Beau buttoned his jeans and pulled on his shirt when his cell chimed with a text.

Travis: Trouble in the birthing barn.

Alyssa: Coming

Beau: Me too.

Beau rushed out of his room buttoning his shirt as he went. His father was one of the most capable ranchers he knew, so if he was calling for help it was serious. Alyssa was in the mud room with her boots and coat on, grabbing up first aid supplies when he flew in the door.

“Go, I’m right behind you.”

She nodded and ran outside while he stuffed his feet into his boots, yanked his coat off the rack and hustled out right after her.

They hit the barn at the same time, he grabbed some of the supplies to lighten her load.

His dad called out, “I’ve got a nearly dead calf.”

From the other end of the barn, Grandpa K hollered, “I’ve got twins.”

Beau grimaced and looked at Alyssa. “Want the twins?”

She nodded and seemed relieved. “I’ll yell if I need you.”

“You do that.” And then he hustled to one end of the barn and she hurried to the other end.

Travis said, “It’s not looking good, son. He’s not responding. I got here just as she dropped him and he couldn’t stand. I pulled her into another stall to give you room.”

“Let’s see what we can do.” Beau went to work on the little guy.

* * *

Alyssa rushed into the stall where Grandpa K was.

“One dropped just fine but the other one is having trouble. I can’t tell if he’s breech or wrapped up in the cord.”

Alyssa put on some gloves and examined the situation. “Looks like he’s wrapped in the cord. I think I can get him unstuck.”

A few minutes later she had the little guy freed and a couple more pushes from the mother and the calf slid out. It was a little underweight, but nothing that would keep her from thriving. But then the real trouble began—the mother refused the second calf. She’d bonded with the first one—a male—and she wanted nothing to do with the smaller female.

Alyssa tried to get the dam to accept the girl, but she wasn’t having it. She didn’t know what to do. Her heart was pounding and her mind was frantically flipping through the ways to get a mother to accept her baby. She’d tried every one of them.

Alyssa hollered, “Beau she’s rejecting the second one. I’ve tried everything I know to do and she’s pushing her away.”

Beau came into the stall. “Mine didn’t make it. Let’s try grafting this little heifer to the dam that lost hers. If she won’t take her, we can always bottle feed her, I suppose That’s a hell of a lot of work, but we could manage it.”

“Yeah, but let’s see if we can get the other mother to accept this one. Great idea.”

Beau took the little one into the mother and gave the dam a minute to see if she would accept or reject her—he’d done his best to make her think it was her own calf. She acted a little uncertain at first, but then accepted her and started cleaning her and allowed her to nurse.

All four of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Travis said, “I’ll take care of the one that didn’t make it.’

Beau nodded. “Thanks, Dad.”

Alyssa and Beau washed up, then gathered up the medical supplies and their jackets they’d tossed aside and walked out of the barn. Beau looked over at her and she was sure he could see the tears in her eyes and how fragile she was feeling. He took her hand and led her off to the side of the barn to where there was a small bench and guided her to sit. Then he crouched in front of her and took her hands.

“You did good in there.”

“Oh, Beau, I was so scared. When the calf was stuck I wasn’t sure I could get it loose. But I sucked it up and got her free. I was so relieved, but then the mother rejected her, and I didn’t know what to do. That dam just had no interest in her little girl calf. She had her boy, and she wasn’t interested in another one. I know it’s mean, but I was almost relieved when you said yours hadn’t made it.”

He shook his head and rubbed her knuckles. “That wasn’t mean, Alyssa. I was worried about how that mother was going to react when she didn’t have a calf. I was almost relieved when you had one that was rejected. I was worried she might not accept it, but she did.”

She sighed, feeling like the world rested on her shoulders. “It’s been a crazy couple of days.”

“It has. It always seems to go in waves like that. Weeks of normal, everyday, easy births and then, wham, a week of craziness. But I’ve been relieved to have you at my side.”

“Even when I practically forced you to kiss me?” she asked him shyly.

Beau laughed. “That’s been the best part of both days combined. I enjoyed kissing you and would like to do a lot more of it….”

Alyssa put her hand over his mouth. “Let’s just leave it right there. I don’t have any strength left to talk about it anymore than that right now. So, I want to leave it at you would like to do a lot more of it.”

Beau smiled under her hand. When she lifted it he said, “Fine by me.”

“Good.” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

He groaned and pulled her in for another longer one, and she reveled in the action. She loved the warmth and the gentleness and wanted to stay like that all day, kissing the man, but they needed to get busy with their jobs and he hadn’t eaten yet.

She pulled back. “We have work to do, cowboy. And you need to eat first.”

“Your lips are all the sustenance I need.” But then his stomach growled, contradicting his words.

She laughed and stood up from the bench. “Yeah, well, your stomach doesn’t agree. Let’s move it.”

He muttered all the way to the house about how his stomach was not the one in charge and it needed to quit being so bossy. Alyssa just laughed and decided to take it as a compliment, that he wanted to kiss her more than eat.