Page 24 of Snowed In with the Rancher

It was good that Triss had people in her corner like that, even if they were thousands of miles away.

Asher had people like that, too. His brother Nate, and his brothers in arms, as well. Aaron Steele, Colton Hastings, Rob Cahill, Barnes Wark, Ryker and Decker McKnight, and Pete Callaghan. They’d all seen each other at their absolute worst and still no matter what they had each other’s backs.

Besides Nate, he hadn’t seen the others in ages, but he knew if he needed something they’d be there in a flash. Aaron, Colton and Rob all had wives and families now. Barnes was married, too. But they had a group text going on and updated each other every now and then. He knew that Ryke, Cal and Deck were still working often going undercover for months on end. They’d send a picture of a remote location, some beach or a barren desert to let the rest of them know where they were. The guys with kids sent baby pictures, and Barnes who didn’t have kids with his wife—and didn’t want them—would send pictures of the latest piece of furniture he’d built captioning it, “my baby 114.7 lbs 93inches long.” At least this was what he’d done for the last pic of a dresser he’d sent everyone.

Asher showered again, just to rinse off the hot tub chemicals before he climbed into bed. So Hannah had told Triss to hump him. He kind of thought she might have.

And Triss’s sisters both supported the idea.

But Triss didn’t give any inclination as to whether she supported the idea, too. He’d stuck around long enough to see if she said anything along that line, but she hadn’t.

Which meant, she wasn’t interested.

That sucked, but he’d deal with it.

She was hurting, he had to keep reminding himself of that. Her head was all fucked up from the breakup, so the last thing she needed was for him to come in and confuse her even further, particularly since she was probably looking for a happily ever after, and he was just not that kind of guy.

As he lay in bed, he brought up the barn cam on his phone and checked the videos. He had a camera pointed at each stall so that if a horse went into labor or was sick, he could check the video feed first.

Everybody was tucked in snug for the night, and he was about to put his phone on his nightstand and turn in, too, when something made him go back to the feed for Carolina’s stall.

That was his mare that was due any day. He’d checked on her several times throughout the day and she showed no real imminent signs of being in labor. Mind you, this was her first pregnancy and every horse was different. Yes, she was engorged where was to be expected and was showing signs that she was getting close, but she hadn’t been agitated or colicky like his other mares when they were ready to foal.

He'd also tested the calcium in her mammary secretions right before coming in for dinner using a test strip and there was no increase in calcium. An increase usually meant imminent foaling.

But she was imminent now. Her belly quivered and she was making labor noises. Her tail was lifting and he watched her flop to the ground and roll, getting the foal into position.

He and Nate had moved her to the larger stall a few weeks ago where she’d have plenty of room to foal laying down if she chose to. If a mare foaled in the spring, summer or fall, they liked to allow them to do it in the pasture if they could, but Carolina had gone into heat in early February, so they knew they’d have a winter foal and she wouldn’t want to give birth in the snow.

She stood up abruptly and started to nip at her own flanks and ankles.

Fuck, she was foaling. She was close. He needed to get out there and help her. Muck her stall, lay down fresh wheat straw, clean her up so she was ready for the birth.

No rest for the wicked, or a rancher.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he got dressed quick and was down the stairs and shoving his feet into his boots and arms into his coat in no time.

He ran across the driveway, through the snow toward the barn, and headed inside, flicking on lights as he went.

Carolina made a typical horse-in-labor noise from her stall near the end of the barn.

He’d helped many a mare foal over the years, both on his own ranch and on his uncle’s, but he always had a vet on standby if shit went sideways. But it was December twenty-second and snowing like the goddamn North Pole, no way would his vet, or any vet be willing to come out tonight.

He just had to pray that Carolina had an easy delivery and nothing wrong went down.

She really should be sleeping.

Even though it wasn’t past midnight, she would want to be up with Asher tomorrow to help him with the animals, so she needed her rest.

But her brain just would not shut off.

And it wasn’t thoughts of Lorne that kept her awake. It was thoughts of Asher and what was hidden beneath that towel that had her hot and bothered and unable to close her eyes without picturing him nearly naked and wet.

And the fact that he had a giant tattoo on his back of angel wings just made her want to run her tongue across that ink and have him take her to heaven.

She was contemplating pushing her fingers down her panties just to ease the ache in her lower belly and help her sleep when the thunderous steps of Asher running down the stairs had her bolting upright in bed. She heard him fumbling at the foyer, then he threw the front door open and ran out, letting it slam behind him.

She was out of bed and at the living room window in five seconds, but he had already vanished. It didn’t take much guessing to figure out where he went, though, since lights in the barn began to flick on.

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