Jack had muttered under his breath and headed out the door. Rebecca had followed, drawn because she couldn’t not care. As they got closer, she’d seen the panic on Isaac’s face. She’d seen the lost expression as he’d come back to himself.
Whatever had happened, he was himself again. Or a good imitation. He opened the door, revealing the mare. She paced around the stall, then stopped to paw the ground. After a few minutes she took another turn, then paused again. This time she kicked at her belly and then heaved and settled to the floor. Her body tensed with the force of her contraction and she shuddered, whinnying softly at the man who remained inside her domain.
Jack stood just outside the stall door, Allie close to his side, her mouth open in awe.
The mare stood again, circled the enclosure, kicking at her belly, stretching as another contraction hit. When she moved to the corner of the stall and tried to lower herself once more, Isaac took hold of her halter and drew her forward several feet.
“Away from the wall, Mousy girl.” He soothed her as she eased to the ground. “It won’t be long, Allie.”
Allie, wide-eyed, nodded. Rebecca stepped close to her daughter. “If this is too much, we can come back later.”
“Mom,” she said with meaning. “I want to see this. It might be gross, but it’s a baby horse.”
“Almost a baby horse,” Jack said, as he pulled a stool close and took a seat. “And it will be gross. But beautiful.”
His gray eyes misted over with unshed tears. “Best part of ranching is new life. Physically and spiritually.”
“Getting sentimental on me, Jack?” Isaac asked as he stood back, giving the mare some room.
“I’m old. I’m allowed.” Jack nodded, indicating they should watch the foaling process.
Mousy, as Isaac had called her, continued to push. It took time but eventually half the foal emerged. They waited.
“Should you help?” Allie asked.
Isaac shook his head, but he didn’t take his eyes off the mare and foal. “No, we wait. It’s resting. So is its mama. Being born takes a lot of work. If either of them is in distress, we’ll give them some help. Right now, even though it’s taking a while, this is all normal.”
Rebecca pointed, now as excited as Allie. The foal’s body slid to the straw. Isaac still waited.
“It’s resting and getting what it needs from the mama.”
Finally, Isaac knelt next to the foal and wiped its nostrils, eyes, ears.
“Sometimes a baby can’t quite get free. That’s why we’re here. Not that Mousy wouldn’t have seen to it. But we don’t want to take any chances. Allie, I think you should name—” Isaac took a closer look “—name her.”
Allie watched with all the wonder in the world reflected in her eyes.
Jack put a hand on her shoulder. “Kind of makes a person a little teary, doesn’t it. And when I see this at Christmas, I think of that little baby born in a lowly barn, surrounded by animals and shepherds.”
“Christmas,” Allie whispered. “Her name should be Christmas.”
“Maybe that’s too much name for such a small animal,” Rebecca offered.
The tiny foal, a replica of her mouse-gray mother, was kicking to get up. She did kind of look like Christmas with her spunky little face, bright eyes and brushy black tail.
“I think that’s a perfect name for this little filly,” Jack said with a firm nod. “She’s a dandy, Isaac. You were right about that stallion and Mouse. They’re going to make some mighty fine offspring. Little Christmas will be a winner. Now, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to head to the house. Isaac, when you get a moment, introduce the girls to Jersey.”
“I’ll take them to the kennel as soon as this little girl is eating.” Isaac stepped back from the foal and mare, giving Jack a quick smile.
Jack left, moving somewhat slower than he had been earlier. Rebecca watched him make his way down the aisle of the stable and out into the sunlight. She turned her attention back to Allie, who stood just inside the stall, watching the foal named Christmas as she did her best to stand on wobbly legs.
Isaac looked more cornered than awestruck at that moment.
“You don’t have to show us the dog,” Rebecca murmured, giving him a way out.
He eased slowly from the stall, closing the door behind them, allowing mare and foal to have their moment. His hand rested on Allie’s shoulder and the two of them eased back a step as the mare nudged her foal.
It was a moment. A moment when the three of them stood there at the stall door in the early morning quiet. Allie climbed on Jack’s stool to get a better view over the top of the door, and as they watched, the foal found its mother and nestled against her.
“Aww,” Allie whispered.
“This is what makes life on the ranch pretty close to perfect,” Isaac said. Then his arm settled around Rebecca’s shoulders, drawing her close.
She started to pull away, but something in how he tugged her to his side told her that this wasn’t just about the foal, a perfect morning or even him being the flirty cowboy she’d first pegged him to be.
The embrace felt more like a man seeking the comfort of the person standing next to him. She’d had more than a few of those instances herself, when she’d just needed someone to hold her.
As a woman, she could admit to those moments. She’d had one yesterday, when he’d held her after her mom left the shop. His arm tightened around her, saying more than words. Her heart got tangled up, wondering what it meant about her, that she wanted to be the person he leaned on in that moment of weakness.
Chapter Seven
Isaac watched for a while as the foal nursed, then he slipped away to clean up, leaving Rebecca and her daughter with the horses. It mattered that she’d been standing there with him. He didn’t know why, it just did. Deep down it felt as if she’d taken a little of his pain, his burden, away.
He didn’t want her to do that, but man, it had felt good, holding her. He knew she couldn’t make him whole. He knew that God had already done that, and there were still things he’d have to work through, deal with, live with. But after the morning he’d had, Rebecca had been a balm for his troubled soul.
Not that he was going all poetic or romantic. She’d been the right person at the right time, that was all.
He left the office, buttoning up his clean shirt as he went. Rebecca and Allie were gone. And just like that, he felt empty again.
“Shouldn’t you be smiling?” Joe walked through the stable, his own shirt buttoned crooked, his grin a little too happy.
“Why should I smile?”
“New filly?”
“Oh, Christmas,” he responded.
Joe looked confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I was talking about Mouse’s new foal.”
“Her name is Christmas.” Isaac moved forward, unbuttoning the flannel shirt Joe had thrown over a T-shirt. Two years ago, when Joe had first showed up at Mercy Ranch, Isaac would have left the buttons.
Something happened to a bunch of men when they started being each other’s hands, eyes, ears. They got used to depending on one other. Even when it felt uncomfortable.
“Thanks, Mom.” Joe grinned again as Isaac buttoned his shirt up right. “I’ll never tell anyone that you know how to be a decent human being. No one would believe it anyway.”
“You’re killing me with kindness this morning.”
“Bad night?”
“No, why?”
“I’ve known you a few years and can tell when you’ve had nightmares. Plus you threw something at my wall during the night, shook my whole room.”
“Sorry.” Isaac cracked his knuckles because some kind of manly gesture was needed.
“So the foal’s name is Christmas. Going to tell me why?”
“Allie named her.”
Joe’s eyes widened.
“I have to go.” Isaac grabbed his jacket off a peg. “Do you mind hooking a round bale and hauling it to the steers?”
“Nope, I can do it. I sent a few guys to town to the bait factory. You know I saw Lola?”
“Yeah. I’ll check on her soon. I’m introducing Allie to Jersey.”
“Jersey?”
He wished he hadn’t said anything. The more he said, the deeper he dug the hole. It didn’t take a guy long to recognize the looks, to know what people were thinking. Allie had named the horse. Jack had recommended the dog. Joe, and probably others, were thinking something was going on between him and Rebecca. She was a nice woman. Her daughter was pretty terrific. The last thing he needed in his life was a woman. A child definitely not.
“Jack and I discussed it. The kid needs a dog.”
“Gotcha,” Joe said. “And Allie and her mom are with Kylie. Looks like they’re hauling decorations out of the shed. It’s that time of year.”
“Thanks.” Isaac headed for the double doors at the front of the building. “Hey, I’m going to try to work Penny and Buster.”
“You do that. I’m not getting on one of your cutting horses.”
Isaac stopped at the doors. “You’re a better rider than you give yourself credit for. Considering you’re a city boy.”
Joe laughed at that. “Yeah, well, I’m not denying it.”
“Catch you later.” Isaac headed in the direction of the storage shed. He could see Allie and Rebecca with Kylie. Allie had silver garland wrapped around her like a shawl. Kylie handed her a small container of decorations.
In unison the three glanced his way, Allie waving with her free hand.
“Are we bringing in the trees today?” he asked.
Kylie pulled a tub out of the shed and stacked it on one already in a small wagon. “Yes, we are. And I can’t wait. It’s the first of December and with these mild temperatures it just doesn’t feel like Christmas. We need to get these decorations up.”
“How does Christmas feel?” he teased.
She frowned at him. “It feels like tinsel, chocolate candy, cinnamon candles, soup.” She pulled something from a container. “And mistletoe.”
She held up a sprig of fake mistletoe over Rebecca’s head. Rebecca started to back away, but Allie lassoed her with the garland.
“You have to kiss her,” Allie said. “It’s bad luck if you don’t.”
“That isn’t a thing,” Isaac told her.
She nodded, as if she truly believed it.
“I don’t believe in luck,” he informed her. “I believe in faith. Faith always trumps luck.”
“If you don’t kiss her she’ll think you don’t like her,” Allie teased.
Isaac stared at the woman in question. Her cheeks were pink now and the breeze blew strands of blond hair that had come loose from her ponytail. Kylie had tossed the mistletoe back in the container, but it didn’t seem to matter. Allie unwound the garland and returned to perusing the tub that held the nativity set.
“I wouldn’t want you to think I don’t like you,” Isaac said, winking at her. Then he kissed her. It was meant to be carefree, but the moment his lips touched hers, he realized his mistake.
She tasted sweet, like strawberry jam. She tasted like a woman who should have forever with a man who would never let her down, never make her fear. He couldn’t make that promise to any woman.
“Hey, the mistletoe is gone,” Kylie teased, but a warning edged into her tone.
Isaac backed away. Rebecca’s gaze crashed against his, asking questions. He didn’t have answers.
He wasn’t about to apologize. He cleared his throat. “We should go meet Jersey.” He glanced away, needing a moment.
“We don’t have to. If y-you have something else you need to do,” Rebecca stammered. “I mean, I have to go to the shop and finish painting. And some of the equipment and supplies I ordered should be delivered today and tomorrow.”
“It will only take a minute to meet the dog. We can take her to town with us, so she and Allie can see how they like each other.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “I always get along with dogs.”
He gave her a steady look. She was a smart kid and he wasn’t going to talk down to her or pretend she wouldn’t understand.
“I bet you do, but it’s different with a dog like Jersey. You’ll be more than friends. She’ll go everywhere with you. She’ll be more than a pet. She’ll be a lot like your mom. She’ll look out for you.”
“I see. So we have to bond?”
“Yeah, you have to bond. And if you don’t bond with her, we won’t waste time. We’ll look at other dogs.”
“Let’s go, then.” Allie glanced back at her mom. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course. I’m fine. Let’s go meet Jersey.”
“I can help you get that in the house,” Isaac offered, as Kylie continued to fill the wagon.
She pulled a cobweb from her hair and blew a strand of hair off her face. “I’m good. Carson will be here in a few hours and he’ll help me get it inside. If you’re around at lunchtime, you can help, too.”
“I’ll be around.”
As they headed for the kennel Allie slipped between him and Rebecca. She skipped along next to them. And then she was holding his hand and her mother’s, uniting them.
“We’re bonding,” she said. “Like I’ll do with the dog. That’s how you learn if you’ll be a good team.”
“Allie, you have to stop.” Rebecca turned a dark pink. If Allie was being put up to this, it wasn’t by her mother. He’d put everything he had on that being the truth.
“I’m sorry.” Allie continued to hold his hand in her left, her mother’s in her right. She skipped along between them, and she didn’t look sorry.
“Is that Jersey?” she asked. The pale, almost white, yellow Lab barked.
“That’s her.” He released her hand and led her through the gate into the small cottage that housed kennels where the dogs slept. There was also a pantry where they kept dog food, leashes, collars and other supplies, and he headed that way.
When he returned Allie was on her knees outside the pen and Jersey was licking her fingers through the chain link. The little girl looked up, a wide grin splitting her face.
“I love this dog.”
“I thought you might.” He opened the gate and snapped a leash on the dog. “Let’s take her for a walk.”
A phone rang. Rebecca reached in her pocket and pulled hers out. She studied the number and then she sighed. “I have to take this.”
“Mom,” Allie said as she walked away.
He watched her go, a feeling of dread settling in his stomach. But she didn’t need his interference. Not that he wasn’t interfering. Of course he was. The dog was interfering. His help at her shop. All ways that he was getting involved in her business. He should know better. Nothing good could come from a relationship between the two of them. Even friendship with Rebecca and her daughter seemed too complicated.
* * *
Rebecca listened as her mother sobbed, apologizing, telling her she was in danger. She wanted this all to be a figment of her imagination, a bad dream, anything other than the truth.
“Mom, please tell me what’s going on.”
Her mother sobbed into the phone. “Your father got a call from a police officer. He wanted us to get a message to you—that Greg might be heading to Arizona. We had no reason to believe it wasn’t a police officer, so your father explained that Aunt Evelyn had passed away and left you a little money and that you’re living in Hope and starting a business, but that you would be safe because you’re close to family.”
“And it was Greg?” Rebecca already knew the answer to that question. Of course it was Greg. Now he knew where to find her. She held the phone and listen
ed to her mother, but her gaze traveled to where Allie knelt with the dog, Jersey. Isaac watched Allie, but occasionally his attention switched to her.
“It’ll be okay,” she assured her mother.
“I hope so. Maybe you should come here.”
Now? After all this time and the words said between them? “No, I can’t.”
She wouldn’t.
“If you need us...” Her mother spoke quietly, as if she knew Rebecca would never turn to them for help.
Not that she didn’t want her parents in her life. But she wanted them to give her unconditional love. She wanted them to love her daughter. It had been ten years, but the memory of being dragged to the front of the church on a Sunday morning, where her father had listed her sins to the congregation, was as fresh in her mind as it had been the day it happened.
“I have to go.”
“You’ll call if you need us?” Her mother repeated the earlier offer.
“Yes, of course.”
Rebecca ended the call. She shoved her phone in her pocket and smiled when Allie waved and pointed to the dog. Rebecca nodded, still too shaken to approach her daughter. She needed a minute to breathe, to focus.
To pray that everything wouldn’t fall apart. Pray. She had prayed on occasion. As angry as she’d been at her parents, at God, at the church, she still needed to know that someone cared. In a lonely world she needed to know that someone out there had some inkling she existed and needed help.
At the moment she needed all the help she could get. She felt like the worst kind of fraud and hypocrite, calling out to a God she’d turned away from.
“Are you okay?” Isaac stood close to her, his cowboy hat pulled down low, casting his features in shadowy appeal.
“I’m fine.” No, that wasn’t the truth. She’d never felt so alone, not even when her parents put her on the bus to Arizona to go live with Aunt Evelyn.
It had been a few years since she’d had anyone to lean on, to talk to. The two men she’d dated hadn’t ever wanted to hear about her day, her life, her child.
The Rancher's Christmas Match Page 7
