His boots echoed against the concrete floor of the barn, and he relaxed when he pushed open the doors and stepped onto the grass. Several longhorns loitered nearby. Still there. Still pregnant. Still beautiful.
“Howdy, ladies,” JJ said with a smile, the knot that had lodged itself in his chest loosening somewhat.
Violet lowed at him and lumbered forward. She’d be four years old this spring, and JJ had made the conscious decision not to breed his cattle until they were at least three. He had a few older cows who’d been bred previous to coming to JJ’s ranch, but this was Violet’s first calf.
“How you feelin’?” he asked her as she approached the fence where he stood. She’d been in the first round of breeding and her belly swayed side to side as she lumbered forward. “Maybe you’ll have your calf be the first of the season.”
He grinned at her, several more cows coming toward him now. “I don’t have any apples, ladies.” He chuckled as their protests became louder. “You ate them all this morning, and I haven’t been to Clara Jean’s yet.”
His sister always sent him home with the smaller pieces of fruit, as well as anything bruised or deformed, as she couldn’t put such items on the shelves at Wilde & Organic.
None of the cows were all that happy to see him without apples, but they crowded at the fence, their horns getting in the way. “You guys go on,” he said. “I was just checkin’ in.”
And he needed to get home and do the same with Ruby. He hoped she’d felt well enough to get up and get herself some breakfast. His stomach growled as he turned his back on his longhorns and headed back into the barn.
He could definitely use lunch himself, and he’d eaten breakfast. JJ got behind the wheel of the truck and parked back behind the house, opting to go up the steps there and into the house through the back door.
That introduced him to the kitchen instead of the living room, where he expected to find Ruby.
But she wasn’t there.
“Princess?” he called, swiping his cowboy hat from his head and hanging it on a hook beside the door. The silence in the house didn’t sit right with him, and he added some noice to the place with his boots and by flipping on the kitchen faucet.
He couldn’t even imagine living in a place without water, his thoughts flowing to Brandon and Lenore living out on her homestead. He hadn’t decided if he could make the long drive north to help with the solar tomorrow or not, and he supposed if Ruby was feeling better, his own ranch could spare him for several hours.
He warmed his cold hands with hot water, then shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it onto the back of a dining room chair. “Ruby?” he called.
Still no answer. He moved into the living room, where the ticking of his grandfather’s clock greeted him. But Ruby had not found a napping spot on the couch. It still looked like she’d been there, but that was from her fitful night. He frowned at the wadded up blanket and headed down the hall to the master suite.
Worry curled tighter inside him, especially when he found the bedroom door closed. He’d left it ajar when he’d left for church.
That just means she’s been up, he told himself. He reached it and listened but couldn’t hear anything. Twisting the knob gently, he eased the door open and peeked inside.
Ruby lay in bed, curled on her side with her back to him, her dark auburn hair spilling over her pillow like flames licking toward his side of the bed. He hadn’t made much noise, and she didn’t stir even as he entered the room and walked across the carpet toward her.
“Scarlet,” he murmured as he knelt down in front of her. She was gloriously beautiful in that moment, and JJ didn’t want to wake her. But it was almost noon and they were meant to be at Tate and Clara Jean’s soon.
He reached out and brushed her bangs back from her temple, moving slowly and softly. “Ruby?” he asked again. “It’s probably time to wake up, Princess.”
She blinked her eyes open slowly, a sleepy smile lifting one corner of her mouth. “Hey,” she whispered, her voice raspy.
“You’re still feeling that bad?” he asked, rising to perch on the edge of the bed, his hand now resting on her back. “What can I get you?”
“I’m just tired,” she said.
“Did you manage to eat anything?”
“Only a little yogurt,” she whispered. She’d awakened fully, and her eyes shone with a light JJ had seen before. She freed her arm from beneath the blanket and reached for something on her nightstand. “Jay, there’s something….”
She picked up an object and handed it to him. JJ looked at the white object in his hand, knowing exactly what it was though he’d never seen one before.
A pregnancy test.
“Are the—there’s two lines on this.” He looked at his wife, his eyebrows practically flying off his forehead. “What does—I don’t know what that means.”
Ruby grinned at him, and hope mingled with adrenaline inside him. He didn’t dare believe his lovely wife would be pregnant with his baby, but he wanted that so badly. They hadn’t exactly been trying to get pregnant, but they hadn’t been trying not to.
She put her hand over his and gently turned his hand over. The key to the test sat there, and JJ sucked in a breath. It only added to the knot in his chest, which somehow slid down and took root in his stomach.
