11. Delivered
ELEVEN
Delivered
SAGE
“Stables first, you promised,” Ro insisted the minute we turned into the ranch. “Eli and I want to say hello to every horse and give them treats, don’t we?”
“Yep,” Dusty’s son agreed from the backseat.
“I know what I said. Horses first, homework second. But that doesn’t mean we linger long with the horses, okay?” I parked at the barn next to a Mercedes.
Its black exterior gleamed, so out of place against the mud-spattered trucks lined up beside it I did a double take through my windshield. Nobody around here drove anything that clean.
“I’ll get the box of treats,” Ro said, scrambling out of her seat and climbing over Eli to get at the container of peppermints first.
“No fair, you held it last time,” Eli yelled, running after her.
“Both of you, slow down. Figure it out.” They left me to follow at my pace. These two had been around horses enough that they hardly needed watching.
I caught sight of Ash first down the median of the barn, dressed sharper than usual, as in a clean shirt, no hat, hair slicked back, shiny boots.
Beside him stood two men in pressed jeans and puffy coats who looked like they’d never mucked a stall in their lives.
With them was an elderly woman in a cream wool jacket with gold buttons that easily cost more than my car.
The diamonds in her ears definitely did.
I held back at the first stall. Whatever this was, it wasn’t ranch business as usual.
That’s when I spotted Carter, entering at the other end of the barn with a pitchfork in his hand, dusty with hay clinging to his shirt.
I stayed where I was, near enough to catch most of it, far enough that none of them noticed I existed.
The older woman’s gaze landed on Carter and stuck there. “I know you.” She stopped Carter in his tracks.
“I don’t believe so, ma’am.” He skirted around them, but I caught the way his shoulders tensed. Whatever that was about, it seemed to rattle him.
“He’s a newly hired hand.” Ash attempted to redirect. “Now, if you’ll let me show you?—”
“Oh. You’re Mavis’ son…” If she said a name, I couldn’t hear it clearly as she twisted her body toward him, but judging by Carter’s reaction, it must have hit a nerve.
“I just have a common face.” Carter laughed it off smoothly, pulling his hat lower over his eyes.
“Richard, doesn’t he look like Mavis’ son?”
"Mother, you’re mistaken,” he said.
“No, I’m not. Rex, you remember her from the Met Gala?” She turned to the other man on her right. “My old friend? She used to help me plan the Buchanan Family Foundation events.”
The man squinted at Carter, but dismissed him and linked arms with her. “Mother, please. Let the man do his job. Ash, let’s continue the tour.”
“But… but…” the woman tried to argue to no avail, glancing back one more time at Carter, who’d ducked outside, running off to the quarantine stable. My stomach dropped an inch, though I couldn’t have said why. He never once looked my way.
Ash turned the group in the opposite direction. “As I was saying, I’d recommend a steel roof if you’re going to build a state-of-the-art barn with all the latest features…”
The group moved on. I waited around for Ro and Eli to finish here, but then they begged to give treats out at the quarantine stable, too. I let them, only as an excuse to seek Carter out.
They ran ahead, and by the time I got there, they were up on the rails of one stall, feeding a horse peppermints two at a time despite my rule about one each. I let it go. I had bigger questions on my mind than horse dental hygiene.
I looked around and finally found Carter in the last stall—belonging to Sassy.
He was on the ground, sitting in the straw, legs out in front of him. The horse’s swollen body curled beside him, her head resting heavily in his lap.
“It’s okay, sweet girl,” he murmured, stroking her neck with long, gentle strokes. “You’re alright. I’ve got you.”
Guard fully down, his voice soothed. The sight of this big, exhausted man sitting in the straw with a laboring horse’s head in his lap cracked my chest wide open.
I’d come in here to ask him why he looked ready to disappear through the floor in front of that woman at the barn. The question died somewhere on the way to my mouth, witnessing this side of him.
Then he saw me, and the air shifted.
“Sage.” He startled enough that Sassy’s ears flicked. “I think something’s wrong. She’s breathing heavily, and she’s all sweaty.”
I entered and dropped to my knees beside them, inspecting.
Her sides heaved, her tail lifting and falling, lifting and falling.
But not for long. Sassy struggled to stand, and we both quickly got out of her way, crowding the door of her stall.
Her back hoof came up, kicking at her stomach, and she bit at her flank.
Then came a rush of liquid, like a dam bursting, flooding the floor.
“She’s in labor.” I panicked, reaching for my phone.
“Now? Is—is that bad?” His eyes bulged and his face turned white, difficult for him with his tan.
“Let me check.” I pulled out my phone, my thumbs flying over the screen. Dusty first, then Ash, and Daisy, too, one text each, three words apiece.
Sage: Sassy. Foaling. Now.
The phone buzzed back almost immediately with Dusty calling. I left the stall and answered and talked to him. A minute later, I relayed the news back to Carter, who was still inside the stall, speaking soothing words to Sassy while giving her space.
“Dusty is down in Bozeman at a conference. It’ll be a few hours before he can get here.” I attempted to keep my voice from climbing, but it was no use. “He says to keep him updated on her progress. Now that her water has broken, this is going to move fast.”
“Keep him updated? Who the hell is going to deliver this baby?” Carter balked. Sassy did as well, grunting and pacing.
I didn’t have time to answer. Ash burst through the doors, his little tour group nowhere in sight. We moved out of his way so he could enter the stall, but Sassy went down again, rolling onto the floor, coming to rest on her side.
Once she settled, Ash dropped beside her and ran his hands along her belly, then moved quickly behind, checking the position of the foal.
“Good,” he muttered under his breath, more to himself than to us.
Carter reached for the stall door to exit.
Ash stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going? The men are all out working. I need you right here.”
The kids came running to see what the commotion was about. I exited the stall and kept them still and quiet, not to spook Sassy. I wasn’t worried about them seeing the birth—they were ranch kids and had seen plenty.
Ash moved into position behind Sassy, his mouth easing a fraction as she strained. “Damn. The foal’s coming fast. No room for mistakes.”
“Fast is bad?” Carter asked.
“Too fast means we don’t get a second chance if something goes wrong.” Ash shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it aside. Carter did too, handing me my dad’s coat.
“Stay back, give her space—but be ready,” Ash instructed.
“Yes, sir.” Carter didn’t hesitate and got into position.
Whatever else I thought I knew about him, he proved he wasn’t a man who flinched from being told what to do when it counted. If anything, there was something sharper in his focus now, something locked in, as if the rest of the world had narrowed to just this one moment in time.
There was no chance to process that further. Sassy’s whole body bore down, an agonizing groan tearing out of her.
“There are the front legs and the nose.” Ash kept his voice down, hands on knees to watch.
The next contraction and the hooves were out to the knee. Another, and the stomach of the foal appeared, wrapped in a membrane that looked like nothing should be able to survive inside.
Another painful sound tore out of Sassy, and the foal slid free of her.
“Amazing,” Carter whispered.
Only the foal lay still for a few terrifying seconds. Sassy didn’t move to check on it either. We all waited in silence.
“Clear the membrane. Get its nose free,” Ash snapped, moving to Sassy’s head to check on her.
Carter hit his knees without hesitation, hands steady as he cleared the membrane. Fluid and blood soaked his shirt, but he never flinched. Something in him had clicked into focus, calm, capable, and protective.
I couldn’t look away. Desire stirred inside of me despite the chaos. This man kept surprising me.
He never once let up until the foal finally moved and lifted its head out of the sack. He fell backward, both hands braced in the straw. “It’s alive. Ash, it’s breathing.”
“Good,” Ash cried. “Let’s see if Sassy will take over from here.”
I glanced back at the mother. Her head had dropped, her breathing shallow and fast, her eyes half-closed in a way that had nothing peaceful about it.
“She looks exhausted,” I cried.
“Sage, call Dusty to get an emergency vet here.”
By the time I returned, Carter had the foal half cradled against his chest, rubbing it down with towels, more certain of his actions like something in him had clicked into place.
“Come on, Sassy. You’re a fighter. You can do this, girl,” Ash’s voice cracked, rubbing her neck, and he didn’t seem to care who noticed. “We’ll need to watch for the placenta.”
The next two hours were tense. The foal eventually stood on its own in the first hour, a good sign. But Sassy was too weak to nurse.
“It needs colostrum. It should try to nurse now.” Ash shook his head. “We’ll need the bottle kit?—”
“I’ll get it, Dad,” Ro jumped down from the gate and ran into the storage room. I followed behind to make sure she grabbed the right things.
Ash showed Carter how to do the first feeding, Carter never having done it before. I snapped photos of him and his adorable face as if he were the proud father as the foal took to him.
All gangly legs and too-big eyes, the little guy already showed spunk. Once the emergency vet finally arrived, we moved the foal into the adjoining stall. Ro and Eli crowded at the stall door, eyes huge, arms extended, itching to give the foal some pets.
“Is the baby horse okay?” Eli asked, barely above a breath.
“He’s going to be just fine, thanks to Carter.” I wiped a tear from my face with the back of my wrist and hoped nobody noticed.
“He needs a name,” Ro decided, as if this were the most obvious order of business in the world.
“He does,” Carter agreed. “Got any ideas?”
Ro and Eli huddled together at the stall door, whispering and arguing, until she finally straightened up with the announcement.
“Flurry!”
“I like that. Flurry,” Carter tested the word out loud. “What do you say, fellow?”
With the emergency vet, we could spy Ash working on Sassy a while longer. He eventually eased back on his heels, exhaling hard enough that I felt it through the walls.
“She’s weak, but stable. Dusty can take it from here when he gets here,” the vet instructed. He left, and we all let out a collective breath that Sassy would pull through.
Eventually, the rest of the ranch hands started filing in, drawn by whatever word had traveled the property. Jake first, then Pete and Trig, Eldon and some others, too, all elbowing past each other for a first look at Flurry, who had fallen asleep with his head across Carter’s lap.
“Heard you played midwife to a horse, pretty boy,” Trig teased, a grin breaking wide across his face.
“Damn near gave myself a heart attack doing it.” Carter chortled, and it came out shaky and real in a way none of his other laughs ever had around me.
“Didn’t think you had it in you, honestly.”
“Knock it off, Trig. Carter earned his paycheck today, and then some,” Ash commended him.
Jake let out a low whistle, slipping in beside me. “Quite an afternoon.”
“Yes. It all happened quickly. I’m so glad Carter found Sassy in time.” I grinned despite myself.
“Yep. Carter is quite the cowboy,” he chuckled. I caught a hint of sarcasm, but the two men shared a nod and smiles, so maybe I read into it.
I admired every inch of the man with the foal on his lap, down his body and back up, at the ruined shirt, the blood and birth fluid drying on his arms up to the shoulder, and the absolute wreck of him. And still desire stirred deep inside of me to get to know this cowboy even more.
One by one the guys returned to work, maybe with newfound respect for Carter, unless I was mistaken.
I watched all of it from the door, arms wrapped around my middle, totally lying to myself if I didn’t have a thing for the mysterious cowboy, no matter that I had told him I could control my feelings.
He glanced up then and found me across the stall. He motioned with his head for me to join him. I quietly entered and crouched beside him, softly petting Flurry’s dark brown and white coat.
“I’m starving,” he started. “Can I see you tonight? Or are you working?”
“I’m free.” I should have made him work harder for it, but after a day like this… Besides, I’d been thinking way too much about him all week. “What did you have in mind?”
“What do you say I pick up some ingredients at the grocery store and meet you at your place? I’ll whip us up some dinner.”
“You cook? I’d like that. On one condition—you get cleaned up first.” I wrinkled my nose.
He looked down at himself and his ruined clothes. “Yeah. For sure. Do you think I could buy a new shirt?”
“I can probably help you with that,” I winked. “On one condition. You let me pick the shirt this time.”