Kylie sliced the box open and pulled out every piece of soap-making equipment and ingredient for this project that a body could want, and then some. After her last paycheck from the clinic, she’d set aside what she’d absolutely need for gas, food, and utilities over the next two weeks, and then went online in a wild shopping spree, blowing the rest of the check on soap supplies.

She’d told herself that she had to spend money to make money, but honestly, it’d also been fun to just let loose a little. She’d always been frugal with her money – her roommate had once said that she was tighter than a clam with lockjaw, a phrase that’d caused her to shoot milk out of her nose with laughter when she’d heard it – but even for her, the last two months had been squeezing it pretty tight.

She wrinkled her nose, though, at some of the ingredients that she pulled out of the box. “Lye? Castor oil? Really?!” she muttered underneath her breath. “I know I live in Idaho, but dayum, this is the 21st century. I didn’t even know people used castor oil anymore.” She huffed out a breath of indignation. “I seriously thought there’d be more rose petals and less lye involved in this project.”

It was at this point, looking around her empty house, shadows creeping into the corners from the evening sun, that she regretted not adopting a pet. Adam had taken her to the county animal shelter a couple of times as he went to do check-ups on animals, and the last time, there’d been an adorable dog – a playful ball of white fur and pink tongue – that had been just begging for Kylie to take him home.

Now, she rather wished she had. If she had a pet as a companion, at least then talking out loud wouldn’t be quite so strange.

She put her hand over her belly. “Soon, I’ll have you to talk to,” she said down at the rapidly growing bump. “Even better, next week at my doctor’s appointment, I get to find out if you’re a girl or a boy, and really get to start in on picking out baby names and decorating your room. You already know what you are, but you’re not telling, are you?”

She felt a slight flutter underneath her hand in response and she grinned so hard, her cheeks hurt. She’d just started being able to feel the baby kick a couple of days earlier, and honestly, it was an insanely strange and magical feeling that she wasn’t sure she’d ever really get used to.

Concentrating on the project again, she made herself get back to work. Once she had everything laid out and inspected for damage, she pulled her laptop over to her side.

“Let’s start working through the steps…” she muttered to herself. “Hmmm…frozen goat’s milk, coming right up.” She pushed herself up off the floor and headed for the freezer. Once she’d found out that to make handmade soap, she should start with frozen goat’s milk, she’d given a little cheer. It was perfect, really. Being able to stockpile the milk away without worrying about it going bad before she could get to it had been a load off her mind.

She pulled one of the many quart-sized Ziploc baggies out of the freezer and put it on the counter. She started to cut the bag open – reusing the plastic bag wasn’t going to be an option, she could already tell – when she heard Adam’s voice calling out. “You here?” he asked, his voice muffled, his boots echoing on the hardwood floors as he wandered through the house, looking for her.

She dropped the frozen block of milk on the counter and wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. “Adam?” she called out, hurrying into the living room. “Hey darlin’, what are you doing here?” she asked, her heart skipping into overtime at just the sight of him.

Shhiiittttt. This was a gift she hadn’t expected to receive. She’d woken up that morning, depressed that it was Saturday and thus she probably wouldn’t get to see Adam. She had to be one of the few employees in the world who didn’t look forward to weekends. He was always so busy with projects, she felt bad for wanting a piece of his time outside of work.

Having him here in her living room? Best thing that’d happened all day.

He pushed his baseball cap up a little on his forehead, scratching at it, looking insanely tired and bemused at the same time. “I honestly don’t know,” he said as she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. He pulled her tight up against his chest and she felt just as much as she heard him say, “I just finished with a pig birthing out at Declan Miller’s place, and I should’ve gone home to take a shower and hit the sack since I didn’t get much sleep last night, but somehow, I found myself here.”

She pulled back just slightly and looked up at him. Close up, she could see the bone-deep tiredness etched across his face, a weariness that just a few hours of sleep wouldn’t remedy.

He needed a vacation or a clone, or both. “I’m really sorry to hear it, babe,” she said, pressing the palm of her hand to his cheek. “You look tired enough to fall over at any moment.”

“I feel tired enough to fall over at any moment,” he admitted wryly.

“You should go take a shower. My landlord is awesome, and he installed a tankless water heater,” she winked at him, “so your shower can be as long as you want it to be.”

“Hmmm…good idea.” He looked down at his filthy clothes and said thoughtfully, “I keep a spare set of clothing in the truck just in case a cow kicks me into a watering trough or something, so I could even put clean clothes on when I’m done. But, are you sure you don’t mind? I didn’t mean to barge in here just to use your shower.”

She laughed. “I’m pretty sure my shower doesn’t have a limited number of uses on it,” she told him. “Now, go grab your stuff from the truck and head upstairs. When you’re done, I just might have a meal on the table for you.”

His eyes lit up. “Now we’re talkin’,” he said with a huge grin, but the grin quickly fell away and he looked depressed for a moment. “Dammit, I really want to kiss you right now, but I have so much grit and dirt in my teeth, you could probably start row-croppin’ in there.” Kylie shuddered as she laughed, and he grinned again. Yup, she could see some dark spots between his teeth. “Let me clean up and then I’ll give you a proper kiss. I give you my word.” He winked at her, and then headed back out the front door to his truck.

With a happy grin of her own, Kylie headed into the kitchen and straight to the freezer to put the goat’s milk back in. She’d tackle that project another time.

Actually having Adam all to herself, without animals or clients or friends around?

Priceless.

She hummed happily as she dug through the fridge, deciding to make a shepherd’s pie. It was hearty and filling and not too complicated. As her hands flew over the ingredients, she began to get a quiver of anticipation in her gut…and lower. Adam hadn’t said that he’d come over to make love to her, but that didn’t mean that it couldn’t happen, right?

They’d been taking it plenty slow, what with Adam’s past history with Wendy, Kylie’s sorry disaster of a relationship with Norm, and then of course, the pregnancy. They’d been restricting themselves to just kisses…okay, and one major make-out fest at his mom’s house that’d ended with them scrambling off the couch in record time when they’d heard Ruby stirring around in her bedroom.

Although Kylie applauded the reasons for Adam living with his mom, it did tend to make things…interesting.

Okay, fine, awkward as hell.

But if tonight was the night…

Kylie tried to remember the last time she’d shaved her legs and armpits. Shit. She’d gotten out of practice after moving back home to Idaho, because honestly, who was going to complain about hairy legs? The dogs as she helped wrap their legs up in a cast? Not bloody likely.

Maybe she could try slipping upstairs while Adam was otherwise occupied, and run a razor over her legs dry. Yeah, it’d hurt like a son of a bitch, but she could survive. Probably.

Oh, what a girl does for love…