“Thank you, Blake,” she said, blinking back tears. “I think I’d like that.”
“Then it’s settled.” His grin caused her pulse to flutter. “Let’s get back to the ranch so we can get started on giving you the ranching experience of your life.”
Three
The lingering shadows of night were just giving way to the misty light of dawn when Karly followed Blake out of the house and across the ranch yard toward one of the barns. Wearing a new pair of jeans, a hot pink T-shirt, her hat and a flannel-lined denim jacket he had insisted on buying her the day before, she stepped around puddles left by the thunderstorm that had popped up yesterday afternoon to keep from getting her expensive new boots wet.
The rain had prevented her and Blake from riding up to check on the herd of cattle in the upper pasture when they returned from the store and that had been just fine with Karly. It had given her a day’s reprieve from having to learn to ride a horse. It was probably too much to hope for that it would rain again today.
“How long does it take to feed the animals?” she asked when they entered the barn.
“It takes longer right now than it usually does because of the bucket babies,” Blake answered, opening the door to a room filled with large sacks of grain and assorted sizes of buckets. “But we’re usually finished in about an hour.”
She assumed the bucket babies he was talking about were the orphaned calves. When he set two pails with large nipples protruding from the bottom edge on a small table outside of the door, she understood why he called them bucket babies.
“Why don’t you use big bottles?” she asked. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”
He laughed. “Two reasons. One, we’d be stopping to refill the bottle every few minutes. And two, calves tend to be extremely enthusiastic when they eat. Holding a bucket can be hard enough when they get going. But holding a bottle would be damn near impossible.”
“How old are they?” she asked, when he started scooping cream-colored powder into each bucket. “If they’re still on baby formula, they must be quite young.”
“They’re almost four weeks old,” he said, adding premeasured jugs of distilled water to the buckets. He handed her a smooth wooden paddle. “If you’ll stir the formula, I’ll measure up the grain starter.”
“They’re already eating solids?” she asked, frowning. “Aren’t they a little young for that?”
He laughed. “You know what they say. Kids grow up real fast these days.”
She rolled her eyes. “Will you be serious? It was a legitimate question.”
“Sorry,” he said, continuing to chuckle.
“No, you’re not.” She couldn’t help but laugh with him.
“Not really. I just couldn’t resist.” As he shook his head, his charming grin sent goose bumps shimmering over her skin. “Calves usually start nibbling on grass out in the field when they’re a day or two old. But that’s when they have their mamas with them and are able to nurse whenever they want. Because these calves are orphaned and have to be fed on a schedule, we start them on a little bit of hay a few days after they’re born and grain starter about a week after that. When they’re up to eating about a pound or two of grain a day we start weaning them away from the milk replacer. That’s when they are about six to eight weeks old.”
“They really do grow up fast,” she said, marveling at how quickly the animal babies progressed.
While she stirred the calf formula, he went back into the feed room and began scooping grain into shallow pails. Glancing through the doorway to watch him, Karly decided that Blake Hartwell was without a doubt the most handsome, charismatic man she’d ever met. She was going to have to be extremely careful not to fall for him all over again.
That thought should have sent her speeding down the mountain as fast as the red sports car she’d rented could take her. But she had told him she would stay until the strike was settled and she’d already broken enough of her promises to him. She wasn’t going to add another, especially after he’d been so nice about everything that had happened between them.