Farm Girls and Gardens
By Tsu Chan 

The case should have been a simple one, to start with. A horse with an abscessed frog that had been limping for days; and a predictably delayed farmer’s call, and now all they had to do was leave. Or at least, that had been the plan.

James watched as Siegfried dallied over a joke with the farmer’s daughter, drumming his fingers impatiently on the dashboard and trying to bite down some seething jealousy that he had no real right to be feeling. After all, it wasn’t as if Siegfried had agreed to finalizing them. Ever. Some days, James rather thought there was a good chance of being acknowledged as something more than live in lover and perfectly capable veterinary surgeon. Days like this, however, when Siegfried smiled with blushing farm girls that weren’t pretty but were attractive in that certain farm girl style… Well, it annoyed him.

“Done?” James asked icily when Siegfried finally slid into the driver’s seat.

Siegfried cast him an innocent look, acting as if he didn’t know a thing. Maybe he didn’t. Probably though, he did. “Done? With the horse?”

“No, with the girl.”

Siegfried didn’t deign making a reply to this, and the ride back to Skeldale House was silent, the inside of the car cold even though the day was a typically beautiful summer day.

Siegfried was pulling up when he turned to James. “Jim, did you remember to put all the equipment in the boot?”

“Yes.”

“Everything?”

“Yes.”

“So we’re not missing anything?”

“No, Siegfried, we’re not missing anything. Why?”

“When’s our next case?”

James rolled his eyes, and got out of the car, leaning down to speak through the window. “I haven’t been inside to check either. How would I know?”

“Just wanted to be sure,” Siegfried said mildly, sounding infuriatingly calm. James wanted to do something violent or maybe he wanted to kiss the calmness away but if Siegfried was angling after a girl again then the odds that he’d be pleased about such a thing were very very slim.

This meant he was a little surprised when Siegfried caught him halfway down the path to the door, spinning him around by his shoulder and leaning in to kiss him.

That was what was so infuriating about Siegfried, James decided, closing his eyes and kissing back. Okay, the calmness was decidedly gone, but trust him to take the lead and refuse to relinquish it. On the other hand, James could think of few things he’d rather be doing, and best of all…

Best of all, it was him who Siegfried was kissing in the garden, not a flirtatious farm girl who had no business keeping an eye on a vet.

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