Page 10 of Not Our First Rodeo
“Well, we got a heifer ready to give birth, so you might have to get your pretty hands dirty today, son.”
“This early?”
Calving season is usually in February and March, and this year, I’m looking forward to the hectic distraction of it. It’s one of our busiest times, and I plan to lose myself in it.
Dad nods. “Jade’s on the way.”
Cooper rolls his eyes, but my heart stops. Jade Dawson is the ranch vet. She’s also Cooper’s worst nightmare, but Elsie’s best friend. I have no doubt Elsie has confided in her about last night, and while I can take questions from my brother, I can’t from Jade. She’s been a part of our lives since long before Elsie. Our parents have been friends forever, which tends to mean she has no filter with us. No question is too personal.
And I’m not in the mood to discuss my marriage with anyone but my wife.
“You need my help?” I ask Dad, silently begging him to say no.
He shakes his head, and I practically sag with relief.
“Okay, I’ve got some horses to exercise, then.”
I turn on my heel and disappear before either of them can ask any more questions. And damn Cooper, because my thighs are a little sore.
It’sbeenthreeweekssince my night with Beau. And my period is late.
I stare inside my medicine cabinet for a long moment, willing a pregnancy test to magically show up on one of the shelves. Or even better, for a period cramp to seize me and blood to gush out of me. What I wouldn’t give to ruin a pair of ridiculously expensive panties right now.
Because I absolutely cannot be pregnant right now. Do I want to one day be mentally well enough to try to have a baby with Beau again? Absolutely, yes. Do I think I am anywhere near that right now? Hell no.
No matter how long I stare into the unorganized abyss of my medicine cabinet, a pregnancy test never appears. I feel panic clinging to the edges of my consciousness, fighting to seep into my mind and take over, but I push it down. If there was ever a time toneedto be calm, this is it.
I take three deep breaths like the useless app I downloaded on my phone tells me to do. It does nothing. So I make my way into the kitchen and fill a glass of water with shaking hands, forcingmyself to drink it slowly before pulling my phone out of my back pocket.
I click the second number on my favorites list and listen to the dial tone, letting out a relieved sigh when my best friend’s voice fills the line.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I need you to take me to Bozeman to buy pregnancy tests.”
She’s quiet for a moment, no doubt processing the information. “Okay, why Bozeman?”
“Everyone in this town already hates me for leaving Beau. Can you imagine if they saw me buying pregnancy tests?”
“Right,” she says, and I hear a rustling. I imagine her nodding on the other end. “I’m at the ranch right now, checking on a cow. I can be there in twenty.”
The mention of the ranch—Lucky Stars Ranch, theJenningses’ranch to be exact—has my heart galloping in my chest.
“Please don’t mention this to anyone,” I gasp out.
“Of course not.” Her voice changes then to something snarkier. “It’s just Cooper here, and I wouldn’t tell him anything important if my life depended on it.”
My pulse ratchets higher and my mind swims. “You’re with Cooper?”
“Yes,” she tells me, and then I hear a deep voice on the other line. “Mind your own damn business, Cooper. It’s my urologist. I have an overactive bladder. Is that what you wanted to know, you intrusive piece of shit?”
Their bickering soothes something inside me, pushes the panic back even farther, and I take my first deep breath since opening my period tracker app this morning and seeing that I was four days late for my period—something that has only ever happened one time before.
“Yeah, I bet you’re sorry,” Jade says, voice still muffled as she talks to Cooper.
“I’m going to go,” I tell her.
She returns to the conversation. “Yeah, I’ll be there in just a minute. I need to wash my hands. I just had them up a cow’s vagina.”
