“And if the fate of your ranch didn’t hinge on you admitting that you had it bad for him?”
“The problem is that it does.” As much as Brandee wished she was brave enough to risk her heart, she could point to too many times when trusting in things beyond her control hadn’t worked in her favor. “So, I guess that’s something we’ll never know.”
* * *
The rain began shortly after three o’clock that afternoon. Brandee fell asleep listening to it tap on the French doors in the guest suite, a rapid counterpoint to the steady beat of Shane’s heart beneath her ear. It was still coming down when she woke several hours later.
They hadn’t moved during their nap and his strong arms around her roused a contentment she couldn’t ignore. For as long as she could remember, she’d bubbled with energy, always in motion, often doing several things at once and adding dozens of tasks to the bottom of her to-do list as she knocked off the ones at the top.
Around Shane she stepped back from the frenetic need for activity. He had a way of keeping her in the moment. Whether it was a deep, drugging kiss or the glide of his hands over her skin, when she was with him the rest of the world and all its problems slipped away.
“Ten more minutes,” he murmured, his arms around her tensing.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
His breath puffed against her skin as his lips moved across her cheek and down her neck. “I can feel you starting to think about everything that needs to get done in the next twelve hours.”
“I’m only thinking about the next twelve minutes.” She arched her back as his tongue circled her nipple. A long sigh escaped her as he settled his mouth over her breast and sucked.
In the end it was twenty minutes before she escaped his clever hands and imaginative mouth and made her way on shaking legs to her shower. As tempted as she’d been by his invitation to stay and let him wash her back, they’d already lingered too long.
They grabbed a quick dinner of May’s chili to fortify them for the long, cold night, before heading out. With the number of cows showing signs of delivering over the next twenty-four hours, it was all hands on deck.
Icy rain pelted Shane and Brandee as they maneuvered the cows. By three o’clock in the morning, Hope Springs Ranch had seen the addition of two heifers and three steers. On a normal night, emotions would be running high at all the successful births, but a sharp wind blew rain into every gap in their rain gear, leaving the group soaked, freezing and exhausted.
Brandee cast a glance around. Although most of the newborns were up on their feet and doing well, a couple still were being tended to by their moms. That left only one cow left to go. The one Brandee was most worried about: a first-time heifer who looked like she was going to be trouble.
“We might want to take this one back to the shed,” Brandee shouted above the rain, moving her horse forward to turn the heifer they’d been keeping tabs on in the direction of the ranch buildings.
Her water had broken at the start of the evening and now she’d advanced to the stage where she was contracting. They’d been watching her for the last twenty minutes and things didn’t seem to be progressing.
Shane shifted his horse so that the cow was between them and they could keep her heading where they wanted. It seemed to take forever and Brandee’s nerves stretched tighter with each minute that passed. As many times as she’d seen calves drop, each birth held a place of importance in her heart.
They got the heifer into the barn and directed her into a chute. At the far end was a head gate that opened to the side and then closed after the cow stuck her head through. Once the heifer was secure, Brandee put on a long glove and moved to her back end.
“I’ve got to see what’s going on up there,” she explained to Shane, who watched her with interest.
“What can I do?”
“There’s an obstetric chain, hooks and a calf puller over there.” She indicated a spot on the wall where the equipment was kept. “Can you also grab the wood box propped up against the wall, as well?” Two feet square and four inches high, the box was used to brace against the heifer when she started pulling the calf out.
“Got it.”
Now that they had the cow inside where it was dry and light, Brandee needed to examine the birth canal to determine the size and position of the calf. She was dreading that the calf was breeched. Most calves were born headfirst, but sometimes they were turned around, and if the legs were tucked up, it would mean she’d have to go rooting around an arm’s-length distance to see if she could find a hoof and wrap the chain around it.
Brandee knew she was in trouble almost immediately. Chilled to the bone, exhausted and anticipating a hundred things that could possibly go wrong with this birth, she cursed.
“Problem?” Shane stood beside her with the equipment.
“Calf’s breeched.” She took the chain from Shane and indicated the puller. “You can put that aside. We’re not going to need it yet.”
She hoped not at all. If she could get the calf straightened out, the cow’s contractions might be able to help her. Brandee just hoped the heifer wasn’t worn-out from pushing the breeched baby.
“What do you do with that?” Shane indicated the chain. It was several feet in length with circles on each end, reminiscent of a dog’s choke collar.
“I need to get this around the calf’s legs so I can get them straightened out. Right now its hind end is toward the birth canal and its legs are beneath it.”
“Isn’t this something a vet should handle?”