“I’m going to count down from three,” Riley calls, his voice echoing slightly.
“Three, two, one, open!”
My hands fly from my eyes and I blink at the sudden light, only for my mouth to fall open in shock.
“Is that…” I trail off, stumbling forward a step. Brooks reaches out to steady me, and I glance at him to see a baffled look on his face.
My eyes are immediately drawn back to the tiny bleating creatures in front of me, though. Two white lambs with blacknoses and black knees that Riley and Neveah are holding in their arms.
“What?”
“They’re for you!” Riley says. “Well, for all of us. We’ll help take care of them, obviously. But they’re both yours!”
Baby sheep. The two cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life. And they’re for me. I fall to my knees in front of them and start sobbing. Great, heaving sobs that hitch in my chest and quake my entire body.
Riley looks terrified, Neveah looks concerned, and Brooks drops down next to me, pulling me into his arms.
“Sage?” he says, voice trembling. “Petal, what’s wrong?”
“I love them so much!” I wail, reaching out for the little lambs.
Riley scrambles over, and Vee quickly follows. They place the lambs into my arms and on Brooks’ lap, where I hug them to me and bury my face in their soft, baby sheep fur.
My tears soak into them, but they don’t suffer my hold long. They start fidgeting and bleating, asking to be let go, so I pull back, wiping my tears and snotty nose on my shoulder.
“Can I let them go?” I ask, voice watery as I look around at the renovated pole barn. I guess regular barn, now.
“Yep, I had a fence installed,” Riley says, gesturing behind me.
I release the lambs, and they hop off our laps to sniff around their new enclosure.
“They’re so cute,” I whisper, unable to take my eyes off them. “What are their names?”
“You get to name them,” they say.
Tears trickle down my cheeks again, and I swipe them away. I’ve never been overwhelmed by joy before, or cried of happiness.
“But I don’t know what to name them.”
“You don’t have to decide right now,” Vee says. “Take a few days to think about it. We can help, if you want.”
“Okay,” I say. I hate how wobbly my voice is, but I can’t help it.
They got me baby lambs! Who does that?
“They’re really ours?” I turn my tear-streaked face up to Neveah, seeking reassurance from my alpha.
She cups my face in both palms, thumbs clearing the tear tracks from my cheeks.
“They’re really ours,” she says with a decisive nod.
“Okay,” I whisper, turning back to watch the lambs as they stumble around in the overgrown grass.
“Why are there two?” Brooks questions. I don’t know why he would ask such a thing, unless he thinks we should have three?
“Well I couldn’t get just one,” Riley says. “I had to make sure they each had a friend. Figured more than two might be a bit much at first, though.”
He’s so thoughtful, ensuring the lambs aren’t lonely. My sweet beta.
