He jolted, startled by her presence. “Oh, Kyra, good morning. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“You did, but that’s OK.” She smiled down at him. “My alarm was going to go off in half an hour anyway.”
“My apologies,” he said, turning back to his work.
She chuckled and moved closer. “I’ll only forgive you on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You have to tell me what you’re making. I can’t figure it out.”
“Well, you know how I went to town for supplies the other day?” he said. She nodded, and he began hammering again while he explained the situation. “I picked up some eggs.”
“Eggs?” No chance he was talking about breakfast.
“Chicken eggs,” he clarified, which was not much of a clarification in her opinion. “Fertilized ones.”
“Oh!” That made more sense. “So, you’re going to hatch them?”
He turned back to her and smiled, and she couldn’t help catching that smile with her whole heart, like it meant something more. “No,” he said. “You are.”
“Me?” She pointed to her chest. “Oh, I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m not sure I’m qualified.”
“That’s why I’m going to show you what to do. They’re in an incubator. You really just have to turn them and keep an eye on them.”
She sighed like she was relieved. “Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to sit on them or something.”
Adam laughed and then asked her the question he always asked when they had spent their mornings separately. “Did you eat breakfast?”
“Not yet,” she admitted.
He shook his head at her and stood, placing his hand on the small of her back to gently guide her back to the house. “Come on. If you’re not nauseated anymore, you have to eat. I can’t have my hired hand passing out in the middle of the workday.”
That was typical of him, too. He always tried to act like his concern for her was business-related, when it was obvious he was really concerned about Kyra and the baby. She decided to let him wear whatever mask he chose for as long as he needed it. She was simply grateful he was staying by her side for one reason or another.
He led her back to the main house and sat her down at the dining room table. “What kind of breakfast do you want? And don’t you dare try to convince me you’re not hungry.”
In the past, Kyra had tried to argue with him. She hadn’t wanted him to hover over her and look after her as though she were his wife. If he did, she worried her hopes would eventually be crushed. She had taken her mother’s advice in that respect, at least a little. But now, after the crib and the parenting book, she was feeling like her hopes were not completely unfounded.
Little by little, she had begun to picture a future with him. So now, when he asked what she wanted for breakfast, she comfortably answered, “Oh, eggs on toast, please.” Then she quickly added, “But not the fertilized ones. Thank you.”
He laughed and fixed her breakfast. When she was finished eating, they both went outside and got some work done on Adam’s new project, which turned out to be a chicken coop.
“I wanted to be ready for springtime,” he explained. “There’ll be a place inside for the chicks over the winter.” He turned and smiled at her. “And I’m counting on you to look after them.”
Kyra had to wonder if he wasn’t giving her all the best jobs to keep her from running off as soon as the baby was born. Taking care of an adorable colt and newly hatched chicks seemed like the kind of job she might have dreamed up as a child, something her mother would have had to explain wasn’t a real job. But it was a real job. And Kyra had nabbed it somehow.
“How do you look after baby chicks?” she asked.
“I’ll teach you,” he said. “It’s mostly cleaning up after them and regulating temperature, keeping an eye on their health. That sort of thing.”
They chatted a bit more about Stormy and the future coop, all the while working without needing to say much about the work itself. Together, they operated in perfect sync. She knew when to hand Adam what he needed when he needed it. All he had to do was hold out a hand, and she’d put the right tool into it. Their ease in working together, in just being together even, gave Kyra more reason to hope.
Kyra tookher job of looking after the eggs seriously. She checked them even more regularly than she needed to because she was so excited to see them hatch. It only barely occurred toher that part of the reason she was doing this job was to keep her away from some of the more strenuous activities on the ranch. If this was a perk of being pregnant, she wasn’t going to fight it. Why say no to a good thing?
One day, she started hearing little peeps coming from two of the eggs, and she got ridiculously excited. She immediately texted Adam to let him know. He texted her back to tell her not to count her chickens before they were hatched. It was the most literal use of that saying she’d ever heard, which made her laugh. Then he told her to keep her hopes in check; they may not all hatch successfully, and they were most certainly going to take longer to do it than she expected them to.
She replied,You sound exactly like my mother, with no explanation whatsoever.
