Page 23 of 40 and Flirting (with Disaster)
The vet’s brow was knitted—not a good sign. Jamie tensed.
“She’s not showing signs of a rupture or abruption, but I’m not feeling the foal in the canal either.”
“Is she breech?” Michael asked.
Laura shook her head. “I don’t think so. The baby was in position the last time I checked her.” Looking back at Baby, who prowled the stall restlessly, she said, “Could be the foal is bigger than we thought. Not sure. Right now we will monitor, but if she doesn’t progress soon…”
Jamie felt a lump in his throat, and his hand tightened in Iris’s. Baby and the foal had to be all right. He couldn’t accept anything less.
He spent the next hour in the stall, alternating between rubbing Baby’s cheek as she pressed her forehead to his chest, and sitting beside her, crooning to her with long sweeps of his hand down her sweaty neck as she lay on her side. Minutes seemed to tick by like molasses, but every time he glanced up, Iris was right there at the stall door, her arms resting atop it, staring intently at him while he cared for the mare. Sometimes she spoke quietly with Michael or Laura, but most of the time she was silent, watching and waiting right along with him. He felt her presence as if she were standing or sitting beside him, felt the encouragement and support he needed so badly, and he realized in those long moments that he wanted this in his life—her at his side, and him at hers, supporting each other, encouraging each other. Loving one another.
Yes, love. Did he love her right now? They hadn’t known each other long enough for that to happen, but he knew himself, and he knew this was different than any other relationship he’d ever considered or been involved in. He wanted this with every fiber of his being, and the thought of not having it, not having her… He couldn’t consider that possibility any more than he could consider anything but a perfect outcome for Baby and her foal.
Baby was standing, her head at his chest, when he felt her push hard against him. A glance told him her muscles were tensing through her belly. “She’s pushing.”
Laura was at his side immediately. Her competent hands ran along Baby’s stomach, and suddenly a gush of liquid escaped the mare, telling them Baby’s water had broken. Laura waited, with Jamie barely breathing, until the constriction in Baby’s muscles let up. A smile lightened the tension that had held them all frozen. “Yep. Looks like we’re moving.”
The next half an hour seemed to take a lifetime. Laura checked again, and though she found one hoof and the foal’s nose in the birth canal, the second hoof was missing. It took some maneuvering, but she was finally able to correct the foal’s position, and shortly thereafter, two small hooves appeared at the opening. Jamie felt like cheering but settled for crooning to Baby, who decided to lie down one final time. Every muscle in her body came to bear on her baby, and within minutes the filly was born.
The birth relieved both of them, he was sure, but especially his Baby. As her foal left her body, his mare gave the biggest sigh, the sound exhausted. A soft whinny left her closed muzzle.
“That’s right. She’s finally here, love,” Jamie whispered to her.
But all wasn’t over. As he watched, heart in his throat, Laura worked to get the foal breathing. Tense silence filled the stall, and when he glanced at Iris, he saw tears glistening on her cheeks, eyes glued to the tiny filly now lying in the straw. Moments later a cough sounded from the newborn, and when Laura backed away, the filly tossed her head in the air, looking for her mama.
Finally.
The relief nearly shattered him. Seeming unaware of the drama, Baby moved calmly to her feet, over to her foal, and began to clean the little one’s sleek black coat. Jamie got to his feet as well and, after checking that the baby was definitively alert, made a beeline for Iris. Across the barrier of the door, her warm arms surrounded him, and only then did he feel like he could take a full breath for the first time in hours.
Eleven
Watching Jamie with Baby and her new foal felt like watching a father with his newborn child. It softened Iris’s heart in a way she hadn’t expected, and seeing him cuddle the spindly filly and help it stand to nurse melted her almost as much as all those “sexy daddy cuddling a newborn” images on the covers of romance novels. Her ovaries might have given up the ghost a couple of years ago—thank goodness for hereditary early menopause and not having periods till she was almost sixty—but it still felt like they exploded as she observed the aftermath of the birth from the door of the stall.
Michael seemed as involved as his father, though it was obvious Baby favored Jamie. It wasn’t until a couple of hours after the birth, when Michael had escorted the vet to one of the ATVs to take her back to her truck, that Jamie came to the door and leaned against it. Her heart fluttered as he lifted one arm and gripped the post that served as a doorjamb above her head.
Arm porn indeed. He even had “the lean” down pat. So unfair.
“You look dead on your feet,” he said, voice rough with use and emotion.
“Thanks,” she murmured, a wry smile quirking up one side of her tired lips.
Jamie grinned, and though it was sexy, she had to admit he looked tired as well. The exhaustion of being Baby’s birth coach looked good on him, though.
“You know what I mean.”
She nodded. “I do. And I feel guilty having you take me home.” Her fingers itched to smooth away the lines of fatigue feathering out from the corners of his eyes.
“It’s not—a—big—” The word cut off with a deep yawn.
“It’s not?” she asked. “I think it is.”
He chuckled. Stepping back, he opened the door and joined her in the center aisle of the barn. “Okay, so the excitement of the night is hitting me. Doesn’t mean I can’t drive you home.”
“Jamie, that’s an hour round trip for you. I live on the other side of Black Wolf’s Bluff. If I’d thought about it before we came out here, I would have called a ride hours ago.” But she hadn’t thought about it, and now it was the middle of the night. Did she dare wake Scarlett to come get her? Her friend worked from home, but she didn’t want to presume that meant Scarlett could sleep in tomorrow and not be up early for work.
Jamie slid an arm around her waist, the feeling both foreign and somehow familiar, and turned her toward the open doors of the barn. “I have a proposal that might solve this dilemma.”
“You do?” she asked warily. Surely he wasn’t about to proposition her.
