Love Inspired June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: The Cowboy's Homecoming\The Amish Widow's Secret\Safe in the Fireman's Arms (9 page)

In spite of the circumstances, the grim look on her pretty face made him smile. He was fairly sure she would be mighty sore tomorrow.

Finally the trees broke open and he could see the ranch in the distance. The gate was ahead and he made quick work of opening it.

“Can you close the gates behind you?” he called out as he rode through it.

All he heard was a faint yes and that was enough for him. He stepped up the pace, still supporting the calf, who now had its eyes closed, as if it had given up.

He got through the second gate, then rode Bandit to the barn, dismounted, made quick work of tying his horse up and brought the newborn calf into the barn. A quick glance around the yard showed him that both his father and John were gone. He was on his own.

Calving pens lined the walls of the barn on both sides, and Lee brought the calf into the first pen, closest to the door. In spite of the warmth outside, it was cool and dark in here and, unfortunately, there was no straw in the pen.

“Sorry, little guy,” he crooned, laying the calf down on the pitted wooden floor. “I'll fix this up in a minute.” He ran out of the pen and down the dirt-packed alley to the back of the barn. He heard panting and looked down to see Sugar, trotting alongside him, appearing curious.

“Got a sick calf,” he said to the dog as he grabbed a straw bale from a stack at the back of the barn. He heaved it up by the strings and carried it, one-handed, back to the pen. Sugar, hot on his heels, followed him inside. Lee didn't think the calf would even notice, so he just left the dog be.

Lee busted out the bale, sprinkled it around, nested it around the calf and then rushed out the door.

Almost running smack into Abby.

“What else do you need to do?” she asked breathlessly. “How can I help?”

“We need to get some colostrum into that calf as soon as possible. Can you sit with him and hold his head up? I'll be back in a few minutes. The calf is in the first pen to your left, just inside the door.”

Then he hurried away, racing to the room off the barn. Sugar looked from him to Abby as if unsure of who to follow but then, for some reason, turned and trotted back into the barn.

Lee yanked open the cupboard doors above the sink. Thankfully everything was all in the same place. Plastic bags of colostrum powder on one side neatly stacked. Bottles and tubes on the other all clean and ready to go. A few minutes later, he was hurrying to the barn with a warm pail of the colostrum and the other supplies tucked under his arm.

Please, Lord, don't let that calf be dead
, he prayed as he scooted into the barn.

He heard a rustle of straw as he burst into the pen. Abby sat on the floor, the calf's head on her lap. Sugar was sitting in the doorway, head cocked to one side, watching Abby stroking the calf's side, singing softly. She looked up when Lee came in and he saw a flush darken her cheeks, making the faint sprinkling of freckles across her nose stand out even more.

He stopped and stared. She looked beautiful, sitting there, the light from the window behind her slanting across her face, illuminating her hair.

Then he shook his reaction off.

“We need to get this into him right away,” he said, turning his attention back to the calf. “Can you hold this steady?”

She nodded, taking the large plastic bottle from him. He carefully poured in some of the milk, took the bottle from her and screwed on the oversize nipple.

“Okay, we need to get him up on his haunches,” he instructed.

She didn't balk at picking up the calf and followed his orders, shifting the calf so it was perched on its back legs, front ones straight down in front of him. Lee opened its mouth with his finger and quickly slid the nipple inside. It immediately popped to the other side of its mouth. The calf had barely the strength to suck.

“I think he's too weak,” he muttered, running his finger along the outside of the calf's throat, trying to encourage him to start swallowing, which would stimulate the sucking reflex.

After ten minutes of frustration, Lee could see they weren't getting anywhere and the calf was slowly going down. They were running out of time.

“Now what?” Abby whispered, stroking the calf's sides.

Lee could see she was genuinely distressed and he gave her a reassuring smile. “Now we try tube-feeding it. You'll need to lay him down to help me with this.” He set the bottle down and got the bag and tube ready. “I hope you're okay with this.”

“I'll do what needs to be done,” Abby declared. She looked grim, but she seemed game.

“Good girl,” he said, clipping the tube and opening up the heavy plastic bag attached to it. “Pour the rest of the milk in here.” Once it was filled, he sealed it off, then rinsed off the long, hard stick attached to the tube. “Can you hold this while I get him up again?”

Abby took the bag and tube as Lee straddled the calf, got him up.

“For now, just hold up the bag,” he said to her. “And hand me the tube attached to it.”

“What are you doing?” she asked as he opened the calf's mouth and slowly eased the solid portion of the tube down.

“The calf is too weak to suck, so the only way we're going to get any kind of nutrition into him is to get a tube directly into his stomach and give him the milk that way.”

Abby grimaced but continued holding the bag as Lee gently inserted the tube. He blew out his breath, listening to the calf. It was breathing properly, so all was well. “Now undo the clip—slowly,” he told Abby.

Minutes later the bag was empty and Lee gently removed the tube. He laid the calf down and stroked its head. “Way to go, little guy,” he murmured, easing out a relieved sigh.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Wait.” Then he stood up. “And for now, I need to tend to the horses.”

“I'll stay here,” Abby said, looking down at the calf, her hand on its side. “Keep an eye on him.”

“You don't mind?”

“Not at all. I feel invested in the adventure now, and it will give me some fantastic material for my story. Lee Bannister, rescuer of the weak and helpless.”

He shot her a bemused look as he gathered up the supplies, wondering if she was being sarcastic, but her expression was serious. “I'm just glad you saw him. You had as much to do with this rescue as I did.”

“This little adventure was an eye-opener,” she admitted. “In more ways than one.”

Lee held her steady gaze, hearing a subtext to her words. “If you're referring to what I said about my regrets, you need to know I was sincere.”

“I got that.”

Her pretty amber eyes were still locked on him and he couldn't look away. Nor did he want to. Old emotions and attractions, simmering beneath the surface ever since he saw her again, rose, sifting into the moment.

“I wish things were different for us,” he said thickly, the words spilling out before he could filter them.

Her eyes widened, her lips parted and he heard a faint intake of her breath. Then she tore her gaze away, looking down at the calf, who was now asleep.

He turned to leave. He shouldn't have put that on her, but just as he closed the door of the pen behind him, he thought he heard a faintly whispered “Me too.”

Chapter Seven

A
bby squeezed her lips together, her heart pounding in her chest. She hoped, yes, even prayed, that Lee hadn't heard her whispered confession.

What had made her say that? Her own regrets at how things had turned out between them? But what did she have to regret and why was she still mulling that over all these years later?

Abby stroked the calf, looking down at the poor, bedraggled creature. Seeing Lee working with him was shocking on one level and yet, at the same time, she saw a man deeply concerned with the life of this helpless creature.

And that, in itself, was creating a quieting in her soul and opening up the doors she thought she had firmly shut on her memories of Lee.

Silly girl
, she thought.
Still can't outgrow that high school crush.

On the other hand, she knew it was something more than a crush. Abby had never been the kind of girl who dated unintentionally. She had promised herself, as a young woman, that if she went out with someone, it would be with serious intent. Since high school she'd only dated one other man, and she was the one who ended that relationship because she was gone so much.

“Kind of a sad situation, isn't it?” she cooed to the calf, stroking it once more. Since they had fed it the poor creature hadn't moved. Abby wondered, with a start, if it was even still alive. She heard a whine and gave the dog, sitting in the opening of the pen, a self-conscious smile. “Yes, I talk to animals,” she said.

Sugar seemed to see that as an invitation and came to join her, dropping down with a sigh beside her, laying her head on her paws.

Abby spared the dog a quick pet and was rewarded with a wet lick of her hand.

Then Lee was back, pushing open the wooden door to the pen with a creak. And Abby's foolish heart started thumping again. She wasn't going to look up, but she couldn't help a quick glance his way, only to find him looking at her, his expression serious.

“Is he still alive?” he asked, crouching down on the opposite side of the calf.

“He's still warm, though barely moving.” She stroked it again, as if willing the animal to live.

“Sugar, back,” he said to the dog.

The canine looked up, glancing at Abby as if hoping she would intervene. But she didn't think she should, so Sugar got up and trotted to the doorway.

“I don't want her disturbing the calf,” Lee explained. He moved to the calf's head and slipped his fingers in its mouth. Then he smiled. “Its mouth is warmer than before, so its blood is circulating and warming it up. So far so good.”

“When do you have to feed it again?” she asked, getting up to get her camera as he washed his hands in the other pail of water he had taken along. She wanted to document this part of the rescue operation.

Lee dried his hands and then pulled his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the screen. “I think I'll try again in about four hours.” He gave her a contrite smile. “Sorry for cutting the ride short.”

“No...please don't apologize,” she said, waving his comment off. “Of course you had to take care of this calf.” Releasing a pent-up breath, she took the lens cap off her camera and turned her attention back to her work. She sat down, framing the calf, looking for the right light. Sunlight slanted into the pen, illuminating the dust motes and casting interesting shadows. She shot off a couple of pictures before looking back at Lee. “Do you have to do this more often? Rescue orphan calves?”

“Since Dad switched to Angus cows and calves on pasture, not nearly as often. When we ran Simmentals and calved in March, I can't count how often we'd bring a calf and her mother back to these pens.” He grimaced. “We'd have calves born in a spring snowstorm, mothers calving in a puddle of water, calves we had to pull and then doctor up like this. It kept us way too busy and was tough on the babies.”

“Not hard to see you know what you're doing,” she said, shifting her position and snapping a few more photos. “And that you care about the animals. A real cattleman.”

“I don't know about that,” he muttered. “Like I mentioned earlier, when I was young, I could hardly wait to get away from here. I thought working on the ranch, living in Saddlebank, was the most boring thing in the world.”

“Is that why you hung out with Mitch and David?”

“Probably,” he admitted. “Life was exciting around those two. Trouble was, it was the wrong kind of excitement.”

“And now David's dead and Mitch is being charged with fraud.” Again, the words came out before she could stop them. Why couldn't she just leave this be?

“I guess what goes around comes around,” Lee said. “My dad always warned me about them. Told me they were bad news. That they loved nothing more than disturbing the status quo, and letting people know exactly what they thought of them...”

“I know that from personal experience,” she murmured, checking through the pictures she had just taken.

“What do you mean?”

Abby bit her lip, mentally kicking herself as she scrolled through the photos, most of her attention on Lee's question. Could she not learn to keep her mouth shut?

“Nothing,” she said.

Sugar had come back again and dropped down beside Lee, who let him stay. Obviously having Sugar around was okay now.

“Tell me,” he urged, absently stroking the dog's head. “I know they seemed overly interested in you.”

“What?” She couldn't believe that. “They were horrible to me. They seemed only too eager to tell me the only reason you took me to the prom was that they made some silly bet with you.” She lifted up her camera, giving her something to do in the silence that followed. Something to hide behind.

“
Bet?
What are you talking about?” His anger was a surprise.

“They told me why you asked me to the prom. That you only did it because they bet you to.”

Lee furrowed his brow, looking as confused as she felt. “They told you I asked you out because of a bet?” He released a humorless laugh, then looked her directly in the eye, his gaze steady, his eyes narrowed as if he was trying to imprint what he was telling her. “That is not true. At all. I asked you because I wanted to.”

Now it was Abby's turn to stare. “You wanted to? But...David and Mitch said that when they showed you the pictures I took of you, you laughed. And that was when they made a bet with you to ask me out. Like it was a joke.”

Abby could still feel a flush of shame at the memory of taking those photographs. She was on the yearbook committee assigned to taking photos of the sports teams. She had been happy to take on the job because it gave her a legitimate reason to take pictures of Lee. She ended up with a number of great shots and had kept a couple for herself. It was those photos that David and Mitch had discovered and taunted her about. Then they had stolen them from her and told her they would show Lee.

“I did laugh when they showed me the pictures. But mostly because I was happy. I figured this meant I had a chance with you.” There was a long pause. “Truth is, I'd always been attracted to you. So I certainly never asked you to the prom because Mitch or David made a
bet
with me.”

She felt an unwelcome beat of anticipation mingled with confusion. “I don't understand.”

Lee paused again, blowing out his breath, as if thinking. “I liked you,” he said, squatting down to absently pat the dog again. “Had for a while. And, thanks to David and Mitch telling me about the pictures you took of me, I had guessed you liked me too. That's when I dared to ask you out.”

“Dared to ask me out? Lee Bannister, the guy who could get most any girl in school?”

“That is not true,” Lee protested.

“It is. I knew most of the girls in my class alone would have gone out with you in a heartbeat.”

Lee shrugged off her comment as he sat in the straw, his back against the wall. “Well, you were the only one I had my eye on.”

“Why me?” Abby still couldn't believe he was saying this. Lee had always been this elusive dream, and now he was saying he'd had his eye on her? Didn't seem possible.

“You sell yourself short. You were this amazing girl. Strong Christian. Self-confident. At least that's how it looked to me.” The corner of his mouth quirked up as his gaze drifted over her. “And you were real pretty. I'd been interested in you for a while but honestly didn't think you'd want to have anything to do with me.”

“Why would you think that?” she asked, a bit breathlessly.

“I knew who I was and my reputation. But I was getting sick of the life I was living and decided to just go for it when Mitch and David showed me those pictures.”

It shouldn't matter so long after the fact what he said, but it was as if the air around them seemed to amplify. “Now you're just flattering me...”

“I hope so,” he said, playing with Sugar's ear as the dog dropped his head on Lee's lap. Then he looked up at her, his expression intent, his dark eyes seeming to hold a banked glow. “I had a lot of fun taking you to the prom. And when you agreed to go out with me again, I figured we were moving into a good place.”

Why did her heart hitch like that? She wasn't a teenager in high school anymore, yearning after one of the most sought-after guys in the valley. She was simply too aware of Lee, that was all.

“Just for curiosity, when did Mitch and David tell you all this?”

Abby thought back, surprised that she could still feel a beat of embarrassment—and sorrow—at the memory. “Just before the accident.”

“Was that why you turned me down when I asked you to come to that party? Because you believed them?”

“Yes.”

“But I never gave you any reason to think otherwise,” he said in a low, rough voice. “Why did you think they were telling the truth?”

Abby looked down at her camera, fiddling with the settings. “I couldn't imagine that you wanted to date me,” she whispered. “I guess it was easier to think you only did it because of a bet than because you chose to.”

“But I did want to. And, to my shame, one of the reasons I drank too much at that party was that I was feeling sorry for myself about you.”

Abby lifted her eyes to his again as old events coalesced and solidified. And as she held his steady gaze, as his words found a home in her soul, for a heart-shattering moment she wondered what would have happened if she hadn't believed Mitch and David.

“What's wrong?” Lee asked. “You look like someone just hit you.”

Abby swallowed, her lips suddenly trembling, her thoughts a whirl of bewildering emotions. “I guess I'm thinking what might have happened if I attended that party with you.” She gave him a wry smile. “Maybe things would have been different. Maybe my dad...” To her embarrassment, her voice broke.

Lee pushed Sugar aside, got up and came to sit beside her. He took her hands, squeezing them firmly. “Don't you take this on,” he warned her, his tone surprisingly sharp. “You did nothing wrong. What happened had
nothing
to do with you. I made my own poor choices and they...they caused what happened.”

Abby didn't know what surprised her more. The intensity in his voice or how tightly he held her hands. Her heart raced with a mixture of happiness at what he said about the bet and, at the same time, a blend of guilt and pleasure at his touch.

Then the calf twitched, rustling the straw, and Lee let go of Abby's hands.

She felt suddenly disconnected and untethered. Her feelings about Lee had been complex and layered—part anger with him over her father's accident, part humiliation thinking he had only taken her out on a bet. They had become welded so tightly together that now, after his confession, she felt off-kilter and confused, unsure of how to find a new balance.

He moved to the calf, checking it over. The dog stretched, gave the calf a sniff, and then curled up between its legs as if to keep it company.

Abby snatched her camera and took refuge behind it once again. Dragging in a breath, she snapped off a few more shots of the calf with the dog, taking a couple with Lee as he put his fingers in the calf's mouth again, and then she put the lens cap on and slowly stood. She needed to go. Needed some space to sort out her conflicting emotions.

“Will he be okay?” Abby asked as she slid her camera back into her knapsack.

“I think so. I might have to tube-feed it again, but he seems to want to suck, so I might get away with bottle-feeding.” Lee washed his hands in the pail of water and dried them on a towel he had taken along as well. “At least he now has Sugar to keep him company.”

“So you'll have to feed it all the time now?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. But we're set up for it and once we get it used to a bottle we can transition to pail-feeding, which is quicker and easier.”

Abby brushed the loose straw off her pants and shirt and slung her knapsack over her shoulder. To her consternation Lee had come a few steps closer to her, his hands strung up in his back pocket, his broad shoulders hunched forward. “Thanks for your help,” he said, his voice quiet. “And thanks for listening.”

Abby wasn't going to look up at him, but it was as if an invisible cord pulled her head around to face him. Once again their eyes locked as old images melded with new.

Tough Lee Bannister, wild and rebellious, kissing his mother goodbye. The man who had, she thought, hurt her in so many ways, rescuing a calf, playing with a dog, erasing shame from her past memories of him.

And now, looking at her as though he was genuinely attracted to her.

And the trouble was, she knew her old feelings for him were rekindling, changing and growing.

“I need to leave,” she said, but didn't move from the spot, unable to look away from him, unable to take that first step.

“Of course,” he said. But he didn't move either. Instead he brushed a remnant of straw out of her hair, his rough fingers lingering on her cheek. Abby felt as if the breath had been sucked out of her at his touch. She swallowed and fought the impulse to lean toward him.