Page 81 of Home Hearts Hooves

“Oh.” He laughs and kisses me one more time in the crease of my neck, soft and slow.

“She already likes you; you don’t need to win her over now,” he whispers into my neck, the warmth of his breath caressing the soft skin and sending a shiver down my spine.

“Still, this is her first night here. You remember what it was like on your first night at your old place.”

“I remember you telling me you love me and then running away,” he teases.

“Excuse me, but I left to let you have a special night with your daughter.”

“I know. And it was special.”

“Exactly, and now you will both live here, and I want this night to be special, too.” Preston has been staying over on weekends ever since Isabel started art school, as that was the only time he didn’t have Poppy. Then, on one of Isabel’s weekend visits, I asked her if she’d have any issues with Preston and Poppy coming to live on the ranch. I was terrified, but she laughed and hugged me and said, “I sort of figured they were here most of the week, anyway.”

And it’s true. Poppy still goes to the clinic after school, but once homework is done, they both come here, and she spends time with Miss Moo, and Preston checks on the animals, and we have milk and cookies that Preston’s mom now brings over in giant batches. Thank you, Poppy. But this is different. This is them moving in, living here full time, and while Nial doesn’t seem to think having an eleven-year-old in the house is going to be much different from when Kelly and Alan visit, it will be. Case and point, the cow she let into the kitchen.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” Preston asks, nibbling my ear.

“I’ve been told once or twice, but it never gets old.”

The phone rings, and I shrug out of his arms and hand over the bowl of thick cream.

“Keep whisking that,” I say, and pick up the call.

“Beaker Brothers Ranch, Dean speaking.”

“Hi, umm, are you the farm with all the weird animals?” a woman’s soft voice asks.

“We have a few eccentric guests, sure,” I reply, and Preston raises a brow. “Did you find one of them? I swear, if it’s a black and white goat, just keep him. I’m out of ideas of how to keep him contained.”

“No. It’s, umm, it’s not that I found one of them. I was wondering. Do you have any animals that are…missing a leg?”

“Actually, we do. We just adopted a sheep that had to have a leg amputated when it was born. Oh, and we have a duck that has only one leg, but he was born without it. Hops around fine, why’s that?”

“My son was also born without one of his legs,” she explains, and my heart aches for them, but she doesn’t sound sad at all. “He’s four now, and loves animals, and just the other day he asked me if I knew any animals like him, and I remembered seeing something on social media about your ranch.”

“So you’d like to come for a visit?”

“It’s his birthday on Sunday, and I know it’s late notice, but I was thinking I could bring him up this weekend, if you have availability. If we can’t stay on the ranch and I need to look for a place nearby and we just visit the animals, he’d love that too.”

“Do you live far away?”

“Chicago.”

“Great. Umm, I’m sure we have a cabin free then, just let me check.” I leave Preston to the cream and jog to the library. We’ve set it up as an office and keep all the ranch documents in here, along with a bunch of books we inherited and have never read. I have to weave around boxes of Preston’s books, all of which he has read, to get to the desk.

“Great, we have Cabin One available, it’s the closest to the pool and the animals.”

I take down her details and say goodbye, then head back to the kitchen.

“New booking?”

“Yeah,” I reply, taking back the bowl and checking on his progress. The cream is full and thick, and perfect for topping the pie. I spoon it on in large dollops, and Preston comes over, linking his arms around my waist from behind and resting his cheek against my head.

“You okay?”

“I’m great. I just had an idea. Maybe.”

“Do tell.”

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