He led her back to the barn, and, as he had suspected, the unicorn followed closely behind, never looking away from his fated mate. The unicorn was so distracted, she barely seemed to notice when he shut her up in the corral adjoining the barn. He sighed with relief when he latched the gate before turning to his mate.
“Whew. She can put a real fight when she doesn’t want to do what I ask. You’re my lucky charm.”
She smiled a little at his light words, but her eyes drifted to the unicorn, stretched out as far as she could from the fence to get another scratch.
“Is she going to be all right?”
“I am going to do everything in my power to make sure she will be. And yes, I think so. Just gotta keep her calm ’til she delivers, and then she’ll most likely be good to handle the rest. I’m just an extra set of hands in case things go sideways.”
His mate looked as if there were a number of things she wanted to say, but, finally, she only nodded.
“Good luck. And believe me, I’ll be back to figure this all out, it’s only—”
Turner would have very much liked to hear what came after that, but the unicorn intervened. She had apparently figured out her new favorite person was leaving, and she suddenly released one of those ear-splitting shrieks that went right through your head. She reached her head toward his mate more desperately, and, when that produced nothing, she spun around and dealt the fence two hefty kicks, one after the other.
“Goddamn it—”
Turner reached to make sure that the fence was sound, but his mate was quicker. Fast as wink, she stuck her hand through the fence slats, and, immediately, the unicorn calmed down. Turner stared.
“Lady, you are made of magic,” he said, and, to his surprise, it won him a shy smile.
“Most of the time, I’m just made out of peanut butter sandwiches and Caesar salads from the grocery store, but thank you. Now maybe you can tell me how we’re gonna get me out of here.”
Turner swallowed. He knew what he had to say, he wanted to say it, and at the same time, it made something inside him twist. His mate had asked for just a few things in the very, very short time they had known each other, and he didn’t want to deny her a single one.
“I’m so sorry to ask this, but I have to. Would you consider staying?”
A number of emotions crossed his mate’s face, and he was heartened when she didn’t immediately say no.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I’m thinking that I need to keep this one calm. She could foal at any moment, and, when that happens, the calmer she is, the better. Right now, you’re the thing that’s calming her down the most, and believe me when I say that I have tried a lot. Everything from steak to massage to playing her calming music, I’ve tried. Right now, the fact that you can keep her quiet is incredible to me. So I gotta ask. Will you stay ‘til she foals? After that, she’ll be so busy taking care of her new little one that she probably won’t know either of us are alive, but, until then... well... if you could, you’d be doing me and her a huge favor.”
“What happens if she doesn’t stay calm?”
“Hopefully nothing. Hopefully she’ll settle down to business as usual. The problem is that we have records of a lot of unicorn births, and fractious new mothers can get mean. They can drive their new foals away, even attack them. Sometimes they don’t let them nurse. I’m prepared for those things, but—”
“It would be better if I was here. Oh Christ, the cookies!” She abruptly looked more upset about baked goods than she had when a unicorn was running square at her.
“The… cookies?”
“Yes. Yes. If I can help, I’m going to stay.” Turner’s heart swelled with pride and maybe just a little bit of victory. “But I’m going to have to call Aunt Freddie. She’s going to be so disappointed.”
“Aunt Freddie?”
“Well, properly, my great-aunt. I’m staying at her place while I get my life together. She’s been so good to me.”
“Er, usually people don’t look as if they’re going to start crying when they say that?”
“No, I’m not going to start crying, I’m just—oh dammit.”
Angrily his mate knuckled the tears out of her eyes, and, when she looked up, there was a kind of crystalline determination in her gaze, as if she had decided that no matter what came, she was going to get through this.
“Aunt Freddie’s been amazing to me. When I lost my job and Ruth broke up with me, Aunt Freddie’s the one who insisted I come stay with her to save money. She’s been so kind as I’ve started job hunting, and mostly all she asks me to do is to use her ancient VCR to tape her Bears games. Except. This week, she actually made a request. She’s finally throwing her Christmas party again after not doing it for four years. She wants everything to be perfect, and she asked me to make cookies. I’ve baked professionally for most of my adult life, and I got my start making cookies with her right here in Clearwater when I was a kid.”
“It sounds like she has a lot of faith you.”
“She hassomuch faith in me, and honestly, I sort of liked the fact that there was one person in my life I hadn’t disappointed.” She smiled crookedly. “Guess I had to close out sometime. I’ll give her a call and tell her that I can’t. And after I bought all those ingredients, too.”
