The next few days were a flurry of activity. They got the birthing stalls mucked out and fresh straw put in them. They brought the first set of two-year-old mothers into the barn, and started riding the herd to look for any issues. Everyone pitched in to be ready. The preemie was doing well, nursing from his mother and gaining weight.

Dolly’s leg was healing nicely, and poor Drew had gotten an earful from his older brother about poachers. They’d all ridden out to look for any other traps and had found only one other, near the beaver dams next to the Colorado River. Drew promised to do what he could, and said he would also file a report with the fish and game warden in the area. No one thought they would catch the trappers participating in illegal activity, but at least it was reported.

Fortunately, the weather was cooperating so far. A few flurries of snow early in the morning before sunrise was about all they had. Not even enough precipitation to make mud; days were cool but sunny.

Alyssa continued to study the birthing records in the evenings. One morning, Beau walked into the barn where she was checking on the two-year-old mothers.

“Alyssa, come with me. Let’s check on the herd. I’ve saddled us a couple of horses.”

She was a little surprised by that, but didn’t argue. Generally, when the cattle were this close to giving birth they took a vehicle out so they could weigh and tag any babies that were being born.

“The twins are going out too, and we can call them if we need a truck.”

Beau was poetry in motion as he fluidly mounted his horse and he looked mighty fine sitting on the animal. She tried not to drool. Alyssa was short legged, so she wasn’t nearly as graceful as she mounted, she felt clumsy and awkward. Which she hadn’t felt on a horse since she was little. When they started out Beau rode like he was part of the horse and again she thought she might drool watching the beauty of the horse and the cowboy.

Once they got to the cattle Beau started asking her questions. It didn’t take Alyssa long to figure out what Beau was doing. He was quizzing her on what she’d learned from the birthing logs.

Beau pointed out a mother. “That’s 09-123, what can we expect from her?”

He’d already asked her about a couple of other ones and now he was trying to see if she really knew her information. “No, it’s not. That one over there could be 09-123, this one here is the wrong breed. For the real 09-123, which I think is that one over there based on her markings, we can expect an easy delivery, and this will probably be the last year that you breed her. She’s starting to get up there in years. We’re hoping for no birth defects since she’s on the older side. It’s always a possibility, but you bred her with a strong bull, so the calf should be fine.”

Beau nodded.

“Now this one here that you tried to trick me with, she looks like she could be 11-210 or maybe 13-060, but I’m betting it’s 11-210. If she is 11-210 we need to keep an eye on her because she nearly rejected her calf last year—you had to coax her to accept it, so we want to make sure she accepts her baby this year. If she rejects it, you might decide not to breed her any longer, even though she produces good stock. She’s a little too unpredictable to keep on, if she’s going to reject her offspring. We should keep an eye out for any mothers that lose their calf, in case we need to graft hers onto a surrogate mother.”

Beau grinned at her. “Excellent, Alyssa. You’ve done much better learning the herd than I expected. We’ve got three hundred and change in mothers—that’s a lot to memorize.”

“Thanks. I’m not just a pretty face you know.” Shit, did she just say that? How vain could she get? She felt her cheeks heat. “I mean, I’ve been working hard to learn them, not that I’m pretty… or.…”

Beau leaned over and patted her knee. “I know what you meant. But just for the record, you are quite pretty, and you’ve got brains to back it up.”

Alyssa looked at Beau and saw admiration in his gaze and maybe a little lust, too. Oh, my. She was caught in his snare and couldn’t look away. She wanted to lean over and take a taste of his lips, she felt herself start to tilt toward him. It was not a good idea, but she couldn’t stop herself.

His phone chimed with an incoming text, which broke the spell. He looked at it and swore. “We’re needed on the other side of the pasture. Don’t-Touch-My-Baby is giving birth, and the twins need us to hold onto the dam while they weigh and tag the calf.”

“Oh, I read all about her. She’s not a fan of you cowboys taking her baby from her for the five minutes it takes. You lead, I’ll follow.”

* * *

Beau started out at a fast clip—not too fast to startle the cattle, but quick enough to get them across the pasture to give the twins a hand. He was glad the guys had texted him when they did. He’d been about two seconds from leaning over and kissing Alyssa. He didn’t think she would mind if what he saw in her eyes was any indication, but it was unprofessional of him and she was too young—or he was too old. They had nothing in common, well besides their chosen profession, and ethics, and upbringing, and…. Okay, so they had a lot in common; that still didn’t fix the age difference. And he didn’t need to be thinking about that now, he had a job to do.

As he rode through the herd, across the pasture, to where the twins were, he kept an eye on the cattle he passed, just to make sure assistance wasn’t needed elsewhere. His dad and Grandpa K where keeping an eye on the birthing stalls, and would call if they needed him. Helping to keep Don’t-Touch-My-Baby from freaking out while they weighed and tagged the calf was important, but not if there was another emergency. He didn’t see anything as he rode through and he was certain Alyssa was watching carefully, also.

He saw the pickup the twins had driven out, and not too far away was Don’t-Touch-My-Baby; they were right on time as the rest of the calf slid out of the mother. As they slid off the horses and tied them to the truck, Beau said, “Alyssa, go around to the front and hold her head. Chase is on the left and I’ll take the right while Cade weighs and tags the little one. You know what to do and how not to get hurt, right?”

“Yep, no problem. We’ve got ProtectiveMama on our ranch, who’s just like Don’t-Touch-My-Baby. I’ve done this every year since I was old enough to help.”

The whole operation took less than ten minutes, but you would think it was days the way Don’t-Touch-My-Baby acted. She was not happy to be detained, while some guy took her calf to be weighed and tagged. As soon as they got the newborn back at her side she was happy as could be, and started eating, while the baby nursed.

Chase sighed. “You would never know that was the same cow that was screaming bloody murder two minutes ago. Thanks for riding to the rescue, you two.”

Beau was looking across the herd. “No problem. Dammit, I don’t see River-PITA, have you checked for her?”

Cade swore. “No, we were so busy with Don’t-Touch-My-Baby that PITA slipped my mind.”

“Alyssa and I will go and bring her back, then we’re going to head home to see how it’s going in the stalls. Call if you need to. I’ll send a couple of hands out to finish the side Alyssa and I were on. Let’s go Alyssa, we’ve got a stubborn Pain-In-The-Ass to bring back from the river.”

Alyssa rode next to Beau as they left the herd and headed into the trees, that bordered the Colorado River, on the edge of this pasture. They had plenty of water troughs in the pasture for the animals, so they didn’t need to go near the water. The snow melt would have the Colorado running high this time of year, so he hoped River-PITA was staying far enough away to be safe. He didn’t know if it was the fresh running water that drew her or the sweetness of the grass that grew along the banks. But if she wasn’t with the herd she was at the river and he didn’t want her giving birth down there. PITA might know enough to stay away from the water, but her baby wouldn’t.

“I think maybe we’ll bring River-PITA into a stall, so she doesn’t give birth down by the river.”

“Yeah, the calf wouldn’t know enough to stay away from the river and I imagine the snow melt has it running pretty fast right now,” Alyssa said.

“My thoughts exactly.

“Although, she’s never given birth by the river before, has she? Maybe she’s smart enough to know better and just goes down when she knows it’s early.”

“You’re giving her a lot of credit.”

Alyssa shrugged. “She might deserve it.”

“But she might not, and I don’t want to take the risk of losing the calf.”

“I suppose not, but I can understand the draw, it’s pleasant down here in the trees with the water running nearby. Maybe she likes the sound.”

Beau laughed. “So, I should get her a sound machine?”

Alyssa grinned. “Maybe you should.”

“Yeah, I’ll just tell dad we need to order her a sound machine for the barn. When he checks me into the looney bin, you have to promise to come visit.”

“Oh, I will, and I’ll bring you cookies and puzzles to put together, oh and a sound machine for soothing river sounds.”

Beau guffawed. “Good one.”

Alyssa pointed. “There she is.”

“Stay here with the horses, I don’t want her spooked.”

Beau handed Alyssa his reins and took his rope and walked over to the heifer. She just kept munching on grass as he slipped the rope around her neck. She followed him as he walked back to get on his horse and they set off at a slow pace back to the ranch.

Beau thought this might be a good time to ask Alyssa about her plans after she graduated. “You’ll graduate at the end of this year, won’t you?’

“Yes, and then I’ll go back home for the summer. But I am planning to return in the fall to get my Masters in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Reproductive Technology.”

That’s a one year, non-thesis track, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s been my plan all along. We had some trouble one year with getting the cows impregnated. We needed another bull because one got sick and we couldn’t get a new one in time, so we had a slim year. After that, dad started doing more artificial insemination and it intrigued me. So, I want to specialize in it. I haven’t yet decided if I want to continue on to get a PhD or Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.”

“The specialization sounds like a good choice to me, you could pretty much write your own ticket with that. And of course, either the PhD or DVM are good to have. I did the five year DVM program.” Beau turned to see how PITA was doing. So, Alyssa had at least one more year of schooling. Interesting, that meant she’d just be on the other side of the mountain, instead of several states away. But the other side of the mountains was still a couple of hours drive. Not that it mattered to him. Once her internship was over, he probably would never see her again.