Page 3 of His First Baby Rodeo

If only I hadn’t broken my right arm —but no, that was just making excuses. Even if it hadn’t been his dominant arm, he wouldn’t be able to manage the labor on the ranch with only one good hand. Nobody could do that.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit the button to call his old friend Jeff. Eventhatwas difficult with his arm in a sling. This was maddening.

“Hello?” Someone was yelling in the background when Jeff answered, and it took Mac a moment to realize that it was a child’s voice. This was the reason he and Jeff hadn’t seen one another in such a long time. Jeff was a father now, and that fact had driven a wedge between their lives. It just wasn’t possible to maintain the kind of relationship they’d had when they were younger now that Jeff had kids to think about.

Which was fine. People grew apart. Mac had had to deal with losing lots of friendships over the years as people had gotten married, settled down, and started families of their own. Jeff was hardly the first.

“Is this a bad time?” Mac asked.

“No, it’s fine. Why?”

“Sounds like there’s a lot going on over there.”

“Oh, that’s just Phoebe. She’s worked up about something or other.” Phoebe was Jeff’s eldest, Mac recalled. She must be five years old now. It seemed like only yesterday that he had been mailing his friend a cigar to celebrate new fatherhood.

“You don’t need to go check on her? Is Marilyn going to do it?”

“Marilyn’s in bed with the baby. Did we tell you she had the baby? It’s been a while since you and I have talked, I guess.”

“I didn’t realize she was pregnant again,” Mac admitted. He felt guilty for being so out of the loop. There was a time when he would have known everything his friend was going through. There was a time when they had been in regular contact with one another. To think that something so big and important could have happened in Jeff’s life and that Mac could have failed to know about it really brought home to him how far apart they had grown. “How is she? And how’s the baby?”

“Both doing great,” Jeff said. “His name is Jace.” Mac could hear the pride in his friend’s voice. “Listen, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you about it. It’s the third kid, you know, and I guess we’re both just a little less intense about things than we were in the past. We didn’t send out announcements to anyone, there was no baby shower — I don’t know who knows and who doesn’t, to be honest with you. We just kind of let it get around by word of mouth.”

“No, I get it,” Mac said quickly. “You shouldn’t have been worrying about filling me in. You had bigger things on your mind.”

“But it’s good to hear from you,” Jeff said. “Thinking about a trip out to Oklahoma any time soon? We’d love to have you meet the baby.”

“Maybe.”It was impossible to think about traveling anywhere at all right now. “I was actually going to ask if you might think about coming here for a while, truth be told, but I can see it’s not the right time for that.”

“I’m afraid not,” Jeff agreed with a chuckle. “I don’t get a moment’s peace these days. Is everything all right?”

“I had a little problem in my last rodeo.” The realization that Jeff didn’t know about the accident made Mac feel a bit better that he hadn’t known about his friend’s new baby. “I’m going to need some extra help around the ranch. I thought of you because you were the one to come and help me out after I first bought the place — that was a fun year, remember?”

“Yeah, that was great,” Jeff recalled. “That was before I met Marilyn, though. Before any of the kids were born.”

“I know. And I should have realized it wasn’t the same now. I feel bad for even calling you.”

“Well, no, don’t feel bad about that. Maybe we can figure out a way to help you out, even if I can’t come stay with you. What happened, anyway? You said there was some kind of accident. Are you all right?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Mac said. “It’s stupid.” And he recounted what had happened during the rodeo.

Jeff was quiet for a moment. “Mac,” he said. “I think I know what you’re going to say to this, but—”

“If you’re going to tell me to retire, Jeff, don’t even bother. I don’t want to hear that.”

“You’re going to be forty in a few years,” Jeff said. “Don’t most guys retire from the rodeo circuit by that age?”

“Not all,” Mac said fiercely. “And I’m nowhere near finished. I’m at the top of my game, Jeff. This would be a crazy time to give it all up. I just need some time to heal up from this injury and get myself back in fighting shape, that’s all.”

“Well, if you say so,” Jeff said doubtfully.

Mac didn’t want to talk about retirement. It was a subject he was hearing opinions about from far too many people. “Listen, this isn’t my problem right now,” he said. “The problem is how I’m going to manage the ranch with one arm out of commission. I mean, I guess I could hire someone, but it’s so hard to find good help. I just wish I could find someone I knew I could trust. You would have been ideal. I do understand why you can’t do it, though.”

“Well, hang on,” Jeff said. “What about El?”

“El?” Mac frowned. “Your sister El?” Eleanor Moyle was someone Mac hadn’t thought about in a long time. He vaguely remembered her hanging around the last time he’d visited Jeff, but that had been five years ago. Eleanor had been in college at the time. He didn’t even know what she’d been up to in the interim.

“She grew up on my dad’s ranch, same as me,” Jeff reminded Mac. “She’s just as handy around a place like yours as I am.”

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