting her bucket on the table, she sat and watched as he pulled up some covers stuck in the floor. Taking out this huge corkscrew looking device, he put it in the hole and started turning it around and around. After a few turns, he stopped and took off his jacket, then went back to boring the hole in the ice. Pausing from time to time, he cleaned out the broken ice chunks and debris, his strong, muscular arms making quick work of the job.

  Well, who was entertaining who now, she thought with a naughty grin, as she watched his derrière clench and shake with his efforts. If he only had on one of those little Chippendale costumes, then they’d be in business, she thought, the prospect making her smile with anticipation.

  Goodness gracious, I even have some dollar bills in my purse I could spare. Now wouldn’t that be fun? She nodded at the vision her imagination produced and quickly put herself in the front row. Perfect. Juliet Rose Blomgren! Shame on you, you’re being naughty, now behave. Dang it! Her conscience had just rained on her parade. Linnie was right though, good thing she’d stuck around or she’d have missed this show.

  “Alright, let’s see that bucket of yours,” he said, reaching out. “I’ll show you how to go about baiting your hook and setting your line.”

  Getting up, she took a few steps and handed him the bucket.

  “Stick your hand in the bucket, grab a shiner, and hook him near the tail, like so. You want him to be alive and wiggling when you drop him in the hole, see.” He held out the dangling fish for observation, then continued talking through the demonstration. “Feed the line into the hole till it hits bottom, and then pull back about a foot or so. Then set the line, just like this. Now you try.”

  She stared at the bucket, glanced at the line he was holding out to her, then looked at the other hole. Removing her hat and mittens, she took the line, knelt by the bucket, and stared inside. Those little guys were wiggling all over the place. She didn’t want to put her hand in there. She didn’t. With a deep breath, she stuck her hand inside, swirled it around, and grabbed for one. Pulling it out, the minnow wiggled and twisted around till it flipped from her hand and went down the hole. Dang it! Now she had to put her hand in that bucket again. Slippery little buggers.

  Sticking her hand in, she went for another shiner and held on good. Grabbing the hook, she tried
her best not to harm the little guy, and felt bad when the hook went in and poked through the other side, causing the little fish to twitch and flutter. Dropping it in the hole, she let it go down, down, down, and then pulled it up a little, before setting the line on the wheely deely mounted on the wall. She took a deep breath, and smiled as she looked at the hole, pleased as punch and as proud as a peacock.

  Strong arms came around her from behind, and she was pulled in tight against Jake. Kissing the side of her head, then whispering in her ear, he praised her, “Good job, bebis. I’m proud of you.”

  Turning her face to him some, she responded by resting her head against his chin.

  “We need to set up two more holes, and then we can relax. If a fish is on the line, the wheel will rattle alerting us. Are you going to forgive me, or continue giving me the silent treatment?”

  Thinking about it for a minute, she decided she wasn’t strong enough to make him grovel much. She turned in his arms and cuddled into the crook of his neck as she put her arms around him.

  “That’s my girl,” he said, as he hugged her tight, then whispered, “I really am sorry.”

  She tilted her head back, and looked up at his handsome face and gorgeous amber colored eyes, and knew she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, and for him to kiss her. Reaching up, she put her arms around his neck, bringing the two of them together, and kissed him. Then kissed, kissed, kissed him some more. On fire and out of breath, she struggled to breath. Placing tiny kisses along his jaw, she kissed and nibbled her way to his neck, as she ran fingers up into his hair. He moaned, and started pulling her toward the narrow bench seat along the wall.

  Sitting, he took hold of one of her knees, causing it to bend, then brought it alongside his hip, then did the same to the other. On his lap and facing him, he unzipped her jacket and slid it off her, tossing it to the side. Leaning in, he began kissing her neck in earnest as he ran his hands up and down her body in full measure, pulling her close, touching her nice. Adjusting her knees in a bid to get closer, he encouraged her on. Nibbling and teasing her neck in full ascension, he reached her ear, sucking and tugging on her earlobe, causing her to gasp.