Then he looks over at me, guilt shining in his hazel eyes. “I usually wait with them until the placenta’s passed, at least. I can?—”
“We’ll stay,” I say. There’s no way I want to miss any of this. It’s all so miraculous and beautiful to witness.
It ends up taking the foal forty-five minutes before she’s on her feet, and within another thirty minutes she’s steady enough to feed from Ol’ Girl. About an hour later, while the foal is snoring during her nap, after her first feeding, Ol’ Girl passes the placenta.
“We’ve got it from here, boss,” Randy and another ranch hand that’s arrived tells him.
Joel nods, gives them a few more instructions, and then heads over to Ol’ Girl, murmuring to her about what a good job she’s done and how proud he is of her.
Watching him, I envision what type of father he must’ve been to his boys. I’m certain though tough, he had a soft spot for all of them. They probably got away with a lot more than he likes to admit.
“I have a change of clothes in my office and an extra jacket that’s not covered in … well …” He gestures the length of his body, noting the stains of what I can only presume are fluids from Ol’ Girl’s birth.
“Do you always smell like this after the birth of a new foal?” I tease as we walk the distance to Joel’s office trailer.
He tuts. “Worse, darlin’.”
We laugh and walk, and I delight in recollecting everything I felt as I watched Ol’ Girl give birth.
I talk almost the entire drive back to our neighborhood, feeling energized despite the fact that it’s almost five in the morning.
“It never gets old,” Joel says the moment we pull into my driveway.
Sighing, I watch him with a giddy smile playing on my lips as he rounds the front of the truck to the passenger side. I place my hand in the one he holds out for me, not minding for one second the rough and calloused pads of his fingers.
Every callus came directly from a hard day’s work.
“Thank you,” I say just above a whisper as he closes the passenger door behind me.
“Tonight was …” I sigh and look upward, standing with my back to my front door on my porch. Joel stands a few inches away, hovering over me. “The best date I’ve ever been on,” I tell him honestly.
The smile Joel gives me makes my heart sing. “This is the first time I’ve been out all night long with a woman in a very long time.”
“And it ended with the birth of a baby.”
We both chuckle at my silly joke.
“I’m glad I didn’t go with my first mind of dropping you off back home before going out to the ranch.”
I step closer, moving my hand up and down the length of his front. “Me either. I’ll never forget tonight,” I admit.
My gaze floats up to the cowboy hat he’s wearing. He changed out of the one he wore on our date for one that was in his office when he changed clothes. This also happens to be the black hat that he left over my place a week ago.
“Nice hat,” I tease.
He glances upward before removing the hat by its top. “It’s my favorite,” he says, stunning me into silence when he places it on my head.
My daughter’s words about cowboys and their hats come to mind but I don’t say them out loud.
Instead, I raise my face to meet Joel as he lowers to kiss me. A soft sigh pushes through my mouth, before his fingers wrap around my chin, holding me in place.
Every kiss with this man feels like stepping into a new dimension of this relationship. He pulls me in deeper and deeper with every pass of his tongue across my bottom lip.
Before I get pulled too deeply, however, Joel pulls back.
“You should get inside.”
I nod and then twist the door handle, having already unlocked it. “Hey, Joel,” I call, even though he hasn’t moved an inch.
