Alyssa and Beau settled into an uneasy peace. Spring calving season was coming up quickly, and Beau needed to get her familiar with where everything was. And how they handled the season in Colorado, where it was a lot colder, and they had to be aware and ready for any weather difficulties.

Beau asked Alyssa, “So, you have cold weather in your hometown, correct?” He didn’t know a lot about where she was from—just the eastern part of Washington. Why he was so curious about her home he had no idea, so he decided to chalk it up to knowing the differences in their experience. That was a convenient excuse for his nosiness.

“Yes, but not much snow, or even a lot of rain. We’re next to the mountains and they get snow on them up higher, but down near the lake it’s more temperate. Once every five years, or so, we get dumped on for Christmas, but it’s not the norm.”

He nodded. “So, it’s a large lake?”

“Yes, in comparison to the lakes in this area, our lake is about five times the size of Lake Granby.”

He whistled. “No wonder it keeps things more temperate. That’s a lot of water. Plus, our elevation here is probably starting where yours taps out in the mountains. So, we’re dealing with a lot more cold, and a lot more snow.”

“Yeah, we’ve got some fourteeners in the Cascades, but the peaks along the lake run up to about eight thousand feet, which is the elevation here, isn’t it? Will we have weather difficulties during the birthing season?”

“Very possibly. It can snow here right up until June. Not every day of course, but during harsh winters it can be a challenge. Winter wasn’t bad this year, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”

While Beau familiarized Alyssa with the ranch routine and taught her the procedures used for birthing at the Rockin’ K, the rest of the crew would spend the next week bringing the younger pregnant dams in closer to the house—so everyone could keep an eye on them to be ready to help with any trouble the mothers would have delivering. The older the heifer was the easier they gave birth. Some could still have trouble, so they would be checking on the whole herd which were already in the nearest pasture, but they brought the two-year-old mothers in closest, with the older cows who’d had breech births or other difficulties previously, next in line. Once a dam produced a breech calf the likelihood of her subsequent babies being breech was increased. And other delivery problems seemed to follow the same pattern.

Birth weight was another concern—the longer it took for the mother to deliver, the more difficult it could be. Purely due to the calf’s size.

Beau went over where everything was located, how they would handle the rotation and birthing stalls, what he wanted her to concentrate on, and how they would communicate. They exchanged cell phone numbers and Beau gave her a list of all the ranch hands to program into her phone, and suggested she make a group text with all the family in it, and send out her number as the first group text.

“So now that you’ve had the grand tour and know where everything is, do you have any questions?”

Alyssa shook her head. “Not right now, but I’m sure I will after we get started. Now that my head isn’t spinning from everything you’ve shown me the last couple of days, do you have any copies of the birthing records I could start looking at? I think it would be helpful to have some ideas of what to expect. I used to help my dad with keeping the records for our small herd. We have everything in a database online, with paper backup copies. I would guess—with your herd the size it is—you’ve gone digital also.”

“Yeah, we have. And I can tell you that I am happy we don’t have to do it all on paper like the old journals in the house. We do keep paper copies just in case, but the software saves everything to the cloud and is supposed to be fool proof. Being paranoid, we also have a backup that runs each night to an external drive here on the ranch. It took Adam and I a few years to get my dad and grandpa to trust the database to be our primary source of record keeping.”

She laughed. “Losing the records would be awful so I understand. I’ve looked through some of those old records at home. What a mess they are. I’m happy to be digital too.

“I have a Surface you can use while you’re here, it’s half tablet, half computer it’s made by Microsoft… and you live in Washington, so you probably know all about them.”

“Maybe just a little.” She teased.

He chuckled. “Anyway, it’s already set up with access to the software and database all you need is the password. We’ve got several portable machines like the Surface, so we can take them out in the pasture for reference. This one is for your use, as my helper, we’ll be the ones in charge of the database. The hired hands write up everything on paper, I don’t quite trust them to have access to the database. The rest of the family has the passwords so they can look things up, but they leave me—and now you—to do updates. Anyway, I’m sure we keep the same types of records, but I might have to teach you my shorthand.”

She laughed. “I imagine each ranch has their own way of keeping track of all that information. Written out long hand it would take a ton of books. Isn’t it great to have technology?”

Drawn into her enthusiasm for the work, and her sparkling eyes and throaty laughter that sent shivers through him, Beau vowed to ignore the attraction. Again. “We have the field notes and backup paper copies of course just in case we lose power or whatever, but yes the technology makes things a lot faster and easier.”

He gave Alyssa the small computer and the passwords and showed her the software they used.

She grinned. “We use the same software, so you won’t have to teach me how to use it.”

“Perfect, so it’s just my short hand you’ll need to learn. I do a lot in code, so I don’t have to write it out for three hundred new calves.”

They went over a couple of the calving records, so he could explain his notes. But sitting that close to her—pouring over information—on a ten-inch screen was making him crazy. Her scent was intoxicating, and he needed to move out of the danger zone immediately—if not sooner.

He stood up before she could ask any more questions. “I’ve got a couple of things to do. Go ahead and start looking over the information and if you can’t interpret something make a list and I can go over it with you later. You can stay out here in the office or take the tablet into the house—it’s on Wi-Fi and we have it boosted, so we can access the data nearly anywhere on the property. Some of the far out grazing land has some holes in coverage, but even then, we can switch over to satellite—if we need to. It costs a fortune, so we don’t do it often, but it’s an option.”

Once he was out of her vicinity he relaxed. She could study up on the most likely cases of calving difficulties while he tried to cool down. She asked good questions and wanted to study their herd, so she would understand where the challenges could lie. That proved to him she was serious about the job, he couldn’t be happier with her as an intern. But he could only handle a short amount of time in close proximity, before his body started reacting to her. He’d never felt such a pull from a woman before, but he was going to fight it with everything he had. She was too young for the likes of him and lived halfway across the continent too. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration, but it took a couple of days to drive there, anyway.

* * *

Alyssa was a little shocked when Beau got up and left. She was learning a lot from him. He was an intelligent man and patient with her and all her questions. She’d had to fight not to lean into him when they were looking at the data on the Surface; he was so warm and smelled good, too. She hadn’t quite acclimatized to the cold at this elevation—even though she was dressing in layers—her hands were always cold. So, Beau being all warm and toasty made her want to snuggle. Not exactly a professional attitude for her to be having, so she had been valiantly ignoring the idea, and was enjoying his explanation of the notes he took on each animal. He was amusing when he wasn’t being a jerk. She still hadn’t decided what had happened that first day, but he’d been pleasant since the incident with Dolly. Fortunately, Dolly was healing well.

Alyssa shrugged at Beau’s abrupt departure and got a little notepad to write down questions she had for him as she looked through the database on the cattle.

A couple hours later, she was still poring over the database and noticed some trends she wanted to ask Beau about when she saw him next.

Cade burst through the door. “What are you doing out here Alyssa? It’s nearly dinner time.”

Alyssa startled at his abrupt entrance. “Is it really? I had no idea.” She noticed that the Surface was running low on power, so she would have to plug it in to recharge. “I’ll shut down the database and come with you. Beau said I could bring the surface with me.”

Cade laughed. “My God, you’re as bad as Beau. He’s been known to spend hours poring over birthing records, and you’ve been doing the same, haven’t you.”

“Guilty as charged,” she said as she stood with a groan. “I’ve clearly been sitting too long, hunched over this machine.” She stretched her back and shoulders, reaching up to the ceiling and then down to the floor. Then, she picked up the computer, charger, and her notepad and looked over at Cade, who seemed frozen.

Alyssa asked, “What’s wrong? Let’s get moving.”

“Um yeah, just well, that was freaking hot.”

“What was hot? My stretching? That’s ridiculous, let’s go.” She pushed past him.

“It’s not ridiculous, Alyssa. You’re a beautiful, sexy woman.” He followed her toward the house.

“Pssht, don’t be silly. I’m just a female—like… like your sister.” She pushed open the door into the mudroom and used the boot jack to help her get her boots off.

“But you’re not my sister, so I can think you’re hot if I want.”

Beau came around the corner. “No, Cade, you can’t. She’s here as an intern not as something for you to lust after.”

Alyssa guffawed and poked Beau in the chest. “Well, at least you’re not accusing me this time.” She pushed past Beau into the kitchen and went straight to her room to plug in the Surface. Men are very odd beings.