Free Twice the Trouble by Sandra Dailey

but now they were squealing loudly. Lacey jumped from the porch and ran toward the pigpen. Alex followed close behind.
    Two boards had been broken on the side of the pen. A huge hog’s head was pressed through the opening as he tried to escape. A smaller pig streaked across the lawn toward the garden.
    Lacey placed her back against the broken boards to try to hold the larger hog inside. “Get some wood from the pile by the porch. We have to keep the others from getting loose!”
    Alex changed direction. In less than a minute he came back with the hammer, box of nails, and two of the stronger boards he’d removed from the porch the week before. He patched the hole in record time, and then stood back to admire his handiwork.
    “My garden!” Lacey cried.
    The escaped pig was helping himself to a section of turnip greens at the edge of the garden. Alex and Lacey approached him from different directions. The pig ran toward the center of the lawn with the dogs flanking him on either side, biting at his legs. With a surge of speed, Alex caught up to the pig and threw himself down on top of it.
    “One of us has to get inside while the other lifts him over,” she said.
    Alex thought about his expensive sneakers, but Lacey was wearing strappy little sandals that left her feet exposed. He gritted his teeth as he stepped over the side of the pen.
    The pig had exhausted himself and was calmer as Lacey picked him up and hefted him into Alex’s arms. However, as soon as he realized he was being returned to his prison, the pig proceeded to buck, twist, and scream. Alex was in a fight for his life with a fifty-pound, stinking to high heaven, whirling dervish.
    Alex found himself flat on his back in black muck. One large hog snout was pressed to his neck and another to his crotch.
    Alex sat up flapping the slime from his arms and yelling for the hogs to get away. Lacey was laughing hysterically.
    “I’d give anything for a camera.” Lacey could hardly catch her breath. “I’d love for your employees and clients to see you now.” The madder Alex looked, the more she laughed. “You’re not coming into my house like that, you know.”
    She walked to the side of the barn, picked up the nozzle of a garden hose and turned it on.
    Alex fought through the spray until he could wrap his grimy arms around her in a bear hug.
    Minutes later they both lay in the grass, wet and giggling like a couple of kids. Seeing the thin cotton shirt molded against Lacey’s curves, his mind went back to when they were kids. She’d looked just like this when she’d come out of the lake: wet, wild, and breathless. His body had the same reaction it did then; raging need, blinding want. The way she gazed at him with half closed eyes, the way she ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip, he knew she was feeling it too.
    Alex took her breast in his hand, fuller and softer than he remembered. As he lowered his hand to the hem of her white shirt, a streak of grime left a trail. Dammit!
    ****
    Lacey waited for the shower to stop running before she started the washing machine. Alex had told her that he only had a pair of clean boxers and an undershirt left in his bag. He’d need more than that to wear before the kids returned. There’d be no stopping Jerrod from grabbing that twenty-two if he found her alone with Alex in his skivvies. Of course, Jenna would be ready to plan a wedding.
    Alex had generously let her shower first. Then she’d chosen a sundress to wear. She was feeling particularly feminine now, probably because she hadn’t had male attention in a long time.
    It had shocked her when he’d admitted that he hoped they could put the pieces of their former relationship back together. She supposed he’d said it because of her admission that she’d fantasized too. Fantasy was probably a bad choice of words, but that’s what had slipped from her lips. At least she hadn’t blurted the nature of the other fantasies she’d had during the night.