8
I wish I had grownup with a grandmother like Margaret. She is everything I’ve ever seen in a sweet small town family movie and her cooking is delicious. When we walked into the house, the table was covered with chicken breast, mac and cheese, cream potatoes, green beans and rolls. She had a pitcher of sweet tea sitting in the middle and she was filling up cups of ice.
“Oh my. This looks delicious.” I say to her taking a seat beside Megan. Margaret smiles at me and says, “Oh, Ivy dear, there’s an envelope for you on the bar.” I look at her confused and get up to grab it. Opening it up, I gasp. It’s a check for one hundred and fifty dollars from the farm signed by Margaret and an iPhone.
I look up and she smiles, “What? You didn’t think I’d let you work for free, did you?” she continues pouring a glass of tea, “Plus, I need a way to be able to contact you if needed.”
Megan is smiling at me and says, “You deserve to have something for yourself. Make a clean start.”
Tears fill my eyes and I fold the check putting it in my pocket along with the new phone. “I seriously don’t know what I’d do without y’all these last few days. This has been so random. But I am entirely grateful.” I smile sitting back down at the table.
Logan is staring at me and once our eyes meet, he says, “Ivy, nothing’s random, remember?” He smirks, shaking his head at me and we all start putting food on our plates.
Collin comes busting in the door, “Sorry I’m late,” he says removing his hat and taking a seat beside logan, “Tractor was giving me problems.” He looks exhausted.
“After supper I’ll come out and help you with it.” Logan says to him.
We all dive into our meals in silence, too hungry to talk. Eventually Megan says, “How’s Grandfather today?” asking Margaret.
Margaret doesn’t look up from her plate and takes a bite as if she doesn’t want to discuss it but finally says, “He was in good spirits today. You guys need to go see him sometime this week. Becky says he’s been asking about you.” She replies and the conversation stops there.
***
“I wish I had a grandmotherlike yours when I was growing up.” I tell Megan as we wash the dishes after supper together. Collin and Logan went out to work on the tractor and Margaret went to the restaurant to check in on everyone.
She smiles at me, “She’s one of kind.” She starts to say, “When my parents died, she and my grandfather took us in without a second thought. I was five and Collin was not even two years old, yet.” She pauses as if the memory is hard.
“Oh, Megan, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.” I say putting my hand on her shoulder. She wipes away a tear and then walks over putting a plate up in the cabinet.
“My uncle and parents were going to a livestock sale. They had a big plan for a cattle and horse breeding farm someday.” She starts to say, “but they never made it to the auction.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Their truck and trailer was hit head on by an eighteen-wheeler whose driver was driving drunk on a back road. They were confirmed dead on scene. My grandparents tried their hardest to make the breeding program and farm work like their dreams, but grandfather got sick, and it’s just been hard,” She wipes away a tear and I embrace her in a bear hug.
“I am so sorry.” I say to her with tears in my eyes.
“I hate it for Collin. At least I can remember them some, he has no memory of them. Grandma and Grandpa are all he’s ever known.” She smiles at me, “I’m glad you came into our life, Ivy. I hope you stay around awhile.” She squeezes my hand.
The screen door flies open, and we both jump and turn towards it, “Come quick!” Collin screams as he opens the door, “Molly’s in labor!” he closes the door as fast as he appeared and runs off.
“Shit,” Megan says looking at her phone, “My phones on silent, I never got the foal alert notification.”
Grabbing our coats, Megan and I both run out the door where the dogs are standing looking around at all the commotion from the front porch. When we start running towards the barn, they run off with us.
My heart is hammering in my chest as we get close to the barn. “How is she?” Megan asks Collin as we catch up to him and enter the barn.
“She’s been pushing only for a few minutes now.” Logan says coming out of the tack room with a blanket and some other things I can’t really pay attention to because holy hell, he’s shirtless. His abs are rock solid and my mouth goes dry. He has grease all over his jeans and his baseball cap is backwards on his head. Suddenly the Georgia heat is getting to me. He is full of sweat and grease from the tractor. I gulp as he walks past me.
“This will be a good one for city girl to learn with.” My trance is gone immediately at the statement.
“I’m honored.” I mumble sarcastically walking around to stare at Molly in her stall and not the half-naked guy who apparently makes me turn into a hormonal teenager.
“She looks so uncomfortable.” They all giggle at my naive statement, “Yeah I would be too if I had to push something like that out of me.” Collin says and I nod agreeing.
Molly is a natural, you can tell she has obviously done this a time or two. She is laying down on her side in her stall and pushing with each contraction. I ask Megan after a few minutes of watching her if we should intervene and she says, “We don’t like to intervene unless absolutely necessary. Once the water breaks, we give her about fifteen to twenty minutes and then intervene if needed. We also want to make sure the baby is positioned nicely.”
Suddenly, two front hooves are seen coming through, along with a nose. We all jump up and down with joy. I grab Logan’s arm and he jumps like I’ve startled him, “Sorry,” I say putting my hand down, “This is just so exciting.” He smiles at me, and we lock eyes for a moment.
“I need to break the sac.” Megan states loudly, opening the gate to Molly’s stall and snapping me and Logan out of our eye lock.
“Is everything okay?” I ask concerned.
“If I don’t help open the sac the baby can”t breathe. It just helps it come on out.” In one smooth contraction, Molly lets out a big push and the baby comes all the way out. Megan acts quickly and tears open the sac. “Good mama.” Megan says to Molly and gets up to walk back to us to let mama finish the job.
I am tearing up and so happy when she walks back to me, “That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” I watch the little foal look around and lick its lips. Its sweet little hooves are so small and delicate looking.
“Would you look at that.” Collin says, pointing to the foal who has its legs spread open now.
“Oh. My. God!” Megan squeals.
“What’s wrong?” I ask confused.
“Nothing’s wrong, Ivy! It’s a boy! We finally got our stud colt from Molly!” she screams, jumping up and down.
I’m still looking at her confused and she realizes I’m still new here. She smiles, “Molly has never given us a colt. My uncle and parents wanted our stud to come from Molly because of her bloodline and the studs we breed her from.” She smiles so big. “This is huge, Ivy! It will help the breeding program take off in a few years!” She’s smiling, and I smile big too now that I’m understanding.
“Wow.” I say smiling, “Teach me all the ways. I want to help.”
“Oh my gosh, are you serious?” she says smiling at me.
I nod and she’s hugging me.
“We might turn you into a country girl after all.” Logan says to me with a wink and walking into the stall with a towel to rub down the foal. My train of thought is gone again. That wink took my breath away. I turn to watch him with the foal in the stall and my cheeks flush, his back muscles are well-defined and dear lord get me out of here before im begging him to do things I shouldn’t be begging him for. .
“She already eats like a country girl.” Collin says and then his eyes widen like he’s realized what he just said out loud. Luckily for him, I was too busy looking at Logan and I didn’t fully hear what he was telling me.
“Shit, don’t hurt me.” he exclaims as if scared, pulling up his two pointer fingers and crossing them as if it’s a force field.
Megan busts out laughing, and we all turn back to Molly watching her and the new baby.