“Why would you be thinking about my brokenhearted ex-lovers?”
“Are you sure she’s doing okay?” He indicated the straining cow, hoping to distract Brandee with something important.
Unfortunately it seemed as if both females were happy letting nature take its course. Brandee continued to regard him like a detective interviewing a prime suspect she knew was lying.
“What makes you think that any of my lovers are brokenhearted?”
“I don’t. Not really.” In truth he hadn’t given much thought to her dating anyone.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. To the best of his knowledge she hadn’t dated anyone since moving to Royal. And despite the womanly curves that filled out her snug denim, she always struck him as a tomboy. Somehow he’d gotten it into his head that he was the only one who might’ve been attracted to her.
“So which is it?”
“Is that a hoof?”
His attempt to distract her lasted as long as it took for her to glance over at the cow and notice that a pair of hooves had emerged.
“Yes.” And just like that she was back staring at him again. “Do I strike you as the sort of woman who uses men and casts them aside?”
“No.”
“So why would you think I would end my relationships in such a way that I would hurt someone?”
Shane recognized that he’d tapped into something complicated with his offhand remark and sought to defuse her irritation with a charming smile. “You should be flattered that I thought you would be so desirable that no one would ever want to break up with you.”
“So you think I’m susceptible to flattery?”
He was in so deep he would need a hundred feet of rope to climb out of the hole he’d dug. What had happened to the silver-tongued glibness she liked to accuse him of having?
“Is she supposed to stand up like that?”
“Sometimes they need to walk around a bit.” This time Brandee didn’t spare the cow even a fraction of her attention. “She may be up and down several times.”
“I think our arguing is upsetting her,” he said, hoping concern for the cow would convince Brandee to give up the conversation.
“We’re not arguing,” she corrected him, her voice light and unconcerned. “We’re discussing your opinion of me. And you’re explaining why you assume I’d be the one to end a relationship. Instead of the other way around.”
At first he grappled with why he’d said what he had. But beneath her steady gaze, he found his answer. “I think you have a hard time finding anyone who can match up to your father.”
She obviously hadn’t expected him to deliver such a blunt, to-the-point answer. Her eyes fell away and she stared at the ground. In the silence that followed, Shane worried that he’d struck too close to home.
Brandee turned so she was once again facing the cow. The brim of her hat cast a shadow over her features, making her expression unreadable. Despite her silence, Shane didn’t sense she was angry. Her mood was more contemplative than irritated.
“I never set out to hurt anyone,” she said, her voice so soft he almost missed the words. “I’m just not good girlfriend material.”
Was that her way of warning him off? If so, she’d have to work a lot harder. “That’s something else we have in common. I’ve been told I’m not good boyfriend material, either.”
Now both of them were staring at the cow. She took several steps before coming to a halt as another spasm swept over her. It seemed as if this would expel the calf, but no more of the baby appeared.
“Is this normal?” Shane asked. “It seems like she can’t get it out.”
“We should see good progress in the next thirty minutes or so. If we don’t see the nose and face by then, there might be something wrong.”
Shane was surprised at the way his stomach knotted with anxiety. Only by glancing at Brandee’s calm posture did he keep from voicing his concern again.
“How do you do this?”
“I have around seven hundred cows being bred over two seasons. While I never take anything for granted, watching that many births gives you a pretty good feel for how things are going.”