Page 33 of Second Chance with the Rancher

A quick good-morning scratch behind the ears for mama and baby, and she was exiting the stall, walking a little more bow-legged than she was prepared for. Her butt and inner thighs were tender after the ride yesterday and sitting on the ground all night.

She really wasn’t as young as she used to be. A day like that ten years ago wouldn’t have affected her at all, but now … now her body was rebelling and telling her to ease up.

She grumbled and groaned as she slowly made her way down the barn past the stalls toward the side door. The need to pee came on fast and she picked up speed.

Macklin hung his big brown head over his stall door and made a demanding sound at the same time he locked eyes with her and held her gaze unwavering.

Rolling her eyes, she approached him. “I need to pee, Mack. Have you seen Nate?”

Macklin nuzzled her and nudged, asking for more scratches and attention, but eventually the need to pee was too great and Mieka gave the attention-whore one final kiss, then ran the rest of the way to the end of the barn. She was sprinting now as she headed across the yard to the house, flinging open the door and not even bothering to remove her shoes as she bolted down the hallway to the bathroom.

She nearly didn’t make it, and practically started crying in relief as she relieved herself.

Once she was done and washed her hands, she exited the bathroom and removed her shoes, stowing them at the front door. Beside Nate’s boots.

“Everything okay, Minx?” came his deep, manly rumble from the kitchen.

“I needed to pee,” she said, entering the kitchen to find Nate, Asher, and a man she didn’t recognize sitting at the kitchen table, all of them cradling steaming mugs.

“This is Jacob, our vet,” Triss said, setting down a cup of coffee on the kitchen table and indicating that it was for Mieka.

“We didn’t want to wake you,” Nate said, sipping his coffee. “So Jacob came in for a quick bullshit and a coffee.”

“Nice to meet you,” the handsome vet with the gray eyes said, giving Mieka a slight head nod followed by an appreciative up and down with his eyes. “How did Callie and Chance look when you left?”

“Chance was nursing, but I couldn’t tell which teat he was on.”

Nate pushed away from the table and stood up. “Well, let’s go take a look. I checked her this morning before I left and it wasn’t warm to the touch, but when I gave it a squeeze, I could tell it was clogged. She flinched and tried to nip her flanks.”

Jacob stood up, as did Asher. The three men drained their coffee cups, thanked Triss, then one-by-one they filed out of the kitchen. Nate was last and lingered, waiting for Triss to turn her back, then he dropped his mouth next to Mieka’s ear. “We need to talk about last night, Minx.”

Everything inside her clenched.

“Need to talk about that stubborn cat of yours.” Then the man purred. He fucking purred. And not like some playful kitten or a barn cat basking in a ray of sun. It was a deep, throaty rumble, like a lion on the savannah who’d just caught the scent of a lioness in oestrous. Was she in heat? She was certainly warm, nay on freaking fire, when she was around this man. Maybe she was in heat. At the very least her cat was.

She swallowed, waiting … for what? She had no clue. But she waited.

Then it came.

It was barely a brush of his lips against her temple, but it was enough to make every one of her hairs stand up and gooseflesh to break out across her arms. Then he was gone, leaving her a complete puddle. Confused, aroused and cursing her cat more than ever before.

Chapter Nine

He probably shouldn’t have been such a dick bringing up last night and the fact that she was workshopping a term for the female equivalent of “little head” but it was impossible to resist. She made it so easy to push her buttons and get under her skin, not to mention the fact that calling her pussy a “stubborn cat” was just fucking hilarious.

But she’d said other things last night, too. Things he wasn’t even sure she remembered. But he remembered. They kept him awake most of the night. That and the fact that having her that close to him, snuggled up in his arms was probably the most incredible feeling in the world, and he wanted to enjoy every second of it conscious.

He also struggled to sleep when one of the horses was ill, and even though he didn’t think what was going on with Callie was cause for too much concern, he couldn’t stop his worry. They’d lost six horses since they started the ranch over seven years ago.

They lost Dare, Asher’s horse the winter they met Triss, then Callie’s foal last summer. The colt had been in the breech position, and was stillborn by the time they were able to get him out. It’d been hard on all of them.

But Nate blamed himself, he was sure there was more he could have done for Callie and the foal she lost, even though Jacob said it was a doomed situation from the very beginning. But it was why Nate had been so diligent this time around, staying with her and Chance the moment Asher said something was amiss.

The three of them entered the barn where ranch hands were busy mucking stalls and leading horses out to pasture for the day. Hank had Mercy by the bridle and was slowly, patiently leading him outside. The black mustang took one look at Asher and snorted in derision. Asher merely rolled his eyes.

The two had a very tumultuous beginning to their relationship, and although they were far better now and Mercy was able to mount mares without killing them, he and Asher still treaded lightly around each other. Both were skittish creatures and reacted poorly to loud and abrupt noises.

They reached Callie’s stall and Asher opened up the door allowing Jacob to step inside. He checked out Chance first, determining him to be a perfect little colt, then he moved on to Callie.

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