because it was. The woman in front of him had to be insane. “Because it’s a dangerous animal!”
“Mud snakes are harmless and help reduce the amount of vermin that can become a problem in a farm setting,” she snapped back. “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.”
He got to his feet, glaring down at the woman, but the impact of the stare was lessened when she started to rise too. Granted, she swayed slightly, pinwheeling her arms to catch her balance, and that was when he noticed the brace on her leg.
She had an injury and had still crashed into him that hard? That didn’t seem possible.
But then she was finally all the way up so he could get his first good look at her, and suddenly the force of her tackle made sense.
The woman was tall, at least as tall as Elizabeth, but instead of being lean and muscled like the veterinarian, she was softer. Sal wasn’t exactly the most hip to pop culture, but she was bottom-heavy in a way that he was pretty sure was popular with certain celebrities. Her shoulders were broad, but not disproportionately so, and she had a distinctive sort of bone structure that he wasn’t used to seeing.
“There’s no way you knew what kind of snake that was.”
“What are you talking about? Glossy black underside combined with a red and black topside with a reddish-pink blend along the sides? Then you add that it clearly didn’t have any preocular scales with only one internasal scale, and that’s a mud snake if I’ve ever seen one.” The woman huffed.
“I… what?” Those were certainly words that she had used, but he didn’t know what any of them meant. What about scales? “There’s no way you saw that.”
“Why, just because you can’t?” Her hands were on her wide hips, and she was affixing him a look. It didn’t help that her dark brown hair was kept into a stylish sort of pixie cut, so there wasn’t even bangs or a shadow to lessen the intensity of that glower.
Sal was abruptly very done with the conversation. She had no right to talk to him like that. Although she was dressed as a civilian, she had to be an employee. Unless one of his brothers had suddenly taken on another girlfriend. Granted, considering how crazy they were acting, maybe that was a possibility.
“Yeah, unfortunately, running this ranch as a Miller doesn’t exactly leave room for extracurricular studies about random farm snakes.”
There it was. She would realize who he was and start backpedaling, asking for forgiveness. Which he definitely wasn’t going to do with all her attitude. In fact, she would be lucky if he didn’t sue her right then and there.
“Maybe if you’re going to run a ranch, you should be educated about the type of animals that are beneficial to it.”
She didn’t even blink. What?
That wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Her eyes were supposed to go wide, her cheeks were supposed to flush, and then the apologies were supposed to come pouring out.
What was the world coming to? He was basically her employer! Where was the respect? The deference? His family was the one that put food on her family’s table, and she was mouthing off to him like they were on equal footing.
It was just like Dad said, the younger generation had no respect for anything. Always me, me, me, and never caring about anything outside themselves. That was why they wanted to bail on their loans and were always demanding handouts.
He took a deep breath, not sure what he was going to say but knowing it would be absolutely scathing, when suddenly there was a shout and someone coming around the corner.
“What’s going on here? Was someone hurt?”
He wasn’t pleased to see it was Elizabeth, her expression serious as usual. Did that woman ever smile on the clock, or did she charge for that?
“You know this worker?” Sal heard himself bark. Usually he knew better than to use any sort of tone like that with the vet because she would get real icy, but his temper was sparking so high, so fast, that he couldn’t keep the bite out of it.
Besides, he shouldn’t have to! They were both his employees!
“That’s my assistant you’re talking to,” Elizabeth said flatly, her eyes flicking between the two of them. “The vet tech that was approved in the last budget report.”
Ah, Sal remembered that particular conversation. It had been a three-hour fight between Dad