Page 27 of Dependable Cowboy

There was dead silence for a beat, then…

“Wasn’t she on bedrest?” Bobby Dean asked. Aaron knew Whitney and the most elder ranch hand had often worked directly together.

“She was,” Lindsey picked up the narrative. If she wasn’t out running Sensational Shindigs and Soirees, her party planning business, that probably meant that she was making this family emergency her priority right now.

That more than anything else had Aaron’s heart pumping overtime.

“Everyone else at the hospital with them?” he asked, meaning the rest of the Duncan clan.

“Yes,” Bryce spoke up again, closing the distance between himself and Lindsey until she gripped his forearm. It was a small gesture, but it told Aaron just how scared the family was. “Maddie and Lilliana have left their classes with subs so they can go, too.”

It was all hands on deck, then.

Bryce tended to be a serious—often read grumpy—guy on a good day, but the lines scrunched up between his eyebrows were positively grim.

The question Aaron didn’t ask was if Whitney was far enough along to successfully deliver the babies and have them be healthy. It’d been several weeks since she’d initially been put on bedrest, but it was still early. He counted up the weeks in his head from where he knew she’d been the last time he’d heard Sam discuss her pregnancy.

She’d be thirty-six weeks now. Would that be long enough?

“We wanted to keep everyone updated, so you’d know what was going on,” Bryce said. “Lindsey and I are heading up to Billings now, as well, so look to your direct supervisors like Aaron if you need anything.”

As they left, Lindsey caught Aaron’s eye almost apologetically, but he knew the drill. Stepping in during a crises was part of his job, and he would do whatever he could to help while the Duncans were otherwise occupied.

Taking it upon himself to personally speak to every remaining ranch hand, he made certain all vital duties had been seen to and taken care of. When he discovered a few of the hands struggling to finish up moving some equipment into the barn, he hopped on over to assist them.

It was after he’d sent the last of these hands off to go home that he heard two voices chatting in another section of the barn. From where he stood behind the backhoe, Aaron knew he couldn’t be detected, even though he’d never set out to hide. In spite of this, however, based on what he heard, maybe it was a good thing that he remained concealed.

“He said the newbie’s been shirking his duties and leaving early whenever he wants now,” said one of them, someone who sounded an awful lot like Keifer.

“That’s not true,” said the other guy, someone who’d been working there for about a year named Tyler. “If anything, Aaron stays later to wrap things up from what I’ve seen.”

Aaron stayed behind the backhoe but shifted in order to make out the two speakers. Keifer simply shrugged.

“Just what I heard.”

“From who?” Tyler asked. Aaron didn’t know Tyler very well, but he was a good man and hard worker from everything Aaron had ever witnessed.

“Brock.”

Yep. That tracked. Aaron’s blood boiled at what this meant. Brock had been spreading rumors and essentially talking smack about him to the other hands behind Aaron’s back.

“Well,” Tyler scuffed the bottom of his boot across a nearby board as if to knock something off the bottom. “Brock can say whatever he wants, but Aaron’s in charge now. And if I were you, I’d take everything out of Brock’s mouth with a grain of salt.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Keifer demanded. The guy had always been a lightweight in the brain department along with being a hothead. No wonder he’d gravitated to Brock of all people.

“It means that the only man I think Brock is in support of is Brock. He’s the type who likes to stir the pot just to create animosity and drama. I guess he believes trashing others makes him look good. It doesn’t. I’d watch my back around him, if I were you.”

With that, Tyler tromped out of the barn leaving Keifer in his wake. Keifer followed after him a few seconds later, his movements chaotic and fidgety as if aggravated. Likely because Tyler refused to be fooled by Brock’s nonsense. Or that of his apparent crony.

Over the next few days, Aaron had a ton on his plate, but he made it a point to keep tabs on whatever part of the ranch Brock wound up on. Far too often, he saw him lollygagging where hewasn’t supposed to be or taking far longer than he should’ve been to finish a simple task.

Because he had so much to do, he didn’t take the time to confront Brock about any of this, instead, he maintained a running tally of infractions to be dealt with later.

Whitney gave birth on Tuesday to a tiny baby boy and a just as tiny baby girl. They each had to be kept within the confines of the NICU due to their lung capacity not quite being up to par. The newest Duncans weren’t out of the woods—wouldn’t be for weeks—so Aaron had his folks peek in on Whitney and Sam to provide support and give him updates.

He didn’t want to bug any of the Duncan brothers at a time like this.

Besides, he had so much to keep him busy that he honestly didn’t have the time to do anything but manage the ranch. With four main personnel missing—five, really, since Whitney was among them—it left a lot on Aaron’s shoulders just to keep up with the regular order of things.

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