anyway. I don’t need to know.” Whatever embarrassing incident haunted him, it wouldn’t change what she thought of him. It couldn’t change how she felt.
He looked so relieved she wanted to cry. “Thanks for letting me off the hook.”
“Whatever.” She shrugged like it was nothing. “I’ve already forgotten about it. What were we talking about again?”
He looked down at their hands and smiled. “Do you want that tour of the farm now?”
“Do I get to see how you make cheese?”
“If you want.”
She tapped her lips, pretending to deliberate over it. “And is there a cheese-tasting included in this tour?”
“There can be,” he said, his smile growing even wider.
“Then heck yeah I do.”
They exited the house by the back door, where they were met by the dog Mia had seen earlier. Her name was Biscuit and she was a foster, Josh explained. While Mia was petting her, they were joined by two other dogs, who snuffled at her, wagging their tails.
“And here’s Smoky and Clyde,” Josh said. “They’re supposed to keep predators away from the goats, but they mostly just sleep and beg for treats.”
Mia had never been allowed so much as one dog. Three dogs seemed like an unimaginable bounty of dogs. Josh waited patiently while she got her fill of petting them. When she was thoroughly covered in dog hair they moved on, and he showed her the vegetable garden where he grew a lot of his own food.
“Are your chickens…dead?” Mia asked fearfully when she spotted several of them lying on their sides in the yard nearby with their feet sticking out at odd angles. She’d never seen Birdie’s chickens lie on the ground like that.
Josh laughed. “No, they’re just sunning.” Sure enough, as they drew nearer, the dead chickens hopped to their feet and started walking around, perfectly alive.
While he was showing Mia the chicken coop he and his father had built together, one of the chickens came over and pecked at her toenail polish.
“Ow!” she yelped, jerking her foot back.
Josh made a shooing motion to drive the chicken away. “That’s one of several reasons why you always wear closed-toe shoes on a farm.”
“I thought I was just coming to yoga,” Mia said. “I wouldn’t have worn flip-flops if I’d known I was going to be attacked by tiny, feathered velociraptors.”
Smiling, Josh took her hand and they strolled over to the pigpen, where six huge hogs were lying in the sun. When he leaned on the fence, two of them got up and waddled over to greet him. Mia had never seen a pig that large up close, but she decided they were still pretty cute despite their intimidating size.
“Is it true that pigs are the smartest domesticated animal?” she asked.
Josh nodded as he bent down to pat one of them. “They make their own latrine area to keep their food from getting contaminated, and they have excellent long-term memories. People have even taught them to play video games.”
“What do you do with the pigs?” She had a feeling she wouldn’t like the answer.
“Send them for processing once they reach full size.”
“Processing…to be eaten?”
Josh glanced over his shoulder at her. “Does that upset you?” There was no judgment or ridicule in his question. He merely seemed curious.
“A little,” she admitted. “If I let myself think about it. I’m not used to looking my food in the eye.” She’d flirted with vegetarianism in college, but in the end she’d liked bacon and hamburgers too much to give it up for good.
Josh nodded. “When you get your food at grocery stores and restaurants, you don’t have to think about where it comes from or what it took to get it in front of you.”
”How do you keep from getting attached?”
“Who says I don’t get attached?” he said, shooting her a sideways glance.
“But you can still raise pigs to be butchered for food?”
He pushed himself upright and wiped his hand on his jeans. “I can’t afford to let anything go to waste if I want to keep the farm afloat. I need the pigs to eat the whey leftover from making the cheese so I can sell the pigs and use that money to pay for feed for the goats.”
“It’s an interdependent system,” Mia said. “If one part of the system breaks down, the whole thing fails.”
Josh nodded. “Exactly.”
“You don’t ever get tempted to keep one as a pet?”
“That’s a thousand-dollar pig you’re looking at.”
Mia stared at the pig with newfound respect. “So that’s a no, then.”
“That’s a no.”
After they