Lips twitching, Marcus turned me around toward the hallway leading to the stairs. “Go and get some shoes on, but make sure they’ll protect your feet.”
I knew I only had one pair of boots that’d be appropriate for the stables, so I pulled them on and practically skipped down the stairs again to where they were waiting for me at the door.
My focus was on getting out of my home and witnessing the miracle about to happen, so I didn’t see them both staring at my feet until I got to them.
“Are we ready?”
“Addy,” Marcus said hoarsely, “you’ve got pink glittery boots on your feet.”
I did indeed. My brother and sister had gotten me the sparkly pink Dr. Martens for Christmas, and I loved them.
Holding my leg out and admiring the boot, I smiled widely. “I do. Cool, aren’t they? Are these okay to wear in the stable while we wait for the baby horse? They’re not scared of colors, are they? Like, you know how bulls don’t like red, apparently?” Then something occurred to me. “Oh, my God. You don’t have bulls, do you? Does pink count as red to them, too?”
Remy turned so he was facing the door, little snorts coming out of him. Not that Marcus would have noticed. He was too focused on looking at me like I was tapped.
“No, we don’t have bulls, but we’re headed to see a herd of Scottish Highland cows in two weeks, so I’ll remember to ask if they’re affected by it.” That was sweet of him to do, so I told him so. “Right, are you ready to see the foal being born?”
Holding my arm out toward the door, I grinned excitedly while I filed that word away for future reference. It was one thing forgetting the word foal and using baby horse around Remy and Marcus, but I didn’t want to embarrass them by using it in front of any of the people who worked at the ranch.
“Lead on to the miracle of birth, my good men.” I waved my hand toward the door and skipped ahead of them.
As I was locking up, I heard Remy hiss, “Normal—that’s the word I’ve been saying since we were kids. Get a normal woman, not a Townsend clone.”
Not taking offense, I told him over my shoulder, “The good news is, I’m the most normal and boring one in my family.”
“Ah, fuck!”
Two hours and forty-seven minutes later…
“So, you don’t know how to play poker?” Liam, one of the ranch hands, asked me as we sat on top of a bale of hay, watching the pregnant mare shifting around in her stall.
I didn’t know what all of the signs of an imminent human birth were, and I sure as shit didn’t know what they were for a horse either, but all of the men were adamant the foal was coming soon. Given that she wasn’t neighing the place down and walking around in circles, I wasn’t sure they were right, but what did I know?
They’d all had to go to tend to other things that needed their attention on the ranch, and we were to call them the second things changed. I’d volunteered to stay behind with Liam, and this led us to now—him wanting to play cards and me not knowing one thing about the games he’d named.
“I keep telling you—I can play solitaire on my laptop, and I’m killer at snap.”
He stopped shuffling the deck and looked up at me like he was making sure I wasn’t yanking his crank. “You’re serious?”
“Absolutely. I’ve never had a reason to learn any other games, but if we’re going to play snap, I need to warn you that I won over two hundred dollars last time.”
His eyebrows shot together, but even the butt that appeared between them didn’t take away from his looks. That said, Marcus was hotter, but all of the guys on the ranch had something about them that’d make women throw their panties at them.
Yes, men and women were attractive, some more than others, but to me, looks were based on certain things.
Personality was one of the most significant points. You could be unnaturally good-looking, but if your personality was shit, boom, you went in the ugly pile.
Ego was another sticking point for me—if your ego was big, off to the pile you went. I don’t know if people realized how easy it was to read if someone was egotistical, but it really was.
Confidence was vital in many parts of life, but an overabundance of it that moved into a huge ego? Very unattractive.
The men working at the ranch had all looked relaxed and were joking around when we’d arrived earlier. That hadn’t changed when they’d seen their bosses drive up, but instead of going quiet or looking down their noses at me, they’d been friendly and had made me feel welcome, glittery pink boots and all. And bonus, Marni hadn’t been around, but Santana had joined us for a spell before she’d gone back to “fixing shit.”