Page 35 of Jocelyn
Molly returned to her seat. “Seven minutes in heaven is—”
“Praying!” Nicole interrupted with a burst, her hands outstretched as if holding back a tsunami that would drown her child. “Amanda meant Molly had been praying.” She turned to Molly and mouthedseriously?
Molly shrugged. She had a truth-only policy that extended to children and had gotten her fired from her last job at a preschool. Which was, consequently, how she’d met Ben. We’d all learned long ago never to ask her a question if we weren’t prepared to hear her brutal answer.
Betsy stood. “I’m going to bed before you all make me hurl.”
Nicole ushered Sierra over. “Bedtime for us as well, little lady.”
“Might as well hit the hay myself.” I paused halfway to standing when I realized everyone was staring at me. “What?”
Molly’s mouth twitched. “I’ve just never heard you use that expression before.”
“Don’t go making more out of it than it is.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Like a mountain out of a molehill?”
“You’re hilarious,” I deadpanned.
Molly linked her arm with my left. “And you, my friend, have changed. Subtly, but it’s there.” She leaned in and whispered. “And I like it.”
Was she right? Had I really changed in a matter of half a week? The prospect that I had frightened me a little. I’d spent years constructing boundaries for my life. Ones that would keep me and my family stable. Where we wouldn’t have to worry about inconstancies and fluctuations. If I changed—if pushed those boundaries—then the foundation beneath my feet could crumble and fall apart like the destruction after an earthquake.
I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to pick up the pieces again and rebuild if I let a changeable variable into my life that had the power to disrupt everything.
16
Malachi
Calving season came with a special case of nerves. Maybe not the same variety that drenched the halls of a maternity ward at a hospital, but the livelihood of many small ranches rode on the backs of newborn cattle, the Black Buffalo included. Which was why every birth was pivotal. The eighty pounds of a newborn could tilt the scale of success one way or the other.
The Red Angus heifer bellowed, her neck restrained in the head gate.
“Got her ready?” Doc Reynolds asked.
I ran my hand over the expectant mother’s side. The ridges of her ribs gave way to the large patch of prickly quarter-inch hair I’d shaved between her last rib and the hook of her pelvis. I squirted a good amount of pre-iodine scrub across the area and cleaned the dirt and dried feces from her hide.
“Here.” Doc handed me a bottle of alcohol, and I washed the area to complete the disinfecting process. He stepped beside me with a long needle that he inserted into the cow’s spinal column. In a few seconds, she wouldn’t be able to feel anything.
Boots crunching on the ground behind me caused my head to whip around. Jocelyn stood a few feet away, her eyes as round as an owl’s as she stared at Doc with his impressive needle, the heifer with her bulging belly, and then me.
“What are you doing here?” I cringed as soon as the words left my mouth. My tone hadn’t sounded accusatory, nor had I meant it to, but how else could she take the question? And really, whatwasshe doing there? Miriam had agreed to take the women staying in the Conestoga on a trail ride, and Nate was supposed to keep the Whalen group occupied with fence repairs on the other side of the property.
“I wanted to talk to you about Domino, but I can see that now isn’t a good time.” She pointed to the cow. “Is she all right?”
“Her baby is too large. Doc here is about to do a C-section on her.”
“You can do that on livestock?”
Doc picked up a sharp medical instrument. “Want to stay and watch?”
No!My mind had been like a bumble bee, buzzing between the two flowers of whether Jocelyn fit at the ranch or not. Whichever was true, she didnotbelong here, among the mess and possible disappointment if the result of the procedure turned out to be other than what Doc Reynolds and I hoped for.
“If not, then you better leave now.” Doc’s forehead wrinkled in concentration as he brought his sharp instrument to the cow’s side and cut a foot-long incision.
A small gasp rent the air behind me, but the sound wasn’t followed by the retreat of feet.
Doc reached his hand into the abdominal cavity. “I can feel the calf.” He gently pulled the uterus partway through the opening, then made a cut across the uterine wall. A second later, his hands red and wet, he pulled a hind foot into the world.
