“We’ve gotta be quiet,” Morgan said in a low voice. “Ruby is real nervous.”
His heart thumping, Alex walked carefully toward the large stall where he saw his mom and Jackson with an Appaloosa mare. She was mostly white with black spots, which was kind of opposite to Thunder, who was mostly black with white spots on his butt and face. In the corner of the stall another man was examining a baby horse.
“Shoot,” Morgan whispered. “She already foaled.”
Alex blinked. “It looks as if they’re trying to keep the baby away from its mother.”
“Well, yeah,” Morgan agreed. “The foal sometimes fusses at the mom when she’s still hurting from the birth, so you gotta try to help her not get upset.”
“Wow,” Sandy said. “I thought horses loved their babies right off.”
“Some do,” one of the hands told them as he walked by carrying a nursing bottle. “But Ruby is a first-time mom, and she’s taking a while to get the hang of it.”
“Can’t the mother feed her baby?” Keri asked as the man with the bottle started giving it to the foal.
“Just being careful,” Jackson said, looking up and smiling. “We’re giving it colostrum, to help with protection against germs and such.”
“What’s coloster...whatever?” DeeDee breathed.
“It’s something the baby gets when it nurses right off,” Morgan explained. “But you can buy it, and we don’t take chances with our foals.”
Alex wished he’d been there to see the foal come, even though it might have been as gross as seeing the lamb born on his church youth group trip. The next time he visited the ranch... He stopped suddenly, startled. Whoa. He actually wanted to come back?
Go figure.
* * *
JACKSON WAS DETERMINED to keep things friendly with Kayla—no fights, and no challenges to the status quo.
He wanted more time with her, but it was a commodity in short supply; she’d soon be driving away. It was disturbing because Alex should be his first and only thought in connection to the Anderson family’s departure.
They left the five kids in the barn and returned to the house. Flora had gone shopping, but there were sandwich makings in the fridge for lunch. He pulled everything out and bantered back and forth with Kayla as to whether French rolls or sourdough bread was better.
“I’ll concede that since you can’t get the best sourdough away from the West Coast, French rolls are probably best in Montana,” Kayla finally said.
“We have sourdough bread in Montana.”
She didn’t have a chance to retort; the kids arrived and descended on the sandwiches like a pack of starving wolves.
“The new baby is awesome,” DeeDee declared. “I wish I could have seen him getting born.”
“Maybe another visit,” Jackson told her.
“What are you going to name it?” Alex asked.
Jackson shrugged. “Not sure yet. Do you have something in mind?”
“There was an eclipse last night, so how about that?”
“Eclipse?” Sandy repeated. “That’s a racehorse name, not a cow pony.”
“Maybe he’ll be a racehorse,” Alex argued.
“Eclipse is a good name, no matter what he turns out to be,” Jackson said firmly.
Jackson thought Kayla seemed to be avoiding looking at him, but he couldn’t be sure. She wanted to leave early so they could spend the rest of the day with her grandparents but waited while the youngsters properly groomed the horses they’d ridden and mucked out the stables.
She finally got them into the car around four and waved absentmindedly as she drove away.
Looking at Morgan, Jackson saw her shoulders slump.
“Something up?” he asked. “You seem a little funky.”
“I’m going to miss Alex, that’s all.”
He sighed. “Me, too. It’s been great having him here.”
“Yeah, but at least you’ve got a son now.”
Turning she went back into the house and Jackson stared at the door, instantly ready to chew nails. He had to remind himself that he hadn’t truly expected all of Morgan’s issues to be resolved in one conversation.
Well, he wasn’t letting it go the way he’d let too many other things slide by with her. He strode through the house and found her in the backyard, petting Cory.
“Okay, we’re going to have this out right now,” he announced. “Do you really think I appreciate Alex more than you because he’s a boy?”
His jaw clenched when she wouldn’t even look at him. “I don’t know. But you wanted a boy. Mom said so. She told me that you wanted her to get fat and ugly again, and she wasn’t about to do it just so you’d have the son you wanted.”