Page 66 of Huckleberry Hill
“You? Why you?”
“Because I have experience birthing horses.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize.”
“I’m more than just a pretty face,” he joked.
I smiled slightly. “I know.”
“Do you?” He looked at me, pinning me with a blue stare.
I held his gaze for a moment and then reached into my pocket. “Wade came by and asked me to give this to you.”
He looked at the credit card for a moment before taking it. “I’d forgotten I even opened a tab.”
I took a deep breath. “About last night?—”
“Forget it,” he said. He shoved his credit card into his back pocket.
What if I don’t want to forget it?
The words tangled my tongue, and they wouldn’t come out. They dared not be spoken.
I turned around and walked out of the barn. My conversation with Salem played in my head. Was I still raw from my broken engagement? Yes. Even under the anger, there was deep-seated hurt that wasn’t going to go away just because I found Declan attractive.
But I knew that if I kissed Declan, my relationship with Gianni was truly over. Along with the dreams of the life I’d planned on building with him. My present was murky. My future undecided. And I wasn’t ready to leap without looking. That was Salem’s territory. I’d never been that way.
Every time I was around Declan, I felt foolish. I rebuffed and rejected.
I needed a ride to clear my head, but I wasn’t going to go back into the barn to saddle Goldie.
So I decided to grab the truck keys and go for a drive. Two hours later, I was no closer to working out my feelings.
My eyes flipped open, staring into the darkness of my bedroom. Anxiety clogged my throat, but I wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
I sat up and waited for my pulse to stop racing. I looked at the clock. It was just past midnight.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was flinging off the covers and getting dressed in an old pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. I tied my hair back and pulled on a pair of thick wool socks. I quietly turned the knob of my bedroom door and crept down the wooden stairs, making sure to skip the second stair from the bottom, which was known to creak.
I lifted my coat from the hook, picked up the bear spray, and then unlocked the front door. I crept outside and breathed in the crisp night as I shrugged into my coat and then slid into my boots.
My strides were long and brisk. I felt the tension in the barn as a horse huffed out a breath of air.
I padded toward Mirabelle’s stall. She was pacing, her black tail swishing back and forth.
“What are you doing here?” Declan asked from the stall behind me.
I turned to look at him. He was sitting up on the cot he’d set up earlier, his feet touching the ground. He was in a pair of jeans and a black thermal. His dark hair was mussed, but his eyes were clear.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just . . . woke up and . . .” I rubbed my chest. “I can’t explain it. It’s weird.” I gestured to Mirabelle. “How long has she been like this?”
“About an hour,” he said.
“Ah. Has her water broken?”
“Not yet.”
“It’s not her first baby. When she gets going, it’s going to be a fast delivery.” I peeked over the stall to watch Mirabelle for a moment. She was pacing and pawing the fresh hay. Her tail kept swishing back and forth.
