Axe grinned. “Yep! Good eye.” He slapped Arthur on the shoulder, sending him forward before Arthur caught his balance, if not his breath. To be fair, a whack from either giant Moses twin—even a friendly one—would send most people flying. “They’re flotation tires. Me and Drakk put ’em on ourselves. On account there ain’t no snow.”

Yes!

“Clever,” Arthur murmured, while trying to rub his shoulder without being obvious.

“Dr. Raymond said you had a snow-making doodad?” I ventured.

If possible, Axe’s smile grew even larger. “That’s right!” I made sure to stay out of his friendly-slap radius. “You’ll see it on the ride!”

I had to admit, I was intrigued.

Which was about the moment Calliope peed on my boots.

“Aaaaahh!” was an approximation of what came out of my mouth as I leapt aside as fast as possible, which meant the left boot was hit the worst.

Unfortunately, my right boot landed in a fresh pile of reindeer shit, and like that, my nice boots were nice no more.

Drakk didn’t look remotely sympathetic. “Life on the ranch,” he said with a tiny snicker.

I stared at my boots in dismay. I didn’t have a huge supply of decent footwear and only one set of nice outdoor boots. These boots. My favorites.

Axe was either more sympathetic or he didn’t want a bad online review.

He hurried forward. “Here, lemme show you where the bathroom is in the barn so you can wash those off.”

I glanced in Arthur’s direction and saw him biting his lower lip, trying not to crack up, which made everything that much more irksome. Sure, if our roles had been reversed and he was the one with reindeer excrement on his shoes, I would very possibly/entirely likely be outright laughing—however, that was beside the point. The jerk.

But also, what a timely reminder! Now, surely, I would lose that fleeting, foolish . . . whatever it was I was feeling for him. God willing.

I followed Axe.

Growing up in a small town in Oklahoma meant I had been to my fair share of barns over the years and, hands down, this was the most beautiful I had ever seen. It was like a post-renovation reveal from an HGTV show, with everything fresh and new and spacious. There was even shiplap!

Axe pointed to a pine-green door.

“Right in there, Fin. Take yer time. We’re gonna be loadin’ up to go for our ride in ’bout fifteen minutes or so.”

I thanked him and walked gingerly to the ladies’ bathroom. It was a single, so I closed the door behind me, locking it out of habit.

There was a knock at the door.

“Finley?”

I stiffened. It was Grandma Jo.

“Yeah?”

“Let me in, I’m going to help you.”

I reached over to unlock the door.