“Shit,” he said, setting the bottle on the table. “Shit. What are we gonna do?”
“Lucy’s coming to the ranch tomorrow. She’s gonna talk over a treatment protocol with us so that we can nip this in the bud and get them better.”
I saw his hands still where they’d been in the process of running over and over the bottle. “Lucy’s coming over tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” I said, raising my eyebrow a little. “And on Christmas Eve, with her family.”
“Oh,” he said, his voice going just a little higher than it usually did. “That’s cool. It’ll be good to have her insight.”
His voice seemed just a little too studied, too casual. Especially when considering how his eyes seemed to light up with an interest that I’d seen all too rarely when he’d talked about women in the past. Back then, the casual tones he’d always used to talk about women had always been real.
The guilt that I hadn’t initially felt after jerking off to my fantasy of Lucy began to set in. Aaron had a history of putting himself last, and I wasn’t about to be the reason why he did that again.
10
AARON
I checked the load of special feed that had just been delivered to the ranch, checking off every box on my order form to ensure that we’d gotten everything that we’d ordered. Austin had gone a little bit nuts a few weeks before, insisting that we start getting better feed with the weather turning, and with our own stores of home-grown straw having dwindled low, I’d wound up agreeing that it would be a worthwhile investment.
“Yep, I think that that’s all of it,” I said, signing the invoice before handing it back to the delivery driver and shaking his hand. I couldn’t help feeling a little bit nervous whenever I got new food to give the animals, especially the mares. Keeping these animals happy and healthy was my ultimate concern, and I just wanted to ensure that our girls got was the best of the best.
Breeding animals was no joke, especially when some of your clients had paid money years in advance to have a horse specifically bred, so that they could enter into the Kentucky Derby, or even overseas at Ascot. And now that both Sage and Rosie were showing symptoms of founder.
I shook my head as I started loading the feed onto the tractor that Andy had fixed a few days before. They would be fine. There was no other option.
I was pulled up short at the sound of a vehicle pulling up to the fence, and my heart gave a painful, echoing thud when I saw Lucy climbing out of the truck. Her golden hair was in its usual ponytail, but the top of her head was hidden under the black knit beanie she had on over her ears. She gave me a smile as she pulled out her veterinary bag. The thudding in my heart was echoed all the way down to my toes. I tried to keep my smile to a normal size as I waved back at her in return. I didn’t want to freak her out too badly, as there was no reason why I should be that happy to see her.
“Did I just see the Green Seeds delivery truck driving away?” she said as she walked forward, pulling a second heavy bag after her.
I nodded. “Yeah. We’ve never used them before, so I’ve been a little nervous about trying them out, but Austin persuaded me to go with a new supplier.”
She smiled at me again, this time a little bit more gently. “You feeling a little nervous about feeding them something new?”
“Did going to vet school make you a psychic or something?”
She laughed. “No, but you look insanely tense right now. They’re a great supplier. I actually recommend them to a lot of new livestock owners, so I don’t think that you could go with anyone better.”
Her words helped soothe the unwanted nervousness that I felt growing in my belly, and I nodded back at her. “Thanks for saying that.”
“I think it’s just a mark of being a responsible animal owner to be concerned to try something new. You want to know that your animals are going to be safe with what you’re going to be feeding them.”
I smiled wider at her when I heard the words and reached around her to grab the large bag of supplies that she’d brought with her. “These for Sage and Rosie?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Are they in the close barn?”
“Yep. We set up some blanket supports for their ankles in the meantime until you could get here.” I loaded the stuff onto the tractor before taking her by the hand and helping her up into the front seat.
“We can walk, you know,” she said. “I’ve lugged heavier stuff further distances than this.”