“Thems the rules,” I say lightly, pinching her ass to make her yelp and diffuse some of this tension. “Guess you’ll have to stay through the night to get what you want, won’t you? Now, do you want a shirt to sleep in, or would you prefer to sleep naked?”
She glares at me, but I’m not going back on this. I flip off the bathroom light and leave her standing there in the dark, already headed to my dresser because I’m pretty sure I know what she’ll choose. Her body is her weapon, but I’ve taken away her ability to weaponize it tonight, so I’d imagine…
“A shirt.”
I do my best to hide my smile.
A shrill ringing jolts me awake and Austin flinching against my chest has me wrapping my arm around her tighter. We’d gone to sleep on different sides of the bed, but I always woke up with her clinging to me. It was usually a guaranteed way to start my morning off on the right foot.
She groans against my chest when she realizes it’s my phone. “Sorry, baby.” My apology means fuck-all, apparently, because she pulls away from me to the other side of the bed again, pulling the pillow over her head even though I’ve already silenced the phone.
“‘Lo?”
“Sorry, bro. I know your girl’s over, but the power’s out and the barn generator didn’t start. Calves are getting cold.”
“Shit!” I’m out of bed like a rocket, holding my phone between my ear and shoulder as I grab my jeans and start tugging them up my legs. “I’ll be there in a minute. Any idea why it didn’t start? How long’s the power been out?”
I pull the phone away to tug my shirt over my head like I didn’t just ask him a question I needed to hear the answer to. Austin sits up in bed, blinking blearily.
“—went offline about an hour ago, so that’d be my guess. Think the fuel line has gummed up—fuck!” I jerk the phone away from my ear. “Sorry, man. Just get here.”
The call ends and I stupidly try to flip on the lamp by my bed so I can get the flashlights out of my nightstand. It takes me a few tries before I realize what an idiot I am.
“What’s the matter?”
“Power’s out. I’ll turn the fireplace on before I leave, but I’ve gotta go get the generator started up and make sure the calves don’t get too cold. It’ll probably take the rest of the night. I’m sorry, baby.”
I find the flashlight blind and shove it in my back pocket just in time to see the silhouette of her slipping out of bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Home,” she says through a yawn. The bed jostles slightly as she bumps into it. “You’ve got work to do. Figured?—”
“Figured wrong,” I cut her off, snatching her sweatpants off the floor and tossing them on the bed. She’ll need them to stay warm, but she’s not putting them on to leave. “I want you to lay your pretty self back in my bed and go back to sleep, so when I get done with what I’m sure is gonna be a miserable morning, I know I’ve got you here waiting for me as my reward.”
“But—”
I press a kiss to her lips. “Bed. I don’t have time to fight with you, Tex. Calves are getting cold and Jamie’s waiting. I’ll have my phone. Be a good girl for me.”
Leaving without making sure she’s gonna obey me is hard,but the ranch comes first right now, no matter how much Austin means to me.
My brother’s arguing with one of the mamas when I get there, shining the headlights of my pickup into the barn’s open doors like Jameson did. “I’m not taking her far, goddamn you, calm down!”
“Last I knew, cows didn’t take English classes. She doesn’t understand a damn thing you’re saying,” I bellow over her mooing, quickly offering a second set of hands to calm the cow so my brother can focus on carrying the writhing calf to the tack room, where I imagine he’s already set up a kerosene space heater.
“Shut the fuck up and get the next one,” Jameson grumbles.
We need an extra set of hands. There are about twenty-five calves in this barn, all born within the last seventy-two hours and needing warmth. Jameson can’t leave a days-old calf alone in a tiny room with a gas heater. Usually, calves this young instinctively freeze and try to make themselves smaller when they’re separated from their mama, but on the off-chance they do the opposite and knock over the heater, we’ll have a whole new issue.
It’s times like these I resent the hell out of Colt. There’s no reason I should have to pull our twenty-year-old neighbor out of bed at two in the morning to deal with an emergency on a ranch that’s not even his. If Colt was here instead of off risking his life on the back of a bull each night, I wouldn’t have to.
“We need another set of hands. Did you already call Tyler?” I call out loud enough that Jameson can hear me in the tack room over the calf’s bleating.
“Not yet, he’s off today! Was trying to avoid it if I could.”
“I’m already here.” Tyler pushes into the barn a second after his voice does, looking around to assess the situation. “Our power’s out, too. Couldn’t get back to sleep and figured I’d come check the calves, just in case. Looks like that was the right call.”
I can’t help but gape at him for a second. This kid blows meaway daily with his maturity. When I was his age, nothing could’ve dragged me out of bed on a chilly spring night, especially not voluntarily.
“Remind me to give you a fucking raise,” I mutter as he takes over tying off the cows so they won’t fight when I take their calves.
