Page 21 of Texas Daze (Texas Montgomery Mavericks)

He grinned. “Maybe alittle.”

“So what’s thefavor?”

His responding sigh was a long, loud exhale. “Joe challenged me to learn to ride a horse while he learns to walk on his new legs, with both of us showing our progress at the end of thesummer.”

Snapping her fingers, she said, “No problem. Heck, I can have you roping cattlebythen.”

“I’ll be happy with just staying on thehorse.”

“Beenbuckedoff?”

“Couple oftimes.You?”

She nodded. “Oh yeah. Been there, done that. That’ll leave some sour memories, not to mention asourbutt.”

“I—” He pointed into the stall. “We haveaction.”

* * *

Marti was so involved just lookingat the sharp angles and strong chin of this incredible man that she’d completely lost focus on why they were sitting in a barn in the middle of the night. She swiveled her head toward Princess in time to see a large gush of fluid pouredforth.

“There goes the bag,” she said, her hands twitching nervously. “It’s so hard to just sit here and let her do the work. I want to help.” She looked at Eli. “Ever seen a horsedelivery?”

“Nope. Tons of human babies but nohorses.”

“Well, our job is to do nothing, unless she gets into distress. I’ve attended a number of foalings and I always want to dosomething.”

He smiled. “Hard to just sit. You seem like the type of woman who likes to take charge, and most likely, get it right most ofthetime.”

Her heart exploded in her chest with pride. No doubt she was preening like a peacock. She knocked shoulders with him again. “You say the nicestthings.”

“How long?” he said, tilting his head toward the laboringhorse.

“Hard to say. An hour, maybe longer, maybeshorter.”

For the next forty-five minutes, they just sat, watched and whispered encouraging words to Princess. Poor Princess. She grunted and pushed. Her legs pushed straight out as she dealt with the contractions. A foot and then a second foot appeared twenty minutes in the process. A couple of minutes later, a light colored head camethrough.

“Will the foal be white too?” Eliasked.

“Princess isn’t really white. She’s a light grey. The sire is also grey, albeit a little darker than Princess. I expect the foal will beagrey.”

“Do you know if it’s male orfemale?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Don’t care. I just wanthealthy.”

He nodded. “Gotit.”

Once the shoulders passed, Princess took a break from pushing, taking a rest from allthework.

“Should we help?” Eli asked. “I mean, usually a human baby pops out at thepoint.”

“Nervous?” she asked with a grin. “Nope. This it totally normal. Mom and baby are resting. They should get goingagain.”

As she’d predicted, ten minutes later, Princess began pushing again and a foal dropped into the straw. Princess went immediately to work cleaningthebaby.

“What about the cord?” Eliasked.

“We do nothing unless we absolutely have too. It should slow or stop passing blood to the foal in a few minutes and then mom with take care ofthings.”

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