Mia sat up a little straighter, and her eyes widened. “I knew there was something between y’all. I just knew it. He looks at you like…” She started on another cookie.
“Like what?” Stevie asked.
“Like Daddy did and still does at Mama,” Mia asked. “Now I want to hear the rest of the story.”
Stevie told her a little bit of the story, ending with it was all probably just an infatuation. “I bet that’s what you had with Ricky, right?”
“Probably,” Mia said, “but it felt real at the time.”
“So did what I felt,” Stevie said, “but it wasn’t real love. You are smarter than I am. You’re not letting your experience define who you are, but be careful that you don’t let it ruin any potential relationships you might be destined for.”
Mia was quiet for several minutes, as if she was letting what Stevie had said soak into her heart and soul. “What did he say when you talked to him last night?”
“We decided that we should be just friends, and I’m not angry with him anymore. After all, we’ve got a lot in common, and we have to be together for a few days until the roads are clear. It would be better to be friends than to be enemies right now, don’t you think?”
Stevie’s phone rang before Mia could answer. She picked it up and said, “Hello, Gracie. Is Fifi happier now?”
“Poor little darlin’ is tuckered out from her walk, and so am I,” Gracie answered. “We’re both cuddled up under a blanket in my recliner and watching game shows on television. Getting out is just what she needed. Now, let’s talk about this thing with you being out there with Cody Ryan. You know that folks are already talking, don’t you?”
“I can’t help that or the fact that trees are down,” Stevie answered. “I’m just glad that I’m not stuck on the side of a backcountry road with two flat tires in that blizzard anymore.”
“Bless your heart,” Gracie said. “I guess it could have been worse. Commercial is over. Back to my show. Thank you for taking care of my Fifi.”
“You are so welcome.” Stevie ended the call.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping, but Gracie has one of those voices that carries halfway to the barn when she talks. So, there’s gossip?” Mia grinned.
“Isn’t there always?” Stevie asked. “That’s part of living in a small town.”
“But neither of us want to live in the big city again, do we?” Mia asked.
“You got that right. A toast to small towns.” Stevie held up a cookie.
Mia tapped hers against Stevie’s. “And to a new friend that isn’t a stranger anymore.”
“Amen,” Stevie agreed.
Chapter Ten
Come on, Mama, you can do this,” Stevie crooned to the heifer that was trying to deliver her first calf. “I know it’s a bad time, and you didn’t want to bring a baby into the world when it might freeze, but you’re in the barn now. I don’t want to have to pull your calf. It will be healthier for both of you if you do this on your own.”
She felt Cody’s presence long before she glanced over her shoulder and saw him peeking over the top rail of the stall. Infatuation or not, he still made her pulse race just like it did when she was fifteen years old. But Stevie couldn’t be distracted by her emotions when she was on the job, not even by Cody Ryan.
“You always talk to the animals?” he asked.
“Do you talk to your patients?” she shot back at him.
“Of course, but they answer me,” Cody answered.
“So do mine.” She rubbed the heifer’s heaving sides when she contracted again. “She’s saying that she likes for me to be here, that she trusts me to make the right decisions, and…all right, Mama, I see hooves. You are doing good. One more big push and we’ll have a baby on the ground.”
“I’d forgotten that calving season started in January,” Cody said.
“This is one of those unusual winters that come along every hundred years. It’s not normally so cold at this time.” Stevie was all over the place the second the calf was born, but once the mama was on her feet and washing the new baby, she stepped out of the stall. “What was I saying?”
“That you’re a hundred years old,” Cody teased.
“I look pretty damn good to be that old, don’t I?” No way was Cody getting ahead of her, not when she had a healthy calf on the ground, and a heifer that was doing what she was supposed to do without any coaxing.
“Oh, honey…” Cody laid a hand over his heart.
Was he flirting? She was prepared for bantering, even arguing, but not flirting.
“What I was saying is…” She tried willing her pulse to slow down, but it didn’t work, so she took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and went on, “That the rest of this week is going to be a real trial for you and Jesse. With a herd the size of what you’re running, you could see half a dozen calves dropped every day. January is always cold, and babies can survive in normal cold, but this is far from our usual winter weather. They’ll have trouble in ice, snow, and below-freezing temperatures. I’d suggest that you put up some temporary panels and turn this whole barn into stalls. Tomorrow or the next day this lady and her baby could probably be turned out into the corral, but you could need extra places for newborns for a couple of days.”
“You’re the doc,” Cody said. “Jesse and I’ll get busy bringing the panels and gates in from one of the other barns. Maybe you should start riding with us tomorrow morning.”
“I told you, I’m more than willing to help,” Stevie said. “We’ve got a while before supper. Mind if I take one of the four-wheelers and drive through the pasture while y’all put up some temporary stalls?”
“Keys are hanging inside the door of the tack room. Call me if you run into trouble,” Cody said.
Stevie grabbed her coat from the stall gate and patted the pocket. “I won’t be out that long. I just want to take a look at the pregnant cows. I’ll be back in time for supper.”
Cody nodded and was talking to Jesse on the phone when Stevie fired up one of the four-wheelers parked over against the wall. She drove it around her pitiful-looking van, which was leaning to the side because of its flat tires, and stopped at the barn door. Before she could shut off the engine, Cody had jogged over and slid the door open for her.
“Thanks,” she yelled over the noise of the vehicle.
Freedom! she thought as she shifted into gear and headed around the barn. The cold wind bit into her face. When she reached the gate leading into the pasture where the herd milled about, she stopped the four-wheeler and opened the heavy gate. “This is why you always bring backup,” she muttered. “That way someone else can take care of gates.”
The cold wind practically took her breath away as she drove around the edge of the pasture. Any cows about to deliver would find a secluded spot, maybe close to a mesquite thicket. She didn’t see any, but she did see a pack of coyotes tearing across the next pasture over, and there were tracks right up to the fence line.
“Where’s a donkey when you need one?” Stevie asked. “Or Tex, for that matter?”