Nothing to say really, so I'm gonna jump right in :)
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My alarm went off at 5:30 and my eyes popped open, my brain struggling to comprehend what that horrible noise was at this ungodly hour. Finally, it registered in my mind and I remembered that Murphy was gonna be here in a half hour. I kicked the blanket off of me and jumped out of bed, wobbling a little from the sudden rush of blood to my head, but I didn't stop and headed directly for the shower.
I made it fast and pulled on a pair of bum around jeans and a plain black shirt and pulled on my boots without lacing them as I ran back to the bathroom to run a brush through my hair, thankful that it was short so I didn't have to do anything with it. An indignant meow reminded me I wasn't the only one who needed to be taken care of this morning and I ran to the kitchen, tripping once over my laces and bumping hard into the kitchen table.
"Oww," I moaned as I rubbed my hip, "Titus, I'd get you an automatic dispenser if I didn't think you'd get insanely fat!"
The second I'd set Titus' food and water down, I heard the knock on my door. I made my way to it a little more carefully so as not to trip again and opened the door. Murphy stood on the other side, looking exceptionally scruffy.
"Ya ready?" he asked, looking down at my untied boots with a half smile. "Or do ya need a little more time?"
"Just let me tie these," I replied, placing my right foot up on a chair to knot my laces. When I was done, I stomped the floor for good measure and smiled. "Alright, ready. Do I need anything special?"
"Jacket," Murphy suggested. "One you won't mind getting pretty muddied up."
I bit my lip when I realized I really only had my one hoodie until I could afford to buy another coat. Murphy stuck his tongue out slightly and I assumed that meant he was thinking, and then he pulled his coat off and handed it to me.
"Here, I'm used to the weather," he claimed when I raised my hands to turn down the offer, "You're an American so you need to acclimate a little more."
I rolled my eyes but took the coat and slung it on as we made our way down the stairs to the street, and I noted the coat smelled like smoke, sheep, rain...and something else that I assumed was distinctly Murphy. When he pushed the door open and held it for me, I eyed the street for a car of some sort.
"Um...so, we walking to your place?" I asked, locking the door behind us.
"Sort of..." Murphy laughed, he jerked his head toward the alleyway next to the bakery and I followed, curious. I smelled our transportation before I saw them. That sweet smell of...horses. Two horses stood in the alleyway, one was a bay Irish Sport Horse mare and the other was a painted Gypsy Vanner mare. Murphy took the reins of the Vanner and untied them, then he handed them to me with a smile and untied the bay's reins.
"Can you ride?" he asked, and I nodded. Of course I could. "Good, we'll be doin' a lot of that this morning."
He mounted up the bay and I followed his example and pulled myself onto the beautiful Vanner.
"She got a name?" I asked, patting the soft neck under the cream mane.
"Ceara," Murphy replied, and then ran his hand over his bay's shoulder, "This here's Breigh. "
"Well they're beautiful," I said with a smile.
"Aye," Murphy grinned and gave Breigh a nudge with his knees and she started forward slowly, leaving Ceara and I to follow. We rode slowly through the center of the town and the sun just started rising over the horizon, bathing the stones with golden-pink light. Birds began singing and our horses hooves shone from the dew as we made our way out of town headed northwest.
"So," I said, simply to break the silence, "Where's your farm?"
"About three miles outside of town, in the direction of the lake," Murphy replied, smoke poured from his mouth as he spoke and I wondered when he'd lit the cigarette. Damn, he was sneaky.
"Well that's nice," I stated out of politeness, I actually had no clue what it was like three miles to the northwest of town but I assumed it was nice, I mean it's Ireland!
"We like it," Murphy replied, obviously not thrown by my obvious lack of knowledge or well turned phrases. "I'm still surprised you actually volunteered for this, lass."
"What else have I got to do?" I replied honestly, "All I ever do is work at the pub or sit at home. Once in a while I have a really thrilling time and go shopping."
My sarcastic tone must have struck him funny because Murphy chuckled loudly.
"Sounds like you need to get out more," he commented.
"Yeah, I guess I should," I agreed, "Probably ought to hook up with some sexy Irish guy or make some really good friends I can tear up the town with."
Murphy didn't say anything, he just squinted at me from under his long bangs, looking thoughtful.
"Good luck finding a sexy Irish guy in this town," he finally stated, flicking his cigarette butt off to the side.
"All the guys in this town are Irish," I said with a confused look.
"Nothin' says any of them are sexy," he replied with a grin.
Looking at Murphy and Connor and the array of men who came through the pub, I had to agree. Nothing sexy around here so far. Friendly, nice, happy, yes all those things, but not sexy.
"That's very true..." I agreed sadly, "Haven't really met anyone yet who qualifies as sexy."
Murphy ran his hand over his chin and his lips twisted to the side, a funny sort of expression, and I wondered what it meant, but then he smiled and nodded.
"Yeah," he said softly, "This area doesn't really breed sexy, I guess."
"You might look pretty good if you trimmed up a bit," I commented out of the blue, then I blushed a deep crimson color and clicked Ceara with my heels to trot ahead a bit. I found myself wondering what Murphy and Connor did look like under all that hair...good grief, I needed to get laid and soon.
"You really speak your mind, don't ya?" Murphy asked simply as he trotted up alongside me, "Typical American."
"I'm sorry," I muttered, "I don't think before I speak sometimes."
"It's alright," Murphy seemed to be thinking hard about something but about that time, we came around the corner of a stone fence and a small stone cottage came into view.
"This is your farm?" I asked, looking around. The barn was bigger than the house by far and I saw a lot of sheep grazing beyond it, Connor was outside the barn door saddling up a chestnut stallion.
"Yep," Murphy replied as he pulled the reins and stopped next to Connor's horse. "You ready, Connor?"
"Aye," Connor replied and mounted up, he gave me a grin, "I see you didn't chicken out."
"Never," I replied. "Let's go shear us some sheep, gentlemen! Yeehaw!"
I dug my heels in Ceara's side and took off at a gallop toward the fence where a tall man with white hair was opening the gate for us. Connor and Murphy laughed out loud and followed behind me at a gallop as well, we flew through the gate and into the pasture, scattering some geese that were waddling around the water trough.
I pulled up and turned to grin at them.
"Blue ribbon!" I cheered, punching the air, "We showed 'em, huh, Ceara?"
A shaggy grey monster of a dog came charging across the field toward us and I felt a jolt of fear until it skidded to a stop near Connor's horse and placed his paws up on Connor's leg. Connor leaned over and scratch it behind the ears.
"This is Rocco," Connor introduced the beast, it's tongue lolled out and it looked at me with frightening golden eyes. But the soul of a dog is in the tail and the tail told me Rocco was a good dog. He was wagging so hard his whole back end moved with it. "He's a wolfhound. Great dog, helps us with the herding."
"Hey there, Rocco!" I said with a smile, he jumped onto my leg next and I patted him.
"Alright, let's get to work you guys," Murphy piped up, pointing his horse toward the hill in the pasture, "Sheep are right on the other side, I guarantee. Da, ya ready?"
The older man by the gate had moved over to where a loading chute was now being held open and he gave us a thumbs up.
"Alright, then," Connor said, following Murphy at a trot, "Let's do this shit."
When we reached the top of the hill we were looking down on what I assumed to be a hundred or more sheep. Connor nodded to Murphy and moved to the right while Murphy took the left. This is when I felt stupid...I had no idea how to herd sheep.
"Murphy," I whispered so Connor wouldn't hear, "What do I do? I've never herded sheep before."
"Just keep them headed toward the barn and into the loading chute," Murphy replied, "You take my spot, actually. I'll work with Rocco."
He trotted back to my position and called Rocco to his side.
"Just keep them tight, bring the strays back into the main group."
I nodded, glad that I had decent horse riding skills, and trotted along the outside of the lazy herd parallel to Connor. I waited for Connor's wave over his head and then she kicked Ceara's side and headed for the back corner of the herd as Connor did the same on the other side, I heard a sharp whistle and Rocco ran past me, heading for the back of the herd. The sound of terrified "baaaaa"s and "Mmmmaaa"s reached my ears as well as the pounding of hooves and Rocco's barks and whistles from Murphy as he directed Rocco's movements. Soon, we had the herd moving towards the barn at a decent pace and I felt excitement coursing through my veins at this new experience.
When we reached the loading chute, a good chunk of the sheep did what they were meant to and headed into the barn, but there were several delinquents and they scattered on either side of the chute and headed back out towards the hills.
"Catch 'em!" Connor barked and his stallion did an impressively sharp turn and he took off after the sheep with me on his heels. Murphy was now riding in an arc around the escaping fugitives and Rocco was off after a few of the more adventurous ones who weren't afraid to be on their own. Connor and I took the sides and we all turned the runaways back to the chute and I sighed happily as they went in without a fight this time. Connor jumped down from his horse and helped their father shut the gates and Murphy came to a stop next to me and we exchanged a high five.
"Not bad for your first time herding," he commented brightly, "Now...for the dirty work. Come on around the back, we'll put the horses up while Connor and Da get things ready."
He grabbed the reins of Connor's horse and we set off at a walk around the barn. We dismounted and Murphy tied the horses and unsaddled them while I started brushing them down. Then we put them in their stalls and walked down to where Connor and their dad were holding shears and bags. Murphy and I each took a pair and we all climbed into the pen.
"Alright, boys...and girl," Mr. MacManus announced, "Connor and I'll catch 'em and bag the wool, you two do the cutting."
Murphy and I nodded and took our places behind the fence at the front of the pen while Connor and their dad headed into the fray and grabbed a good sized ewe and pushed her into our small pen. Murphy grabbed her and wrestled her down.
"Alright, farm girl, let's see what you've got," he said over the cries of the struggling sheep. I grinned and grabbed a handful of the belly wool and began clipping, tossing the useless wool over to the left, then Murphy turned her onto her side, placing his knee on her neck while holding her two left leg in his left hand while he grabbed his sheers to help my progress. We tossed our handfuls of good wool over the fence where Connor and their dad bagged in. Finally, we carefully lifted the ewe back to her feet so she wouldn't thrash and hurt us or herself and se bolted out of the gate with a pitiful baa, shaking her new summer coat.
"Good job," Murphy commented as we watched the ewe go, "You HAVE done this before."
"Yep," I replied, nodding as I picked some stray wool off my arm.
"You banded lambs before?" he asked next.
"Tails or nuts? Because I've done both."
Murphy looked at me funny but then laughed as another ewe was shoved in the gate.
"Well, ya get to do it again," he said with a grunt as he wrestled the ewe onto her back, "That's another thing we gotta do today."
"Oh boy!" I rolled my eyes, "Nothing I love more than castrating things."
Murphy looked genuinely horrified for a second until he caught the teasing grin on my face as I started sheering the new ewe. He chuckled nervously but kept his hold on the ewe's legs as I worked.
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Hours later found us all sweaty, dirty, covered in wool bits, mud and sheep poop...but I was still feeling pretty good. I was enjoying the craic and jokes between the boys and it felt like being home with my bothers back in the day when my life was a good one.
"Alright, boys," Mr. MacManus, Noah is what I understood his name to be, exclaimed, "Grab the lambs and let's get this job done."
"You heard him," Murphy said, grabbing a handful of rubber bands and stuffing them in his pocket. "Don't dock them too short now. And for the love of all things holy, get those bands TIGHT. Poor bastards."
I giggled as I grabbed some rubber bands too and went after the closest lamb I could see. I grabbed it's back legs and pressed it's neck down to make it lay and pulled out a band to wrap around his tail tightly until I was sure the blood flow was cut off. I then pulled out another and tightly wrapped it around the very top of the unfortunate lamb's scrotum.
"Sorry, buddy," I said as I let the lamb rise to its feet. I marked it with the orange chalk to show he'd been done and let the bawling thing run back to its mother.
The next lamb I grabbed was a ewe so I wrapped her tail and marked her and sat back on my heels to get a breath. Murphy was chalking his lamb to my left and Connor was wrapping a tail to my right, Noah was separating some more lambs from the group for us to get at.
This job was much less time consuming and we finished in about an hour or two and we let the sheep go out the back and watched them run to their "freedom" from behind the fence. I leaned my chin on my arms and sighed.
"Well...that was a good day's work," I claimed, "I think I'd like to go home and shower."
"Wouldn't hear of it," Noah said sternly, "You at least earned a good meal, lass! Come on in and you can shower while the boys and I get something cooked up."
I smiled and Connor put his arm around my shoulder.
"Ain't she something?" he said proudly, "This girl isn't afraid to get her hand dirty!"
"Hard worker, our Aby," Murphy said from my other side, his arm joined Connor's only slightly lower so it was under my arms.
Our Aby? I couldn't help the ridiculously big smile that split my face. I'd say Connor and Murphy were my first official Irish friends...who knows, maybe they'd be like family in time.
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The shower was cold...and also in the barn. I felt highly exposed in the open like it was, but the boys has promised to behave and were inside cooking dinner. I mean, I guessed they were. I hoped they were as I ran the bar of soap over my upper thigh and let the suds wash off with the cool water. The sheepy smell disappeared after a while of scrubbing and rinsing my hair and skin and I sighed happily as I toweled off, slipping into the oversized jeans and black tee Murphy had left on a haybale for me. They were his, I could tell by the distinct Murphy smell that was strong on them when it had been slight on his coat. They were baggy on me and I giggled a little as I held onto the crotch of them to keep them from falling off...I'd have to ask for a belt inside.
I walked into the house as Murphy and Connor were coming out, their extra clothes and towels in hand.
"You smell much better," Connor commented with a grin, "Sorry the water's cold, it's just easier that way in the summer. We DO heat it in the winter."
"It was fine," I said with a smile, "But, uh, can I have a belt perhaps?"
Connor immediately undid his belt and slipped it off, handing it over to me.
"Thanks!" I said, "Have a good shower, guys. You both smell like sheep shit."
They stuck their tongues out at me at exactly the same time. Twins.
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Noah and I were gabbing away about embarrassing family stories when the front door swung open and the boys walked in. I had to force my jaw from dropping when I saw Connor wasn't wearing a shirt. Damn...damn, damn, damn! The man was rippling with muscles, scars puckered occasionally on his slightly tanned skin and a thin line of hair ran from his bellybutton into his jeans, he was running a towel through his hair and beard so luckily he didn't see my appreciative stare...but Murphy did.
"Got an admirer there, Connor," he claimed, giving me a playful wink. Connor looked up and smiled.
"Grabbed the wrong shirt," he announced, tossing the shirt he had in his hand at Murphy, "This is your shit."
Murphy gave him a sneer, and if I wasn't mistaken, it WASN'T very friendly or joking at all. He honestly looked miffed at his brother.
Dinner was delightful. Mutton, of course, with potatoes and carrots, how very Irish of them. But it was so good that I found myself wishing I could have food this good every day! Wouldn't mind having a bit of Connor's abs everyday either... I found myself staring at him across the table and dropped my eyes with a blush when he caught me looking at him.
A moment later, Connor's drink somehow ended up all over the front of Murphy, who jumped up and began threatening Connor in very creative and terrible ways. My eyes widened as I watched him tower over Connor who remained seated...but the widened even wider when he turned to head to their room and peeled the soaked shirt off on his way. I only got a view of his back, but it was a beautiful view, a rippling expanse of muscles covered in pale, smooth skin...and were those freckles I saw on his shoulders? I felt a shiver run through me as the door shut behind him and I blushed brightly when Connor caught my eye and winked.
"I see we've both got an admirer, Murph!" he called loudly and earned a "fuck off, Connor" from behind the door. Murphy came back out fully clothed, sadly, and dinner passed in relative silence from that point on.
Connor rode home with me since Murphy had ridden with me that morning and we talked easily about the day and he explained how they were going to herd the sheep to Robinstown tomorrow for the sale and pretty much anything that came to our minds. By the time we arrived at the bakery, my eyes were dropping shut and I yawned widely.
"Well, I had a really fun day, Connor," I said sleepily, "Your family really is great! If you boys ever need some time to relax you're more than welcome to come over to my place. Have fun at the sale tomorrow."
Connor dismounted with me and walked me to my door. I unlocked the door and straightened back up and found myself wrapped in a tight, warm hug, Connor's beard tickling my face. I giggled.
"See ya later, Aby!" he said as we separated, he winked, making his pretty blue eyes twinkle in the moonlight and I felt my heart jump a little. I watched as he mounted up and started trotting away, he looked over his shoulder and blew me a kiss.
Connor MacManus, I discovered, was a very good flirt. I went to bed that night with Connor MacManus on my mind...but my dreams consisted of Murphy for some reason.
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Well, that was a pretty good chapter! Hope ya'll liked it! Leave me reviews because I like them :)