Page 26 of Snowed In with the Rancher
“This is just the best possible Christmas present I ever could have wished for. She’s perfect, isn’t she?” Worry edged her tone. What if there was something wrong with the foal?
“She is,” he confirmed. “Would you like to name her?”
Triss sucked in a breath. “Me?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“I … how do you name a horse?”
“Same way you name a human, just with a bit more license for creativity. I’m okay with a horse name Hula-Hoop, but if a kid comes to our ranch camp in the summer with that name, I’m calling child protective services.” He cracked a half-smile that took him from handsome to dangerously gorgeous.
The foal trotted over to where they knelt and gently head-butted Asher. “Hmm, little filly. What’s your name?”
“Filly … hmmm. Tilly the Filly?” Triss mused, lifting a brow at him. “It’s cute.”
He patted the filly on her neck. “Is your name Tilly, little one?” As if to say that calling her by any other name was ridiculous, the foal leaped away in a sort of weird sideways hop and trotted back to her mother.
“Tilly the Filly it is,” Asher said with a full-watt smile, turning to face Triss. “I like it.”
Triss grinned back at him. “Thank you for allowing me to help. This has been an amazing experience.”
“I should have woke you up when I saw she was in labor, but I just … thought you were sleeping.” He scratched at the back of his neck and broke their eye contact, a subtle ruddy color bloomed under his scruff.
“I’m sorry if you heard my sisters react to you coming in from the hot tub. The youngest one has no filter. It’s an ongoing issue.”
He snorted and that half-smile was back, causing the sleepy butterflies in her belly to wake up and start flying around in a disorganized fashion. “No problem. They … she sounds like a handful.”
“More like a bucketful, but yes.”
“Listen, you go get some sleep,” he said, standing up with a slight groan.
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to stay out here and make sure she passes the placenta. Both mom and foal should be monitored for the first twenty-four hours, so I’ll just bring a blanket and stay out here until morning. Done it before, used to it.”
She shook her head. “No. I want to stay.”
“You don’t have to. You’re not a rancher, this isn’t your job.”
“Does it have to be for me to want to help?”
His eyes formed thin slits as he gazed at her thoughtfully, but eventually, he just shrugged. “Okay. I’ll go get you a blanket.”
She beamed at him, proud of herself for standing her ground and wearing down the big grumpy rancher.
By the time he got back with blankets, and what appeared to be a thermos of tea, Carolina had passed the placenta.
Although she wanted to help, Triss knew better than to step out of place too much, so she didn’t touch the placenta or cord. Asher used a shovel to scoop it all up and took it out into the barn to deal with, so she settled into the straw, her butt on the cold, hard ground, and with a blanket over her legs, she leaned her head against the barn wall and closed her eyes.
She didn’t expect to fall asleep, given the excitement of the day, but when a warm, soft little body pressed against her thigh and she opened her eyes a crack to find Tilly curled up beside her, Carolina on the other side of her foal, a sense of overwhelming peace washed over Triss and she smiled.
Her life and heart might be in shambles, but this moment right here, was perfect and she was going to hang on to it for as long as she possibly could.
Chapter Ten
Up until that moment, Asher would argue until he was blue in the face that love wasn’t in the cards for him or that the concept of love even existed at all.
But coming around the corner and seeing Triss sitting on the floor of the stall with Tilly beside her and Carolina beside Tilly made his heart constrict in his chest and warmth spool through him.
