Page 10 of Roping Her In

If she’d expected something different, she hadn’t texted him, and he startled when Hartford asked, “Jake? You okay?”

“Yes,” he said automatically. “I’m fine. I….”

A clap of thunder filled the room, and it rolled through the sky. Jake looked up at the ceiling and then let his eyes roll up and around. “Great,” he said, though he checked the weather religiously and had seen the forecast for today. For this whole week.

“I guess the thirty-five percent chance of rain is happening now,” Hartford said, and Jake forced himself to focus on the man.

“It should clear up by eleven,” he said. “Once we have the horses back where they belong, Leia, you and Hailey will head over to Bowman’s Breeds. Brynn and Tim have an entire stable that need their hooves checked.”

“You got it,” Leia said.

“And Hartford, you and Patrick can start on the herd after the horses have been assessed and put away.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Make sure the interns know what we’re looking for: cold stressors for horses and cattle, hoof and lower-leg damage from prolonged moisture—though we should be past that.”

“Sometimes cuts or punctures hide behind mud,” Leia said, and she wasn’t wrong.

Jake nodded. “Any developing infections, respiratory trouble, contaminated feed or water, or any injuries, weird walking, packed frogs, you guys know what to look for.”

The flooding had happened about mid-day on Friday, and it had been all cowhands on deck to get the horses moved to drier conditions. Still, some of them had been standing in water, mud, and debris for a couple of hours at least, and while Courage Reins was a big operation, it had taken a couple of days to clean some of the equines.

Jake yawned, because he’d been working from dawn until dusk and then some. His regular veterinary duties had been shirked unless downright impossible to do so—like the thick of birthing season he found himself in. That really was a twenty-four-seven job, and as more and more calves came due, he’d asked the full-time cowboys living here at the ranch to be on-call with him any time of day or night.

In fact, Hartford finished nodding over Jake’s list of ailments to instruct the interns on and said, “I’ve got my bags in my truck. Should I put them in your cabin before they get here?”

“Yep.” Jake stood. “Leia? You sure you don’t want to move out here for a few weeks?”

She grinned and shook her head. “I can’t.”

Hartford grinned at her as he got to his feet. “Yeah, she’ll miss that new husband of hers too much.”

Leia laughed too, but she shook her head as she joined them leaving the office. “It’s not just that….”

Jake detected something in her voice, and he looked over his shoulder as they went down the hall in a line. Out in the main area of the building, when the space opened up, he waited for Leia to join him and Hartford. “What is it then?”

She looked at him with wide eyes, filled with…hope? Fear? Both?

“I’m pregnant, Jake.”

He pulled in a breath but otherwise had no words, no good reaction.

“I’m not due until the end of June, so it’s obviously very early, but I don’t want to…Fox and I agreed that I wouldn’t come live out here this year during birthing season.”

“Of course not,” Hartford said. “That’s great news, Leia.” He swept her into his arms. “Congratulations.”

She grinned and hugged him back, and when he set her on her feet, Jake too grinned at her. “Yeah, congrats, Leia.” He leaned closer, shooting a glance toward the door of the admin building as it opened.

Hailey Winters walked in, this time wearing a navy blue coat that somehow made his mouth drier than the festive red one had.

He did his best to ignore her, though his pulse positively pounded through his whole body now, as if he was attending his younger brother’s drum corps performance—which had taken place in the high school gym. Talk about reverberating beats and off-the-charts noise.

“You let me know if you need a break, can’t do something, whatever.” He drew his gaze back to hers and raised his eyebrows. “The last thing I need is your physical trainer husband upset with me.”

Leia tipped her head back and laughed, but Jake wasn’t joking. She knew he wasn’t joking, but Leia—at barely five feet—wasn’t scared of her over-six-feet-tall husband. Well, Jake was, thank you very much.

“I’ll let you know,” she said.