Page 38 of Second Chance with the Rancher

He worried that she’d have regrets, and although it appeared that she did, it wasn’t the regret of having sex with him, it was the regret of not being able to remember having sex with him, and not getting to kiss him or see his cock. That made him grin like an idiot.

She shoved him. “Get your head out of the gutter, Harris.” Rolling her eyes, she turned back to focus on milking Callie. “Your face is like a glass house. I can read every depraved thought parading through that pea-sized brain of yours.”

“Pea-sized brain!” he exclaimed. “What’s with the insults, Minx? I thought we were getting along and having a nice conversation about how badly you want to see my dick. I can text you a picture, not a problem. But my understanding is that women don’t really like dick pics. At least the unsolicited ones. But if you’re soliciting …” His smile was stupidly big but he couldn’t stop it. She just brought out the goof in him. She was so easy to tease, but could dish it right back, which was what he loved. He wasn’t someone who pushed the buttons of a person who didn’t want their buttons pushed. He liked the give and take. He liked a person—a woman—who could hold her own and dish it right back to him on a heaping plate.

And Mieka could do that.

Her gaze narrowed. “No dick pics, thank you.” The tug of her mouth to the left said her brain and lips were not on the same page. Her stubborn cat was meowing loudly. Loud enough that he could practically hear it. And when her eyes drifted back down to the front of his jeans, he knew for sure that she didn’t agree with what she’d just said.

“How’s she doing?” Asher’s voice interrupted her heated stare off with the crotch of his pants, and Mieka blinked and lifted her gaze to Nate’s brother.

She cleared her throat but Nate could see the pink creeping into her cheeks and he had to smother his smile in the crook of his arm. “Both ducts are producing now. We held a warm compress, then started to gently milk her. Chance has sipped from the cup, too.”

Asher grinned. “Look at you being all … ranchy.”

Mieka lifted a brow. “Ranchy?”

Asher’s face scrunched, then he shrugged. “I didn’t know what to say. Cowgirl is obviously the wrong word … so yeah, ranchy.”

Mieka snorted. “I like being able to help. Callie is such a sweet mama. She shouldn’t suffer in the slightest.”

The sincerity of her words hit Nate hard in the chest and he reached up and stroked Callie’s side. “She definitely shouldn’t. Not after last year.”

“What happened last year?” Mieka asked.

“Callie delivered a stillborn,” Asher said. “Foal was breech and we couldn’t get him out in time. She was devastated. We all were.”

Mieka’s face fell and her eyes welled up with tears. “Oh my God.” She rubbed Callie’s side and kissed the spot she’d just rubbed. “Poor baby. I’m so sorry.”

“A colt a couple counties over, was without a mare due to birth complications, and we tried pairing him with Callie to see if she’d adopt him and nurse him, but she was just too depressed. We really waffled whether to try again with her so soon, but after a few months she snapped out of her grief and seemed okay. I’ve never had a stillborn foal before, or seen a mare react in such a way. It was scary.” Nate rubbed Callie’s side again. “But now you have a beautiful little baby to love and care for, right, girl?”

As if she knew she was being spoken to, Callie swung her big head around and sniffed then nuzzled Nate’s head. He chuckled and kissed her velvety nose.

“I’m gonna head to the feed store, get more chicken feed. You need anything?” Asher asked.

“Goat pellets for the petting farm,” Nate said. “I think we’re almost out.”

Asher nodded, smiled warmly at Mieka then headed out.

“What happened to the colt that Callie couldn’t bond with?” Mieka asked, wiping tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.

“Another ranch had a lactating mare and they took him. She bonded with him and he was fine. Callie just wasn’t in the right headspace. She knew it wasn’t her colt. She tried to nurse, tried to bond with him, but her heart was already too broken to welcome anyone else into it. She needed time for it to heal.”

The tears were back in her eyes. “You never really think about animals grieving. But they do.”

“Oh, they do. Particularly animals of higher intellect. Dogs, cats, horses. I mean elephants will visit the grave site of their family members decades later. And that mother orca who carried the body of her dead calf for like three weeks … animals mourn for sure.” He reached forward and stopped her from milking. “You can probably stop for a bit. We’ll check on her again later. But we should give Chance a chance to nurse from this teat now that we’ve unclogged it.”

Nodding, she sniffed and scooted back, still sitting on the stool. “Is that why you were so … “

“Manic about Callie’s delivery and when her duct was clogged? Yeah. Seeing her depressed was one of the hardest things I’ve ever witnessed. After, of course, actually seeing her dead colt and having to put down other horses because of injuries and stuff. But it was rough. On all of us. The pain in her eyes was gut-wrenching. She would look at me and it was as if she was asking me why? Why did her son die? What happened? Where was he now?”

Mieka covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh God.”

“Ranch life isn’t easy. It comes with its share of heartbreak for sure. But,” he welcomed a curious Chance into his space and gave the little guy some thorough ear scratches, “it also comes with rewards. Like this handsome dude. And joy. So much joy. We’ve had three healthy foals in two days. That’s definitely worth celebrating.”

There was a knock at the side of the stall. “Nate, Barbara is in labor, just thought you’d want to know.” It was one of the ranch hands who Mieka didn’t recognize from last year. He was probably new.

“Who is Barbara?” she asked.

---