Page 30 of Rhubarb 2 Go

I smiled at the man—potato sat at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea, looking right at home.Burke clung to my arm after he’d spent two hours letting Doc Picker examine him, draw blood and do a scan thing with a portable machine he’d brought with him in the bed of his truck.Doc Picker definitely had come prepared.“So, what can you tell us?”

He swallowed the sip of tea he’d taken and gave us both a kindly smile that crinkled the edges of his eyes.

Does he look worried to you?

No, baby.

Are you sure?

Yes.

“Now you have to know this ain’t my area of expertise, but the girls all look to be the right size after talking to Crimson.I’ll need to wait for the blood panel to come back, but I’d say from the scan, all your babies are growing at the same rate.The little calf is keeping up with your stalk.”

“G-girl’s,” I said, choking with emotion.

“Yep, two girls,” he replied, his grin spreading over his craggy face,

I looked at my ballsy-bull.“We’re having girls!”

“I can hear,” he muttered, then promptly burst into tears.

I quickly pushed my seat back from the table and scooped him up, placing him on my lap.I patted his back and gave Doc an apologetic smile.Burke clung to me, and I rocked him in my arms, thinking of it as practice.

“Hormones.They’ll be rife for a while,” Doc explained, before taking another sip of his tea, not looking at all concerned.“You’ll get used to it.”

He was looking at me when he said it, so I nodded, hoping like all rhubarb, we wouldn’t get time to get used to the hormonal swings.“So the pregnancy, our girls, they’re all alright?”I asked once more for clarity.

Doc nodded.“Looks like.Crimson has offered her spare room to me to stay at her house to be close by for you both.Support you through this.”

“Don’t you need to go home?”I asked, my brows rising when he looked at his cup wearing a scowl.

Oops, what have I said?

Huh?

Sorry, I was thinking about the potato, he looks… upset.

Burke glanced up, appearing happy to have a distraction.He does.He looks like Apollo.

You’re right.Could be he has a mate he’s having problems with too.

Apollo was being lion-headed, and Glass was letting everyone know how pissed he was about not getting any lion hugs.

“Nope, I’m not needed at home right now.”When he glanced up, I had to focus.I got the impression whatever he was thinking about made him unhappy, especially with how his mouth tugged down at the corners.“So I’ll stay and help here.I brought some soil to see if it helps as much as it does for our kind.”

My thoughts changed track when Burke perked up at the idea.“That’s generous.Maybe you might like to do some tests on our soil.It’s magical too.”Or it was for rhubarb.

“Great.I can do that after I've settled at Crimson’s.”

“I told you, I’m not doing it with him!”Apollo roared and Burke jerked out of my lap, running for the door.

“You are,” Maximus roared back.“We are all pulling our weight watching the cameras, and it’s your turn.”

I darted up.“Sorry, looks like we have a situation.”

He waved me away, placing his cup down, and getting up.“It’s fine, I’ll leave through the back door and take some soil.You know where I’ll be if you need me.”Then he slipped out the door as I went after Burke.

In the large living area, I went to stand behind Burke, rubbing his tense shoulders.Apollo was snarling at Maximus, who looked unconcerned.

---