Claire went through the next day and Friday in a bit of a daze. One minute she’d wonder if she’d really made a deal to buy a house. The next she’d want to go look at it again and rethink about where she’d put things. She wanted a homey look to her store, not a formal one. The customers should be able to talk patterns and visit about colors, not feel like they were no more than a sale.
She looked down at the intricate pieces of the design that she’d created when they were stuck in the cabin, and thought seriously about making it a nice long throw size for Levi’s Christmas. But did it look too girly for a big, rough cowboy? She was trying to make up her mind when Zaylie tugged on her shirttail that Friday evening.
“Aunt Claire, can we make Angela and Teresa one of them little quilts for Christmas?” Zaylie tugged on her hand.
“What a wonderful idea,” Claire answered.
“Look at that moon.” Zaylie pointed to the sky outside. “What happened to the other half?”
“We just can’t see it right now.”
“Can you make a quilt like that?” Zaylie asked.
“Don’t know, but I bet we could come up with a pattern if we tried,” Claire answered.
That moon is like life, the pesky voice in her head whispered. You can see what lies behind in the past, but the future is hidden.
“Okay, can we go see Little Bit?” Zaylie sighed. “I think he needs me to come and see him.”
“Right now?” Claire asked.
Zaylie nodded. “He’s lonesome.”
“Okay but just for a few minutes.”
“I love watching the stars pop out,” Zaylie said with a sigh as they walked to the corral. “I wish Teresa could see Little Bit and Hopalong and Gussie and the kittens.”
Claire tucked Zaylie’s hand into hers. “Let’s take pictures of you and the animals and you can send them to Teresa, and y’all can talk about them when you call her tonight.”
“Yay!” Zaylie squealed. “And maybe she can come see them someday.”
They’d gone about halfway across the pasture when Claire heard a truck speeding from around the back side of the barn. A second later she saw the headlights and recognized Levi’s silhouette as he jumped from the driver’s side, left the door hanging wide open, and raced around to the back. He threw the tailgate down and hefted what looked like a black calf onto his shoulders and carried it inside.
“What’s he got?” Zaylie tugged at her hand, urging her to pick up her step.
“I’m not sure,” Claire said.
“Run, Aunt Claire. It might be another little donkey.”
Claire jogged along beside Zaylie across the pasture. She stopped long enough to turn off the headlights and slam the door shut as she passed the truck. Zaylie ran on ahead, yelling at Levi.
“Where are you? Do you gots a new donkey?”
“What’s going on?” Claire raised her voice.
He hollered back, “Thank God y’all are here. Go to the tack room, Claire, and bring towels and a blanket.”
“Where’s the tack room and do I need to keep Zaylie away?” She raised her voice.
“No, send her this way. I’m in the stall where we keep Little Bit when it’s cold.” His tone was desperate, so she ran down the long hallway. “Tack room is second door on your right.”
She slung it open and gathered up three horse blankets, the fluffy throw on the back of the sofa, and a stack of towels from the cabinet beneath the sink.
“Are you hurt?” she called out as she crossed the huge center of the barn.
“No, I’m fine. I’m in the first stall on your left,” he answered.
She dropped everything in her arms when she saw the black, newborn calf lying on the straw floor. “What can I do? Is it dead?”
“Grab a towel and start rubbing her down. She’s still alive, but she’s almost frozen. It’s unusual to get a calf this late in the year. We’ve got to get the circulation going and get her on her feet.” He tossed a towel to Zaylie and one to Claire.
“Where?” Zaylie asked.
“Anywhere,” Levi answered.
Claire started at the middle of the calf’s back and worked toward the tail. Zaylie cradled the animal’s head in her lap and rubbed its ears and head. Levi worked on its legs and belly section.
“Jesus loves you, this I know.” Zaylie sang through the children’s hymn several times before she finally leaned forward and yelled at the calf. “Open your eyes and get up on your feet. If you don’t Santa Claus ain’t goin’ to bring you a damn thing.”
“Zaylie Noelle!” Claire scolded.
“Well, he ain’t,” Zaylie said.
The calf opened her eyes and shivered.
“Don’t scold her. Whatever she’s tellin’ her is workin’,” Levi said.
Zaylie started rubbing again. “You’re sweet as ’ennessee whiskey and warm as a cup of ’trawberry wine.” She grabbed the calf by the ears and looked right into its eyes. “You’re goin’ to do what I tell you to do.”
“Little bossy, aren’t you?” Claire was suddenly reminded of the Christmas story about Jesus being born in a barn with animals all around. She cocked her head to one side and imagined Levi as a shepherd standing beside the baby in a manger. “Maybe in another life,” she said softly.
“Another life?” Levi asked.
“I was thinking out loud,” Claire said.
Zaylie popped her hands on her hips. “Daddy says I get bossy from you.”
Levi chuckled.
Zaylie turned toward him. “This baby cow can’t do nothin’ if we don’t tell her.” Then she whipped around toward the calf. “Get up! Right now!”
The calf rolled its big brown eyes and quivered from head to toe.
Zaylie tossed the towel aside and covered the calf with all three horse blankets, then laid the throw over the top of those. Then she crawled under the blankets, curled up against its back and wrapped her arms around it. “When I get cold, Daddy wraps his arms around me to get me warm.”
Levi stuck his hand under the blankets and smiled. “She’s got a steady heartbeat. She’ll get up in a little while. I’ll make her a bottle of special milk. She’ll need to be fed about every two hours all night. Looks like I’ll be sleeping in the barn.”
“Me too,” Zaylie said. “She needs me. She ain’t got a mama, and she might want me to sing to her.”
Zaylie would fret all night if Claire made her leave, which meant she would be staying in the barn too. And that didn’t sound nearly as ridiculous as it would have a month ago.
Levi whispered, “Let her stay, please. When she goes to sleep, I’ll carry her to the bunkhouse for you.”
“And leave that precious calf all alone? If Zaylie woke up in her bed she’d throw a fit. We’ll all stay until you are sure it’ll be okay.” Claire settled into the corner of the stall. She’d never been that close to a newborn calf before, and there was something adventurous, downright exciting to think of spending a whole night with Levi.
“What’s its name?” Zaylie asked.
“That’s up to you. You’re the one who’s a calf whisperer,” Levi said as he headed toward the tack room. “Be back in a few minutes.”
Claire peeked through the rails and watched him. He damn sure wasn’t one of those wannabe cowboys that she’d run into—the kind who probably spent hours in the gym to get their muscles and had never gotten dirty and sweaty working on a ranch in their lives. No, sir! Levi was the real thing. Those biceps came from lifting hay bales and putting up fence, from carrying heavy loads of feed—not from pumping iron.
“What’s a whisperer?” Zaylie asked.
“That’s someone who can talk to a baby calf and the animal knows what you are sayin’,” Claire explained. Levi was more than just a calf whisperer. He was the total package when it came to caring for animals. Anyone who could rescue a turtle and a wild cottontail rabbit, well, that man had a heart of gold.
“Why wouldn’t it know? It’s got ears, don’t it?” Zaylie asked. “Whoa! It’s standin’ up.”
“Man, alive!” Levi exclaimed from the gate. “Zaylie, you’ve sure got a way with animals. You should be a rancher when you grow up.”
“Nope, I’m goin’ to be a movie star,” Zaylie said. “Can I feed it that bottle?”
Levi groaned. “How about an animal doctor?”
Zaylie shook her head and reached for the bottle. “Are you goin’ to put on your ’jamas, Levi?”
“Nope.” He sat down beside Claire in the corner.
“Then I don’t need mine.” Zaylie touched the calf’s nose with the nipple, and she turned her head away. “It ain’t hungry.”
“She has to eat,” Levi said.
“It’s a girl?” Zaylie asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Zaylie stuck her finger inside the calf’s mouth. When it started sucking, she put the bottle in its mouth and removed her finger.
“I tell you, she’s a natural,” Levi said. “I’d give your brother a job on the ranch just to get to keep her here.”
“You’re funny, Levi.” Zaylie giggled.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“My daddy is a soldier. He knows about missions and ployments, but he don’t know about animals. Look, she’s likin’ this stuff. Her tail is waggin’.”
Claire checked the time on her phone. Eight thirty and getting close to Zaylie’s bedtime.
Levi stood up and extended a hand to Claire. “Let’s move over into the next stall. I’ll get a couple more blankets from the tack room.”
“She won’t go to sleep for a while,” Claire said.
“We’ll have things ready for when she does.”
“I’ll stay right here with Nomie,” Zaylie said. “She wants me to sing to her some more.”
“Nomie?” Levi raised an eyebrow.
“Nomie is in the Bible just like Moses. So that’s her name.”
“Naomi,” Claire translated.
“Sounds like a right fine name to me,” Levi said, and grinned.
The calf settled back down and laid its head in Zaylie’s lap. “There we go. Hopalong might come see about you, but Gussie don’t like cows so she won’t be here.”
Levi spread out three blankets in the next stall, creating a king-size bed. “When she falls asleep, I’ll bring her over here to you and then I’ll take Zaylie’s place. I didn’t think there was a chance of saving that baby calf, but I’ve got hope now.”
“What happened to the mama? Did she die?” Claire sat down with her back against the solid barn wall.
“Don’t know. I couldn’t find her, but I imagine that it’s her first and she rejected it. It happens sometimes. We keep good records, but somehow one of the young heifers must’ve gotten bred without us knowing. This is absolutely the wrong time of year for a cow to throw a calf. If Beau hadn’t thrown a fit for me to follow him I wouldn’t have found her, and she’d have frozen to death in another hour.” He eased down next to Claire. “Are you warm enough? Want my coat?”
“I’m just fine,” she answered. “If we ever get Zaylie out of that stall and over here, we might need another blanket to cover her with.”
Nomie took right to the bottle at ten thirty, and not long after that Zaylie fell asleep curled up behind the calf. Levi eased her away and slipped a rolled-up blanket in her place and then carried the child over to the next stall. Claire pulled her close to her body and covered both of them with a blanket.
“Might as well sleep a couple of hours, and then I’ll see if the new baby needs another bottle,” Levi whispered.
“How long do you keep this up?” Claire asked.
“Just tonight. Tomorrow she’ll get fed three times, and then we’ll step it back to twice a day after that. She just needs a good start,” he answered as he started to make his way back to the other stall.
She hesitated for a second and then said, “No sense in you gettin’ awake every time Nomie wiggles. This is one giant bed. Catch a couple of hours right here.”
“Thank you.” He kicked off his boots and curled up on the far side of the blanket with his face toward the other stall.
Had someone told her six months ago that she’d be sleeping in a barn with a cowboy, she would have wondered what they’d been smoking or drinking.
In seconds his steady breath said that he was asleep, but Claire kept analyzing everything that had happened since she wrecked the van. Franny said one time that fate was a bitch on steroids, and right then, with a sleeping child in her arms and a sexy cowboy not three feet from her, she understood exactly what that meant.
Sometime in the middle of the night, after the two-o’clock feeding, Claire flipped over to the other side and snuggled up to Levi’s back. Zaylie did the same thing, and when Levi stirred a couple of hours later, they were all three spooned up together sharing a single cover.
Levi slipped his hand through the railing and checked the sleeping calf. “She’s good. I’m waiting until six for the next bottle. Are you warm enough?”
“Oh yeah,” she answered.
Warmth was not a problem at all, not when she was right up against Levi’s back.