Chapter 6
SIX
I can’t decide which pants to put on today. My smart pants or my fancy pants.
—DeeDee to Denver
DENVER
I was arm deep in a horse when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
I’d know that white-blonde hair anywhere.
But in that moment, I was too busy to ask her why she was there.
Instead, I fished out a hoof and guided it out of the birth canal.
I did the same with the second.
Then I pulled.
My horse, Applesauce—aptly named by my girls years ago when they were younger—was what felt like two years pregnant.
I’d been keeping an eye on her for weeks, expecting her to give birth at any second.
However, she kept going. And going. And going.
Finally, last night, she’d shown signs of being in labor.
So I’d been checking on her on and off since.
Applesauce gave birth a few moments later with a pained whinny.
“There you are, old girl,” I said as she hopped up and turned to examine her baby.
I’d secretly hoped that Applesauce’s offspring would be the same grayish-blue color as her, but her offspring came out a cinnamon brown.
“Boring,” I grumbled to her.
She nudged the horse with her nose.
The baby fell over.
Chuckling, I stood up and stripped off my gloves, turning to survey the woman who was leaning on the stall door, her arms propping up her chin.
“I brought Greta home.” She paused. “And your girls stole my dog.”
I frowned. “Your dog?”
“Froto, the tiny Pomeranian,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I literally think they’re keeping him.”
I blinked. “That’s…”
Just another damn thing that I don’t want to have to add to my fucking list of things to do every morning.
No offense, because the dog was fuckin’ cute as hell, but I didn’t want to have to feed him a bottle every couple of hours. And I didn’t want that dog to die on my watch.
“I won’t let them keep him,” she murmured. “Greta is still in the truck, though. I can’t get her out. Plus, she didn’t really look like she was all that excited to get up. The seat in the back of the work truck is pretty comfy.”
I nodded, standing up straight and stretching my back out.
I wished I could go back to a time when my back didn’t hurt constantly. Or when I thought my back hurt when in reality it felt like angels and rainbows compared to now.
I’d be forty this year, and I felt every single one of those fuckin’ years.
Giving one last look at Applesauce and her new foal, I headed out of the barn and toward the truck.
Greta’s head popped up when she heard me coming.
“Hey there, girl,” I said as I reached my arms underneath her heavy body.
Again, my back smarted, but I easily lifted her and carried her back into the barn.
I’d take her into the house, but she’d fucking hate it.
We’d tried to get her in there multiple times throughout the years, and she always barked and bayed at the door until she was set free.
The barn was her home.
Sadly, her best buddy wouldn’t be in that home with her anymore.
“Where did it happen?” Holly asked as she stayed even with my long-legged strides.
“In the front pasture right there,” I said. “Right where the remaining calves were brought in yesterday after the first attack.”
“Did Greta and your other dog get any of them?” she asked.
“Two,” he answered. “I have Jetty staying up to keep an eye out today, though. With both dogs down…”
“Jetty, as in the same boy that is dating Joe?”
“One and the same,” I grumbled.
“How’s she doing?” Holly asked. “She looked good when I was here for the cows.”
“Good. Puking her guts up. She thinks that she’s going to start homeschooling.”
“Not a bad idea,” Holly admitted. “That’s what I did when I felt like the high school couldn’t offer me enough challenge. Nor were they willing to work with me on my ultimate plan to graduate early.”
“Jesper County is a great school and all, but I feel like they’re a bit behind the times.
You can do dual credit, but only when they approve the students,” I grumbled.
“Joe was able to do whatever she wanted dual credit-wise. Meanwhile, Jetty, who’s smart as a whip as well, but not as well-liked by the teachers and staff, wasn’t able to do dual credit.
Despite having passed the testing required to make sure that you’re ready for dual credit. ”
When we got to the empty stall that the dogs liked to use, I gently laid Greta down in the straw.
Holly walked to the water bowl and took it out of the room.
When she came back, she had a scoop of dog food in one hand and the water bowl in the other.
I took the food from her and filled the empty bowl up while she set down the other.
Only when Greta was taken care of did Holly say, “I’ll take the room you have available if you don’t mind.”
If she’d smacked me upside the head, I would’ve been less surprised.
I’d offered her this room before, and she’d said no.
I’d also offered her several rentals in town that I owned, which she’d also said no to.
And now she was coming here telling me she wanted the apartment over the barn? Why?
So I had to satisfy my curiosity.
“Why?” I asked. “You have your apartment in town.”
With one of the worst old ladies in town…but I wasn’t going to touch that.
“Caroline is kicking me out,” she sighed. “She’s decided to sell, and the person she’s selling to doesn’t want me as a renter.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I only have thirty days to move out. And I want to stay in town.”
I wasn’t exactly in town.
I was outside of town.
But I was near where she’d grown up and loved.
“It’s yours,” I answered before I could think better of it. “You know that I need help with the animals?”
She nodded as she looked around the barn. “Inside only? Or outside, too?”
“Inside for now,” I said. “Outside wouldn’t really be conducive with you having a job.”
She snorted. “No, I guess it wouldn’t, would it?”
“I’d heard that a bunch of places were being bought up by an out-of-town company,” I said. “But I’d thought it was only businesses. Hadn’t heard that it was homes, too.”
“This was the first that I’d heard anything about anyone buying up anything,” she said. “When can I move in?”
I jerked my head toward the stairs. “Do you want to look at it first?”
“Nah,” she said. “DeeDee told me about the shower, too. So you don’t have to worry that I’ll throw a fit about it. I shower a lot at work, anyway.”
I imagined that she did. Her job was a dirty one, just like mine.
I used the barn shower more than I used my own. I didn’t want to trail dirt and mud into the house if I didn’t have to.
That was also why I had a washer and dryer in the barn, in case I had clothes that were too dirty to get washed with the kids’ good clothes—though, that’d been a fight with Juliana that’d caused the washer and dryer to be outside in the first place.
She’d thrown a wall-eyed fit when she’d noticed me shove a pair of shit-encrusted clothes in the washer with her favorite sweater.
She’d gotten her point across, and that was one of those things that I had agreed with Juliana on. It was slightly gross.
“Then come into the house so we can find your dog,” I suggested. “I can’t keep it. I already have too much on my plate.”
She walked beside me, not saying much.
She didn’t seem hostile, but she definitely wasn’t warm and fuzzy, either.
Her eyes kept drifting to the side where her house used to be once upon a time.
I’d torn the damn thing down with the bulldozer the moment she’d gotten all her stuff out of it.
Then I’d set the pile of wood and rubble on fire before burying the remains in a hole.
The only thing left was the charred area where the house had once remained.
I knew she wanted to ask.
But I knew she wouldn’t.
“A few days after you left,” I found myself saying. “That blizzard that came through this past winter? The weight of the snow on the back half of the house caused the burned structure to collapse.”
She blinked, turning to me. “What?”
“One of the cows was in the house for shelter later that week and I realized that if I wasn’t careful, I was going to find some cows in there when it fully collapsed,” I admitted.
She ran her fingers through her hair, causing the ponytail to slip further off her head. She’d been tugging at her hair for a solid twenty minutes as she talked to me.
At this point, she should just take it down.
My presence was making her very nervous.
And seeing as I wasn’t a very comforting kind of guy, I didn’t try to make it more comfortable for her.
“Do you want the rental agreement now, Dad?” Catalina asked as we walked through the door.
“I’ll take it,” Holly said quietly.
Catalina turned with a smile on her face and grabbed the rental agreement that hadn’t been printed out by me. In fact, I still had the damn thing in my email from my lawyer.
I swear, every time I turned around, these girls would grow up a little more on me.
I tugged Cat’s hair as she passed me, and she hissed, “Not the hair, Daddy!”
I grinned.
Out of all three of my children, Catalina was the most girly.
She could handle branding and castrating a cow with the best cowboys in the world, but she’d do it with a full face of makeup and perfectly styled hair.
Joe and DeeDee were girly as well—it was kind of hard not to be when you had Juliana as a mother—but they weren’t in the same league as Cat.
Not that Cat was over the top or anything.
But she liked getting her nails done. She loved going to all the makeup stores and stocking up on essentials.
What she did not like was her dad’s dirty hands touching her hair.
“Sorry,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes as she continued past me to the woman standing awkwardly in the living room of our home. “I don’t think that apology was very sincere.”
I shrugged and headed farther into the house, spotting Enid in the kitchen tidying up.
The girls had probably eaten hours ago, as had most of the ranch hands. So the real question was…why was she still here?
“Ahh, Denver.” Enid smiled. “I see you made it in time to eat dinner before I put it all away.”