Amanda didn’t realize that she’d laid her head down on the couch alongside his, or that the fire had almost burned out after she’d closed her eyes. She didn’t know she fell asleep until Clovis found them there three hours later.
“Boss! Hey, boss, you awake?”
Amanda’s eyes flew open and her head shot up. For a minute she couldn’t quite decide where she was. The room was cool and dim, and it hissed.
The hissing was what brought her back—hissing from the kerosene heaters and what was left of the fire. Amanda looked down to find that Jake was still asleep, his features more relaxed than she’d ever seen them, his limbs sprawled over the just-too-small couch. At the last minute she overcame the urge to caress that weather-roughened cheek just once before getting up.
“Boss?”
Amanda climbed to her feet before Clovis could make it into the living room.
“Clovis, what do you want?” she whispered, tiptoeing out to the kitchen.
Clovis was just entering from the mudroom, another layer of snow decorating his coat. His hat was in his hands, and he looked like a man entering his first church.
He nodded shyly in greeting. “Amanda.”
It must have been the low light, Amanda decided, and the hour. He was acting as if he was in her bedroom instead of the kitchen.
She tried to smile away his discomfort. “Is it snowing again?”
He took a quick look at the dusting of white on the front of his coat. “Sure is. Not near as bad as before, though. Is Jake awake?”
She took a second to pull a hand through her hair as she shook her head. “He’s asleep. You’re not going to wake him, are you?”
“I’m afraid I have to. Bitsy’s foaling.”
Amanda looked back toward the dark living room and stepped closer to Clovis. “He can’t, Clovis. He’s just done too much today. He needs to get some sleep. You’re not having any problems with her, are you? You don’t need me to call the vet?”
“Oh, no. Nothin’ like that. It’s just that Jake likes to be there when a foal’s born. It’s his way. And I’m not one to presume otherwise.”
Amanda nodded, understanding perfectly. “Well, I am. He doesn’t need to hold her hand or anything, does he?”
Clovis flashed a startled grin. “She does most of the work. A real trooper when it comes to this kind o’ thing. We never had to use the chains on her once.”
Amanda didn’t even want to ask. “In that case, give Bitsy my regrets. Jake’ll be in to see her in the morning.”
Clovis started wringing his hat. “Oh, I don’t know, Amanda. He’s gonna be real mad.’’
Amanda grinned. “I know. It’s his way. Well, I don’t mind him being mad at me.”
Clovis actually tried to sidle by her. “Maybe if I just let him know...”
Amanda wasted no more time on tact. Grabbing a handful of Clovis’s coat, she ushered him straight back into the mud-room. “No. Now, unless the barn’s burning down and the horses have all escaped and there’s a hurricane, you let that man sleep. He’ll be out first thing in the morning.”
“But—”
Amanda smiled as she pulled the door open. “Good night, Clovis. If you guys want some coffee or anything, I’d be happy to bring it down. But don’t come back unless it’s a national emergency.”
For a minute Clovis stood out in the snow, a dumbfounded expression on his face, his hat in his hand. Amanda reached out, grabbed it from him and slapped it on his head for him. Suddenly, like a light coming on, he smiled. A big, bright toothy smile.
“Yes, ma’am,” he conceded with a huff that passed for a chuckle. Then, shaking his head, he walked off.
Amanda shook hers a little too as she shut the door behind him. It was almost one in the morning. Amanda could see the snow dancing gently in the breeze. She could hear the crunch of Clovis’s progress over the snow. Other than that, the world was silent and cold. Isolated. The snow paled the reflected clouds and sapped the darkness from the night. It was magical, mysterious and hushed. Amanda looked out into it and smiled with a satisfaction she hadn’t known in a long while.
She was resetting the fire when Jake woke. He didn’t just wake. He bolted upright. Amanda almost fell face first into the fireplace.
“Clovis,” he snapped.
