“What do you mean?”
“Exactly how pregnant are these cows? Do you have to you know,” I move my arm forward and then spread out my fingers, “like get in there?”
He flips his blinker then slows down to turn down a gravel road. “Uh, yes. I do. Thing is, these cows are unique. They don’t speak so they can’t tell me how they’re feeling.”
The pickup lumbers along slowly, the road a bit bumpy. “You little shit. I know that. I mean, what are we, uh, checking?”
“You’ll see.”
I grab the door handle when he hits a particularly big dip in the road. We’re bouncing all over the road, which makes me a little worried because it looks like the road is getting a bit narrower. “Oh no, I told you I don’t like surprises.”
“No, you said you didn’t like the last surprise you received. I can promise you that’s a surprise you’d never receive from me.”
When my grip tightens on the door he reaches over and grabs my other hand. “What’s wrong?”
“The road,” I squeak out as I bounce a little in my seat.
“I drive these roads every day, Ellie. No need to be worried.” His hand slides down to grip mine and he squeezes once. “You can trust me,” he says, the words coming out strong and sure.
My breath stalls in my chest and I instinctually squeeze his hand in return. “I…”
“It’s okay. I understand trust isn’t something you easily give. Not anymore. But you need to know that you can trust me. When you’re ready to give it, I mean. And not just with the wild roads I’m taking you on,” he jokes.
I let his words settle in and relax back into the seat. Wild roads. I wonder if there’s more meaning to that than he’s letting on.
Moments later we’re pulling into a driveway. What stands before me is one of the most beautiful farmsteads I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve seen very many. Okay, I’ve never seen one aside from on the cover of a magazine at the grocery store. But, that doesn’t take away from the incredible beauty that’s before me.
Walker parks the pickup next to a huge red and gray barn. The house coordinates with the barn but not in a cheesy way. It’s dark gray with black trim and a deep red door. The landscaping around the home is lush and full and looks like it takes a crazy amount of work. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with a place like this.
“It’s gorgeous, right?”
I take a deep breath of the… well, not really fresh air since there’s a strong hint of what I believe is cow poo in the air but regardless it’s still somehow refreshing.
“It is. I can’t imagine how much work it would be to keep up with a home like this.”
“Agree.”
“Oh it’s not so bad.” I spin around at the sound of the feminine voice behind us. When Walker was talking about Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, I assumed they were an older couple—maybe in their sixties. The woman before me is less than half that in age. My guess is she’s in her late twenties. She’s girl next door pretty with strawberry blonde hair in wild curls around her head and light green eyes. Her cut off shorts showcase her long legs and I smile when my eyes drift to her feet to find a pair of boots, similar to the ones I’m wearing right now, on her feet.
“Courtney. How are ya?”
“Good, Walker. And you?” she asks coyly while glancing quickly at me.
“Very good.”
“I bet.”
“Courtney Sanders. This is Ellie. She’s new in town, and she’s going to replace Linda.” We shake hands quickly and I notice how strong her grip is. It isn’t painful, but it is firm. I have no idea why I’m analyzing her hand shake in such detail. Except seeing her step up and give Walker a hug like they’ve done it a thousand times before makes me feel a little uncomfortable. No, uncomfortable isn’t the right word. But if I think the word that it makes me feel, then it’s real and no way should I be jealous of a married woman greeting my boss (who I don’t really think of as a boss but know that I should) so focusing on her hand shake is a lot easier than focusing on the fact that she has the right to hug him and I… don’t.
“Linda’s leaving?”
He goes on to briefly explain about Linda’s retirement.
“So you’re stepping in, huh? Big shoes to fill.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“How long have you been in town?”
“Almost two weeks,” I admit a bit sheepishly.
“How’d you two meet?”
I grin and look up at Walker.
“She was about to annihilate an innocent car along the highway and I stopped her.”
“No I was not. I was only going to give it a little… tap.”
He scoffs. “Right. When you had the golf club raised above your head poised to swing you had just planned on giving it a little love tap.”
“You think you know me so well,” I say, moving my hands to my hips.
He leans in close and whispers, “Babe, I know you better than you’d like to think.”
Courtney’s eyes widen and she giggles. “It sounds like there’s a lot more to this story that I definitely want to hear at some point. Welcome to Liberty. Don’t worry, it’s not as small town as it seems.”
Out of the corner of my eye I notice a guy and dog walking in our direction.
“How’s it going, man?” the man who I assume is Courtney’s husband says loudly when he’s still quite a few feet away.
Courtney’s face lights up at the sight of her husband and all jealousy I felt vanishes. “Brett, come here and meet Ellie.”
He steps close and shakes Walker’s hand before turning to me. He’s stalky with broad shoulders. His ball cap is pulled down low, the curved bill shading his eyes, his dark hair curling out beneath it. He’s dressed in much the same way Walker is.
“Ellie, I’ve heard a little about you.”
“What?!” Courtney shrieks and playfully hits him in the shoulder. “Secrets don’t make friends, honey.”
He gives her a grin and I notice the dimple in his chin I’d missed earlier. He pulls her in close. “I’ll tell you later.”
I glance at Walker to see that he’s blushing just a bit and for whatever reason it makes me happy. Knowing he’s been talking about me hopefully means he’s thinking of me just as much as I’m thinking of him.
“The cows?” Walker says, gaining Brett’s attention. “Ellie’s going to join me. She begged me all day to come see me in action and she finally wore me down.”
My jaw drops. “You are such a liar!”
“Am not. I specifically remember telling you that I was coming out here tonight and you followed me around the rest of the afternoon asking to come along.”
“She does seem pretty pushy,” Brett agrees with a serious look on his face.
“You guys. Shush. You’re going to make her run away.”
“Nah, she’s too smitten with me to leave me now,” Walker jokes, dropping an arm around my shoulders.
Part of me wants to rest my head on his chest, lean in close and let him know that he’s absolutely right. I am one smitten kitten.
But the bigger part of me… “You’re so freaking full of yourself Walker Paul McKinstry.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, how the hell does she know your middle name and I didn’t? Second—your middle name is Paul? As in… basically the same name as the actor in all those car movies who every woman in America still gets wet panties from after all these years?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose and drops his head, but not his arm. That tightens around me and pulls me in even closer. “You’re in such trouble,” he mumbles into my ear before lifting his head.
Yes please. As long as trouble comes in the form of a spanking.
“My guess is that Linda or Polly has a big mouth,” he starts but I don’t tell him that it was actually Grayson who was the tattle tale. He mentioned his middle name being Paul, the same as Walker’s. “And yes. Unfortunately, my middle name is Paul. Thank goodness my name wasn’t
swapped.”
“Why? He was freaking gorgeous!”
“And what am I? chopped liver?”
No. He’s even sexier than the actor was before his passing.
“Brett. Will you please bring me to your cows?”
We all laugh at Walker trying to distract us.
Following the guys, I continue to look around the property. I’ve never lived anywhere so—free—before. I’ve always been in an area that’s in the middle of everything. It would only take me ten minutes to get to the nearest Target, Starbucks or shopping center. There have always been plenty of restaurants or bars to go for a quick drink close enough that I never had to make a big plan.
Here in Liberty, it’s different. Life moves at a different pace. And I can’t say as though I hate it a single bit.
We step into a barn, the ground beneath us covered in dirt. There are wooden boards crisscrossing each other to make beams above us. There are several stalls and as we walk past them I notice that three of them have hay on the floor and a very large cow in it.
I thought cows grazed… or something. I mean, I’m not exactly a farm girl but this isn’t what I expected.
“Why are they in here?” I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me. “I thought cows were usually out in fields?”
“They’re far enough along that we wanted to have their environment controlled when the time comes.”
“Wow. I had no idea. I thought they just kind of gave birth on their own.”
“They can. But this one here, she’s overdue by about a week, which puts her at risk. And her?” he points to a large black cow that looks like if the other one is overdue, she’s gotta be pregnant with at least four babies. “She’s carrying twins.”
“What about this one?”
“She’s my baby,” he grins. “She gets special treatment.”
“I’m not sure what that means but okay. What do we need to do?”
“Well, we’re gonna check out Maribel here first. She’s not due for a bit with the twins but we need to make sure everything is okay with her. And Stormy, we’re gonna get her going.”
I point to myself then raise my hand. “Lots of questions happening in my head.”
“I bet,” Walker says with a smile.
“You name them?”
“Of course,” Brett says like that’s obvious.
“Stormy got her name because…”
“She was born in a storm.”
“Obviously. And, when you said we’re gonna get her going?” I ask Walker.
“You’re gonna see a baby come into the world.”
“No shit?!” I exclaim.
“No shit,” he deadpans.
“Oh my gosh! Let’s get started. Stormy, get yourself ready because I wanna see this.”
I glance at Walker and notice his eyes are taking on a storm of their own.
Oh my.
“You heard the lady. Time to get to work,” he says to Brett, not taking his eyes off me.
“Sure thing.”
I watch for the next several minutes as the two of them work on Maribel. Checking her over and writing a few things down on a clipboard. I stand on the other side of the stall, resting my chin on top of my hands as I stand on a stool so I can see over the door. It was a tad embarrassing when Walker strutted over to me carrying it then plopped it on the ground beside me and winked, but I can’t do anything about the fact that I’m vertically challenged so I have to just deal with it.
Walker is definitely in his element. I saw him work with a few animals at the clinic, all of them pets, but this is different. This is his passion.
“Do you have your own cows?” I ask Walker, his right arm covered in a plastic sleeve up to his shoulder but not able to be seen. I’m not about to ask where it’s at, I have a feeling I’ll get an up close and personal view of it with Stormy.
He glances up at me quickly. “No.”
He doesn’t offer me any further explanation and I put it on my ever-growing list of things to ask him.
“You’re looking good, Maribel.”
Maribel makes a weird mooing noise and moves to her front legs before standing up. I step down from the stool and move out of the guys’ way while they come out of the stall.
“Ready?”
I nod my head excitedly and grab the stool, assuming he’s going to leave me outside the stall again but no way am I gonna miss a single moment of this.
I set it up on the outside of her stall but Walker has other plans.
“Not a chance. You’re coming in.”
“NO WAY. ARE YOU SERIOUS?”
I don’t know whether she’s terrified or excited but her eyes are about as wide as a saucer, which makes me chuckle.
“Hell yeah I’m serious. I need your help. You’re my employee now,” I remind her.
Her voice wavers as she shakes her head back and forth rapidly. “Uh no. Linda went through her very extensive list of how she basically runs that place for you and helping cows give birth was nowhere on the list.”
“Eh, consider it one of those “other duties” that may be assigned to you.”
She worries her bottom lip, her hands wringing together. I move a step closer to her and reach out to hold one. “Hey, I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t feel comfortable doing but I really want you in there with me. It’s an amazing experience and I want you to have it.”
“Okay,” she says without hesitation.
“I want you to understand the entire process so I’m going to explain to you some of what you missed so you understand. Yesterday morning before I came to Miss Polly’s I dropped off medicine for Brett since he didn’t have any on hand. Then he had to give her a combination of two separate meds to help her labor along. Usually we see a calf within thirty-six hours of the medicine being given.”
“Which is why we’re here now.”
“Exactly.”
“So now what?”
“Now, we wait. She’s ready and mama knows what to do.”
“You don’t have to go in and get it?” she asks, relief evident in her voice.
“Not unless she’s breech. If she is, then I’ll have to help and go in and make sure calf and mama are safe.”
“Oh.”
We sit quietly as Stormy lays in her stall. She’s a beautiful cow, dark brown with large white spots all over her body. She’s restless and moves around quite a bit, lifting her head and mooing loudly before laying it back down on the hay.
My instincts tell me she’s in trouble so I reach into my bag and slide on a glove, handing one to Ellie.
“What the hell do you expect me to do with that?”
“Put it on. Unless, of course, you want to stick your hand up there without one.”
Without hesitation, she puts it on. Quicker than I’ve ever seen someone put on a glove before.
“Oh my gosh. Okay. I can do this. I can handle this. I’m a grown ass woman about to stick my arm up a cow’s hoo haw. This is totally normal.”
Her little pep talk makes me chuckle. I slide my hand up Stormy’s hoo haw, as she described it, and feel around, noticing that the calf’s back legs are about to come out first. I have done this enough that I can tell the difference between the way the front and back legs feel—combined with the fact that when I reach in, I don’t feel the calf’s head anywhere.
Stormy moos loudly again when I stick my hand in to get a better feel for what’s going on. “She’s breech.”
“I’m not an expert, but that doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not. Can you grab those chains for me?”
“Chains?”
“Yup. I’ll need them to wrap around the calf’s legs. We’re going to have to pull her out.”
“Holy crap. Is this really happening?”
“Yup.”
I move my hand around a little more, gallons of light brown liquid coming out of her body in a gush.
Ellie gags behind me but quickly covers it up by saying, �
��Mmm.”
I smirk before motioning her closer. “Reach inside.”
She scrunches her nose and shakes her head back and forth a few times. “It’s a sweet offer but I’m good.”
“Chicken?”
“You ass. I’m not a chicken. I’m just not well acquainted with Stormy here and I believe in getting to know someone first.”
“Stormy, this is Ellie.” To Stormy’s credit, one of her big eyes stares up at Ellie. “Ellie, this here is Stormy. Stormy, Ellie’s about to get all up in your business, okay, girl? Don’t worry, she’s not coming on to you. She’s ready to learn.”
“Hi Stormy,” Ellie says with a little wave, the plastic glove crinkling as she moves.
Stormy moos in response.
“See? She likes you.”
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”
“I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to, Ellie. But trust me,” I tell her, knowing the words are hard for Ellie to hear.
She blows out a breath then crouches down next to me. “Okay, what do I do?”
“I’ll put some of this on your gloved hand and help you slide it in. Then you can feel it. I’ll do the rest.”
She slides in front of me and I steady her, guiding her hand where she needs to go. She squeals before pushing her hand inside then shudders, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.
“Gross, gross, gross, gross.”
“It’s not gross. It’s life. Feel,” I murmur to her, my lips grazing her cheek. “Open your eyes.”
She relaxes back into me a little bit before moving her arm in farther. “It’s…” she pauses then relaxes even more, “a foot. Walker, I feel a foot! And a bunch of other really nasty things that I really don’t want to think about but I feel a real live foot!”
I laugh. “You sure do. Amazing, isn’t it?”
She slides her hand out and it makes a loud squish sound—this time Ellie doesn’t even react. “Let’s get this baby out of there.”
“Now who’s the boss?”
All I Need Page 12
