Page 38 of Her Three Rangers

Cody grimaced. “Do you think there will be problems with the calf?”

I shrugged. “I won’t know until I see for myself, but this heifer had a rough pregnancy last time, and I think it’s best if I’m on hand to assist with this one if anything goes wrong.”

He nodded and resumed scanning the road until I pulled into the long gravel driveway that led to the barn behind the big white farm house.

Willie, the farmer who owned this land, walked out to meet us as we stopped at the barn doors.

“I’ve got her in here, Grace,” he said. “The calf should be coming any time now, but she’s awfully restless. I think you’d better have a look.”

I glanced over at Cody. He had been completely in control when we’d been on the road, but now he looked a little out of his element.

“You don’t have to go in with me if you don’t want to,” I said. “It might not be the easiest thing to watch.”

“No,” Cody replied, shaking his head. “I’ll go with you. I’ll just, uh, stay out of your way.”

“Suit yourself.” I smiled. “Let’s go deliver a calf.”

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” I asked for the third time since we’d left the farm to go back home. “I could probably manage, I just…” I looked down at the mess I’d made of my clothes and grimaced. “I was hoping to avoid getting anything on the steering wheel or the door or… you know, just… everywhere.”

Willie had let me have a towel to wrap around my clothes for the ride home in an effort to keep the interior of the truck clean, and Cody had offered to drive so I wouldn’t be distracted with the towel and the mess in addition to the stress of a possible run-in with Garrick.

Now, though, Cody looked like he really might need to pull over at any moment.

“I’m okay,” he said, clearly lying. “I just wasn’t expecting so much, uh, stuff to come out.”

He sort of gagged on the last word and I couldn’t help but laugh. Poor guy. I wasn’t trying to be insensitive, but it was a little funny to me that this former Ranger with biceps the size of my head couldn’t handle a little afterbirth.

“I think you might have run outside before the worst of it,” I said, trying and failing to resist the urge to tease him just a little. “But seriously, if you need to stop for a minute, that’s okay with me. I won’t even tell the other guys.”

“Oh, man, please don’t tell them,” he said, glancing over at me with a pleading look that just made me laugh again. “Especially not Jaeger. He’ll never let me live this down.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” I said, tossing him a wink. “Didn’t you ever have to watch one of those videos in Health class about giving birth? I mean, obviously it’s a little different with a human baby, but… you know, it might have prepared you a little better for today.”

“I must have been sick that day,” he answered, looking very much like he might be sick right this minute. “At least it’s over. Now I only have to worry about seeing it again every time I close my eyes.”

I nearly reached over to put a hand on his leg, then remembered why I was all wrapped up and thought better of it. I had washed my hands thoroughly, of course, but the memory of where they had just recently been might have sent poor Cody over the edge.

“Can you park up by the house for me?” I asked, as the clinic came into view. “And then, if you’re up to it, I might need your help with one more thing.”

He looked over and quirked an eyebrow, his cheeks regaining just a hint of color. “Oh yeah? What kind of thing?”

I only smiled and gave a coy shrug.

If I was being honest, he probably wasn’t going to enjoy what we were about to do too much, but hosing me down outside might at least take his mind off his upset stomach.

Either that, or it would make things worse. At least we’d already be outside with a hose if he had to be sick.

He parked the truck and we walked around to the side of the house where the garden hose was lying on the ground.

“Can you pick that up for me, please?” I asked, pointing at the hose. “And then turn the water on—not full blast, but we’re gonna need some pressure behind it.”

“Got it,” he answered, moving to do what I’d asked.

While his back was turned, I dropped the towel and shrugged out of my shirt, then quickly stepped out of my pants and tossed the soiled clothes to the side. When he turned back around to face me, hose in hand, I was standing there waiting in my bra and panties.

“Holy shit,” he murmured, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

For a moment, he just stood there, water hose soaking both his shoes as his eyes roamed up and down over my body.

---