Page 52 of Home Hearts Hooves

“You probably didn’t heat it up enough to begin with,” I say.

“You want to tell Sally-May her instructions were wrong?”

“Okay, so it takes me a while to get down the stairs. There’s no reason to take over Gramp’s room.”

“He’s never here, though.”

Preston clears his throat. “I was actually going to suggest you might want to keep cuddles down on the main floor, if he fell down those stairs at night, he could be pretty badly hurt,” he says, and I glance down into the sash where Cuddles is wriggling around to get comfortable against my chest.

“He has to sleep with me or he cries all night,” I sigh.

“So, if there is a bed down here you can crash in for a while, I mean, just until Cuddles gets a little bit bigger, maybe you could use it?”

“I guess, if it would be good for Cuddles, I could make it work.”

Nial smiles. “I’ll zap this for a few minutes longer. Be right back,” he says, grabbing the pie tray and heading into the kitchen with it.

“How much bigger can Cuddles get?” I ask, and Preston turns his attention to the green beans on the table, loading up his plate.

“Hard to tell, really,” he says, still not meeting my eye. “We should start tracking it, his weight, too, just to be sure he’s thriving.”

I have a feeling Cuddles isn’t going to be getting any bigger than he already is, and I just got played.

Perry comes through the door followed by Connor and Sky. They’re sweaty, faces clearly showing their exhaustion, and they’re all covered in red dirt.

Fuck. I forgot we were supposed to dig out the space for the new fire pit. It was my idea, too. There is a small clearing behind the pool that I thought would be perfect. We could set up stump stools around it, and it could be like the old bonfires we used to go to when we were kids, but in a more controlled setting. But that space hasn’t been farmed for fifty years or more, and while on top, the ground is mostly a yellowish-brown sandy loam, once you dig down to about forty inches, it shifts to a mottled red and brownish sandy clay loam. It’s not easy work even with a mini digger. I should have been out there helping.

“We’ll just wash up,” Perry says, and they walk into the small washroom off the kitchen. It’s two hours past normal finish time and I know it’s because of me and I hate it.

“So how are you going with everything on the ranch?” Preston asks, holding out the beans for me to take.

“I managed to get on Buckie today without having him kneel. It hurt, I’m not going to lie. But I thought maybe I would be able to do the fence check and get around the ranch a bit quicker that way.”

“That’s great.”

“Except, I had only been up on him for five minutes when the pain became too much, and I almost fell getting off him again.”

This fucking leg has slowed everything down. Nial and the guys are trying their best to pick up the slack, but they’re feeling my injury just as much as I am. Okay, probably not just as much but it sure as hell isn’t easy on them.

“You can’t get in extra help?” Preston asks as Nial reenters the room.

He plonks the pie down on the table with a clang, sending spurts of meat juice into the air a few inches.

“That’s what I’ve been saying since the drive into Doc Greens when you bloody broke it,” he says, re-scooping his slice out of the tray, and this time, gusts of steam roll like flames up from the steaming meat inside.

“I bet I’ll be alright in a few days,” I tell him.

“I call bullshit,” Connor says, walking in and sitting down next to Nial. “I love you, man, but you have to face facts. You can’t do what you used to, at least not for a while.”

“I have to agree,” Preston adds.

“I just hate being so fucking useless. What am I supposed to do all day while you’re out tending the ranch?”

“You could come help me?” Preston says and all eyes move to him. “I mean, if you wanted. I could use a hand at the clinic.”

“You have Poppy helping you, don’t you?”

He runs his fingers through his chestnut hair and smiles that fucking irresistible grin that made all the girls, and a few of the boys like me, back in high school swoon.

---