Page 9 of Second Chance with the Rancher
“Sorry, we won’t be getting sloppy drunk to wallow in your sadness just yet, Minx,” he said as they jogged toward the barn, side-by-side.
Mieka shrugged it off. She hadn’t thought about her shitty life since she heard a mare was in labor. If anything, this was a better distraction than drinking. “Is Callie going to be okay?”
He nodded. “We got Chance out, got him breathing. There was no tearing for her, I checked. It was just a freak circumstance. One out of every ten foals is in a weird position and the mare requires our help getting the baby out. We’re just lucky that we got him out quickly and he started breathing.” He craned his head around to glance back at the new mother and son. Mieka did the same.
“They look perfect,” she mused. “You’d never know the chaos that just was, looking at them now.”
They faced forward again and kept moving.
“Hopefully, this birth is smooth. You up for another one?” he asked.
“This is the most fun and excitement I’ve had in ages. I’m totally game.”
They slowed their roll as they reached the barn and he glanced over and smiled at her. “We’re going to make a rancher out of you yet, Minx. Just you wait.”
Where did those butterflies in her belly come from, and why did the idea of Nate making a rancher out of her, warm her all over?
With another sexy grin, he reached over and grabbed a Stetson off the wall and plunked it on her head. “I knew it. You were made to wear one of these, Minx. Hot as fuck.” Then before she could reply, not that she could untangle her tongue to say anything, he left her melting like a puddle of goo and joined Asher and the others with Hula-Hoop.
Chapter Three
Nate was fucking beat.
Hula-Hoop’s birth had been far less eventful than Callie’s and required no intervention. Thank fuck.
They led her out to another fenced-off portion of the pasture and she birthed a healthy little filly with zero complications.
He let Mieka name this foal, too, and she chose the name Skipper since the filly kept doing a cute little skip rather than a walk or a trot when she first got up and started moving. She was a feisty thing and would make a fine therapy horse in the future.
After making sure all the horses were fed, had water, and that Callie, Chance, Hula-Hoop, Skipper, Greenleigh and Daria were all doing well in their stables, he joined Asher and the two of them headed toward the house.
He knew his brother was bone-tired, too.
Asher wasn’t much of a talker even when he wasn’t exhausted, and even though Nate was fine with or without conversation, he was too bagged to even form a complete thought, let alone a complete sentence, so they crossed the yard in silence.
Mieka had returned to the house to go help Triss with dinner after Hula-Hoop delivered Skipper, and as much as she hadn’t been in the way and he’d enjoyed having her around, he was grateful for the reprieve of her company.
She did funny things to his head.
He hadn’t thought about her in ages—well, that was a lie, he tried not to think about her and had been attempting and failing to do so for ages—and yet, now that she was here, back in his life, on his land, and in his house, all he wanted to do was relive history and their one night together over and over and over again.
He’d been with other women since.
Asher liked to say Nate fell in love with a new woman every Friday night, and although he couldn’t say that he actually fell in love, he did enjoy the company of women and often it was a different one from the previous week.
But Mieka …
Minx.
He’d come up with that nickname last year when they were planning Triss and Asher’s joint bachelorette and bachelor party. Mieka had come to Colorado a week before the wedding to help with planning and organizing. Then the two of them, along with Nate and Asher’s niece Hannah who was Triss’s best friend, the three of them planned a wild day and night in Denver for all of their friends, complete with a stretch Escalade and zip lining.
Asher heaved open the front door, and they stepped inside.
The delicious smell of barbecue wafted up Nate’s nostrils and he nearly collapsed into the wall from how hungry he realized he was.
“Dinner is in ten minutes, boys,” Triss called from the kitchen. “Enough time to scrub the birth goo off your arms and put on some clothes that don’t smell like horse.”
“Everything I own smells like horse,” Asher retorted.
