Excerpt from Crush: A Sweet, Full-bodied Queer Romance

Cal closed the gate and let out a heaving sigh as he rested his forearms on top of it. “I kinda wish we would have recorded that. I’m pretty sure we would have gone viral.”

Mia blew out a breath that made strands of hair that had slipped out of her ponytail and into her face flutter about comically. “That was… something. I’m glad one of us knew what we were doing.” She bent down to wipe at the knees of her jeans, but it was a lost cause. They were stained with mud and had bits of straw embedded in the fabric.

“I’m not too sure it showed today.” Cal laughed recalling the shitshow that was getting all the goats out of the trailer and forgetting they get very skittish in open spaces. Loading them directly into the enclosure would have been best, but he’d been distracted by Mia’s excitement. She was already naming them as they drove back to the vineyard.

Because of his mistake, they’d spent two hours trying to round the goats up from the paddock. Cal and Mia had spent equal time laughing and cursing as the goats ran around bleating and nipping at them. Both had ended up on the ground more than once trying to catch the wily animals.

“How do you feel about ordering pizza?” Mia said as she straightened up, pulled her hair tie out, and tried to smooth her hair back into some semblance of order.

“I feel great about ordering pizza. I think I really need to shower first if that’s okay?” Cal could smell himself a good hour ago.

“Yeah, I do too. I’ll meet you up at the house in thirty minutes?”

“Sounds good,” Cal said, and with a quick wave, he jogged over to his set of stairs and took them two at a time. As he let himself into his apartment and headed to the shower, he thought about how much he’d enjoyed the day spent with Mia.