Free Moonlighting in Vermont by Kate George

you were somewhere around the house, so I came over to talk to you about what happened at the barracks today. Apparently, your little fling with Scott is way more important than that.” I took a few steps to keep from slipping any further backwards. I cast around for a solid place to stand, but Meg seemed to have staked out the only firm spot on the hill.
“I have the right to hang out in my barn with whoever I choose to, Bella MacGowan,” Meg shouted in my face, “whether it’s Scott Howe or anyone else. You have no right to come here and accuse me of God knows what. Get right off my property right now!”
Tom chose that moment to walk out onto the back porch. “What are you two shouting about?”
Meg jumped and spun around. I jerked back when she jumped, startled by the movement. I slid backward again for about a second, and then my feet slipped out from underneath me, and I was face down in the mud. Again. I pushed myself up out of the muck and onto my knees. Tom started down the porch stairs, but I waved him away. No point in both of us rolling around in the mud.
Meg was looking down at me with her mouth open. I had a momentary impulse to pull her down in the mud with me. I let it pass and gingerly got to my feet. Meg had snapped her jaw closed but the corners of her mouth were twitching, and her shoulders started to shake. I took a step up the hill toward my bike, but my foot slipped again, and I went down on my knees.
A snort of laughter escaped Meg. Then another. Pretty soon, she was laughing so hard that tears were running down her face. I could hear Tom telling Meg to stop, but it was too late. I grabbed her pant leg and yanked. She went down hard, landing on her butt in the mud.
Meg looked at me with disbelief. Then she reached out and knocked my shoulder, knocking me off balance and sending me backward to the ground. I could hear Tom yelling now, but the words were lost in the roaring in my ears. I struggled to sit up. Meg was laughing again. I picked up a handful of mud and smeared it over the front of her blouse. She gasped and launched herself at me.
We were rolling over and over in the mud. Meg shoved a handful of wet muck down my shirt, and I smooshed mud down her collar. She tried to get on top and straddle me, but I swiped some slop up off the ground, and it splattered in her face. I rolled her off me while she was trying to wipe her eyes with the inside of her jacket. Apparently, it wasn’t really clean, because it wasn’t doing any good. Finally, she swore and pulled the jacket off. She turned it inside out and wiped her face with the inside of her sleeve.
“Damn!” Meg started to launch herself at me again, but Tom grabbed her and hauled her away from me. I saw my chance to get in one last shot, but before I could move, I was grabbed from behind. Scott grasped me around the waist and hauled me backward away from Tom and Meg.
“That’s enough of that.” Scott was trying to sound stern, but I could tell he was trying not to laugh. He had his arms locked around my waist.
“What’s so funny?”
“I haven’t seen a fight like that since I was in college. We used to watch mud wrestling at the local pub on Wednesday nights. Even in bathing suits, those girls couldn’t beat you two for entertainment value.” He was laughing hard now.
“Sorry to be a killjoy, but I’m going home now.” I twisted out of his arms and stomped back up the hill, stumbling and sliding as I went. I made the top of the hill and turned to see Tom dragging Meg up the steps to the house. She grinned over at me.
“See you tomorrow at the paper?” she called.
“Yeah, I’ll be there.” I dragged my muddy butt across to the bike. It was beyond me how Meg and I could have a knock-down, drag-out fight and come away feeling better. I did feel better, though, and I could tell Meg did, too. She’d looked positively delighted as Tom dragged her into the house.
I shivered; it was too cool for my clothes to dry. I wiped my