“So many accidents happen on the farm, it was unlucky. Part of the gig, I suppose.” He took a deep breath. Now it was getting hard. But he’d never shared this with anyone before. He looked at Raven. Her eyes reflected genuine compassion. Raven wasn’t just anyone. It was becoming more and more obvious that he had fallen in love with her.
“I would’ve loved to have met him.”
Her comment gave him hope that she too felt the same way toward him.Early stages yet, very early stages. He had a habit of getting ahead of himself. This was one time where that wouldn’t be a good idea. He didn’t want to scare her off by being too enthusiastic that they were meant to be together forever.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” She rubbed his arm sympathetically. He’d felt so alone with his grief for the last year, but having Raven here was a good change.
“Nothing wrong with what you said. It’s only just been a year, and there’s so much change.” He took a very deep breath. “But onto more exciting things. There’s about to be one more addition to my herd. Let’s see how she’s doing.”
Raven’s smile eased the turmoil of feelings related to his father’s death. “Can I watch the birth?”
“Sure. I have to warn you, it might be a long wait.”
“Well…” she gave a fake cough. “Resting will be good for me right now.”
Ben laughed. He had to admit, she had a way of making him feel good and not just in the bedroom.
“Okay, now we need to be quiet.” He lowered the tone of his voice. “There she is.”
“Bloody hell, she looks… normal? Like she just maybe ate too much and got a big belly.”
“Don’t tell her that.” He motioned to the bales of hay. “We can sit here.”
“And we do nothing?” Raven sat down on the bale.
“Yep.” Ben positioned himself next to her making damn sure his leg was well and truly touching hers. She didn’t pull away. He liked being this close to her.
“It seems a bit odd to do nothing.”
“Nothing is good. It means things are progressing well. If I have to do something, that’s not good because there’s nothing happening.”
“How long do we wait?”
“As long as it takes.”
“Hours.”
He nodded. “But if there’s no baby this afternoon, I’ll call the vet.”
“So, you will call the vet?”
“It will mean things are going wrong, but yes, I will. This baby is important, and so is the mom. I want to keep them both alive.”
“You would do this at home on the farm?”
“Not like this. I’ll do a job or two and keep coming back to check on her. But here, there’s nothing else to do, and I want to make sure no one from the public comes too close and frightens her.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. He didn’t want to move.
“I don’t know how you stay so cool?”
It took him a second to realize she was referring to the labor. He was a mix of excitement and hope with Raven so close to him. It felt natural, and like they’d somehow known each other for years, like really known each other for years.
“I’ve done this all my life.”
“She moved.” Raven bolted upright. Straight away, he missed the closeness that had been brewing between them.
“She’s fine.”
