“Oh, no.”
“They’re both fine now,” Elise said. “We did have to take them to the ER, though, to get X-rays to make sure that nobody broke or sprained anything. They knocked each other halfway down the stairs.”
Trish gasped. “But they’re okay?”
Elise nodded. “Nurse Sue and Livvy checked them out for us.”
Trish smiled. “Like they checked me out when I thought I was in labor.” Her forehead creased. “Nurse Sue reminds me of someone…”
“Who?” Elise asked.
“Nolan Stokes,” she said. “They both have those very pale blue, almost silver eyes.”
Elise’s eyes widened as she remembered the man. And she also remembered what Sue had once confided in her. Was it possible…?
She shook her head, unwilling to let herself speculate or gossip about the woman who’d trusted her with such a personal secret. She focused on her mother again. “My mom might need to find a placement for one of those foster girls.” She glanced at the bunkhouse and the barn. “Or maybe a summer job. Working here would be great for some of those kids, give them a real purpose.”
Trish smiled. “A real purpose. That’s what it feels like to me, too.”
“I see how much it means to you,” Elise said. “And I think it will be great.”
“I have more planned than the petting zoo,” Trish said. “I want to have hayrides and scavenger hunts and horseback riding lessons for the kids. I’ll need help for all that.”
“You have it,” Elise said. “I’ll do what I can, and I know the others will, too. Even Brett and Frankie.”
“I think Frankie will leave soon,” Trish said.
“Back to the road,” Elise murmured, but she wasn’t so sure that Frankie would be able to tear herself away from the ranch. It was her last connection with the man she’d loved like a father, her uncle Frank. “But Brett isn’t going anywhere.”
Trish didn’t look relieved over that comment, though. She looked concerned. Was she worried about Brett taking over when it was so clear that the kids’ camps were her babies?
Or was she worried about falling for the determined-to-stay-single bachelor cowboy?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After that awkwardmorning when Trish had realized Brett had waited up for her, he’d been careful to keep his distance from her. He only went near the bunkhouse and the petting zoo barn when she was in the house or off somewhere with Frankie or Maci or Elise. He didn’t want her to worry that he was getting too involved with her or attached or interested.
But he was beginning to worry that he was, because even though he hadn’t seen her that often over the past couple of weeks, he thought about her all the time. Keeping his distance wasn’t working for him at all.
Maybe if he just checked in and had a real conversation with her, he would be able to stop worrying about her and about himself. So once he returned from the pastures, he took care of his horse and was just about to leave the barn when he noticed the wagon with hay bales on it.
Except it didn’t just have hay bales on it. A certain curly-haired woman sat on the back among the bales with one black kitten on her lap and the other on the hay bale behind her.
Had that wagon just come back from the fields? The tractor was still hooked to the front of it. And then it began to move. As it jerked forward, Trish slid off one bale and onto another, and she scrambled to hold on to the kittens, as if worried they might fall off.
Brett was more worried about her. And those babies.
His heart pounding madly, he ran to catch up to the wagon, then grabbed on to the edge to hoist himself up and onto it. He fell across the straw that had come loose from the bales. Then he scrambled up to wrap his arms around Trish, holding on to her as she held on to the kittens. “Are you all right?” he asked with concern. He tried to peer over the hay to see who was driving the tractor. “What’s going on? Don’t they know you’re on here?”
He couldn’t imagine anyone would have driven off with her sitting on the back like this. She could fall off so easily.
“Of course they know,” she replied. “This is a test run for the hayrides we want to have.”
He shuddered. “Not we. This isn’t a good idea, Trish.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking about the hayrides or the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, holding her so close that she had to feel the pounding of his heart.
“What do you have against hayrides?” she asked.
“Liability,” he said. “Kids could fall off.”
