She climbs up next to him. “What does muck out mean?”
“Have you ever noticed that the animals poop in the barn?”
“Yeah. That’s gross.”
“It sure is. Well, we’re the dumb humans who clean up after them. Muck out means to pull out all the straw and poop.”
“I don’t want that job.” She gives him a stern look. “Ever.”
“You’re a city girl, just like your mama.”
“She’s never lived a day in her life in the city,” I murmur, smiling.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s in her blood. She’s a princess. And that’s all right. Leave the stall mucking to me, I suppose. And I’ll buy you popsicles, too.”
“But not banana.”
“Nope. Just pink popsicles for a perfect princess.”
She likes that so much. She kicks her feet, and they happily finish their popsicles together before she goes running off to the chicken coop to tell Luna all about banana popsicles.
“Don’t encourage her to be a princess,” I murmur after he gives me a lemony kiss.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want her to be spoiled.”
“That is going to be hard. I want her to be incredibly spoiled. We should argue about this all night. Once I finish baling.”
“Go.” I push him in the direction of the field. “And then come back.”
“Always.”
The heat breaks again, as quickly as it spiked. Summers in Alberta are funny that way. And then the first raspberries are ready to pick.
“We can addcheck raspberry bushto our daily tasks,” Luna says. “Just to see if we have any to harvest. Or to eat for a second breakfast. And you know, if you pick some of the leaves and dry them, they make an excellent tea for pregnant women.”
She says it as an aside. She doesn’t look at me as she says it, or after.
But it sends a jolt up my spine anyway.
“I think your mother knows,” I tell Zane that night.
“Really?” He seems unbothered. “She’s going to be so happy, I promise.”
“I want to believe you. Idobelieve you, of course,” I hasten to add. “She’s your mom and she’s always loved you and your brothers through a lot of ups and downs. But if Bellamy told me that she’d taken up with someone quickly, I’d be concerned. If I then found out that person was already pregnant?”
“Okay, when you say it like that…” He catches my fingers in his and pulls them to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “We’ll tell her tomorrow. And if she already figured it out, then she’s waiting for us to share in our time, and that’s a good sign.”
But in the morning, Luna is awhirlwind, unableto be pinned down for a conversation. And then she starts a big painting project with Bellamy that looks incredibly messy.
My daughter is thrilled.
And so is Zane, who suggests we sneak away for a lunch date.
“I got you something,” he says before I excuse myself to get dressed.
I follow him to the library, where a boot box is sitting on his desk. This box ismuchnicer than the bag he pulled rubber boots out of.
