Why had she come, if the rodeo freaked her out? Was it for the kids? The kids who weren'thers.
"Hey."
A female voice interrupted his musings, and, for one microsecond, his heart leapt as if it were thedoctor.
It was Kelsey, his boss's very pregnant wife. At his elbow with a dripping, ice-cold bottledwater.
"Thought you might need to wash down some of that dust you'reeating."
Through the bars, he took it from her. "Thanks." And then because he couldn't help it, "Aren't you supposed to beresting?"
He didn't know details but had overheard enough to know that she was supposed to be on bed rest during this last part of herpregnancy.
Right now, she braced one hand on her lower back, looking slightly miserable in a maternity shirt and jeans and... flipflops?
She followed his gaze down but grimaced when she realized she couldn't see her feet. "I can't get my boots on any more," she admitted. "I wanted to watch Miles ride. He's up next, isn'the?"
Nate and Kayla's adopted son was roping for the first time tonight, and the whole spread was anxious on his behalf. Even Dan, though he wouldn't admitit.
Her eyes caught on something over his shoulder. He craned his neck to look. There was Matt, looking like thunder and heading for his wife, though still yardsaway.
"And it looks like I'm going right back into the house to lie down on thecouch."
Dan looked back at her, saw thepout.
"It's boring. I can't see anything, even from the living roomwindow."
"I'm sor—" He didn't get the words out before she went pale. One hand clutched her stomach. and she reached out and grabbed onto the outside of thechute.
"Hold up," he shouted to the guy working the chute's lever several feet away. He stepped onto the bottom railing of the chute and used his momentum to propel himself over the top. He was halfway over when he remembered the stitches. Remembered because he could feel them tearingapart.
He made it just in time as she fainted deadaway.
He caught her, lifted her, andturned.
"Kelsey." Matt scooped her out of Dan's arms. His face was almost as white as his wife's had been, his eyes wide. "What should Ido?"
Nate had seen the whole thing and joined them. "Want me to call anambulance?"
"I don’t—" Mattmuttered.
"The doctor's here," Danblurted.
Both Matt and Nate turned identical hard looks on him, and he almost wished he'd kept his mouthclosed.
But he liked Kelsey. She didn't treat him likedirt.
"I saw her in thestands."
"Go get her," Matt ordered as he strode off toward the ranch house, his wife in hisarms.
Something had happened,over by the chute where all the huge, scary animals kept coming from. A fight? Or something else? She'd seen Dan go up and over the metal chute in a move that would've been beautiful if she hadn't known about hisinjury.
The rodeo stalled out for several moments, and then Megan was shocked when a shrill whistle came from behindher.
Julianne nudged her. "Look."
Megan glanced over the railing behind them, down the dizzying one-story height, to see Danthere.
