Annie had known for a while now that wishes and daydreams were a waste of time. That didn’t stop her from wishing that she could start the day over, or at the very least ask Tucker to leave and come back tomorrow.
She didn’t even dare think that nothing else could go wrong because that was just inviting catastrophe. She still had on her stinky, now bloodstained and torn work clothes. The man she so desperately wanted to impress had walked in on her making a fundamental mistake in caring for animals—one that could have cost them both physically, and certainly may have cost her financially. What foundation wanted to invest in a sentimental idiot?
Then, to make everything a billion times worse, the libido she’d managed to stifle for two long years had decided to rejoin the party by filling her mind and body with so many hormones she could barely see straight. She’d actually had to bite back a moan when he’d touched her.
Thank God he’d put his shirt back on. It didn’t erase the memory of his muscled chest and the smattering of dark hair, or his small hard nipples or the perfect V from his broad shoulders to his trim waist. But at least she didn’t have to dig her fingernails into her palm to stop from touching him back.
Dammit, now she wished she’d brought her coffee. And taken some ibuprofen. She thought about going back to the cabin, but they kept a bottle of aspirin in the stable med kit. She should have offered him something when she’d bandaged him, but with all that chest showing, she’d been distracted.
“Is everything okay?” Tucker asked from behind her. “Are you feeling dizzy?”
She must have jumped a foot. She hadn’t heard him walk across the gravel. He had to think she was nuts, standing in the middle of the path, staring at nothing. “No, I’m fine. Sorry, just thinking about…We should go check on the horses.”
“Right.” He smiled, although it seemed a little forced and made her edgy. “FYI, in my younger days, I spent a lot of time in foaling stalls.”
“Good, then you can help if it looks like things have progressed that far. I think Glory might foal tonight. She’s been up and down a lot today, sweating like crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised if her water’s already broken.”
“Is this her first?”
Annie shrugged, but she was relieved that the conversation was squarely in safe territory now. She could talk animals till the cows came home and feel fairly sure she wouldn’t make a misstep. “Don’t know. She arrived pregnant and undernourished. We fattened her up, but it’s impossible to say what that period of malnutrition did to the fetus. So Doc Yardley is on call, and I’ll be setting up camp out here tonight.”
“You’ve done this a lot, then?”
“Often enough to know when to call for help.” She stopped at the stable door. “I’ve been meaning to ask,” she said, looking directly at him as the sun cooperated and moved from behind a cloud. The butterflies she’d never expected to feel again came back, but she couldn’t afford not to watch him, because the issue had been bothering her since that first email. “You’re the head honcho of the Rocking B ranch. Your foundation has a director by the name of Rafael Santiago. So how come you’re here instead of him?”
Oddly, the question made him smile. A half grin, actually, the right side of his mouth lifting for a few seconds. “I think it’s important to do some things personally.”
“You go to each nonprofit yourself?”
“Not all of them, no. This is a special case.”
That made her blink. “Why?”
“Okay, I admit it.” Tucker gave the impression of shrugging without moving his shoulders. “I may have had some other business in the area, but I figured this might be a nice break from the daily grind.”
Annie laughed. “You picked a lousy place to find rest and relaxation, Mr. Brennan. I only have six permanent part-time volunteers. Levi and Kathy have been keeping an eye on the mares today, but they leave when the sun sets. I’m pretty much it until eight tomorrow morning, and I’ll have my hands full. I can’t even offer you dinner, unless you want a frozen bean and cheese burrito.”
The half grin came back. “Hey, at least I got to wrestle a goat.”
This time her laugh was accompanied by a sense of ease. “To each his own,” she said, although she didn’t for a minute think his answer was silly. Her last real vacation had been spent working at a horse rescue shelter in upstate New York.
“Come on,” she said. “This is the primary stable, used for horses who need special attention. We’ve got plans in the works for a separate quarantine stable, but we don’t have the funds yet. The economy hasn’t helped us with a lot of donations. Although our board chair, Shea Monroe, has been doing wonders in that area. We’ve got several email campaigns running with more planned.”
“It’s Tucker,” he said.
She blinked, stopped walking.
“Not Mr. Brennan.”
“Oh, right.” Annie walked him into the stable proper, making sure to move slowly, talk softly. “The stalls are twelve by twelve. That wall serves as the barrier to the half of the stable we use to house the newcomers. There are four stalls back there. The four in the middle are for those who are hurt, and we keep the nearest four for foaling. They’re really too close to the doors but we don’t have much choice.”
Annie let him take his time looking around the big white structure. Considering it was almost twenty years old, the stable was in good shape. The man who’d originally built Safe Haven had come from Idaho, and he’d worked his tail off to save whatever horses he could.
Tucker walked past the pregnant mares to check out the other horses that were in sick bay. None of them were contagious, just needing special attention.
Levi and Kathy were inside the empty foaling stall next to Glory’s. “Hey,” Kathy said, keeping her voice low and calm.
“How’s she doing?” Annie asked, taking a look at the mommy-to-be. Glory was a sturdy black quarter horse with a blazing white star on her forelock. She was lying down on her nest of fresh straw but her agitation was clear.
“She’s fine,” Kathy said. “We’ve got a bet going on what time her water’ll break. I say ten.”
“I think it’s gonna be midnight,” Levi said. “You gonna call Doc Yardley?”
“He’s supposed to come by later, but everything’s going okay. I can handle it.”
“You know,” Kathy said, “we can stay.”
“No need.” It was Tucker’s voice coming from behind her, and Annie jumped, even though he’d kept the words soft. “I’ll stick around.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Annie said. “I can manage, and you just flew in today. Wrestling goats is exhausting.”
His grin made her want to flip her hair back like a teen at the mall.
“I’d like to stay,” he said. “We used to tell all our most embarrassing stories waiting for the foals. It was fun.”
Annie turned to face him, wincing as she tried to cross her arms over her chest. If she’d had a brain, she would have iced some of the worst bruises before heading out to show off the sanctuary. She really needed to get that aspirin. “We’ve got a ton to go over tomorrow, including that ride across the property you asked for in your email. Besides, I don’t recall telling embarrassing stories being an essential part of foaling.”
His casual wink made her pulse leap. “You just haven’t been to the right stables.”
Kathy and Levi both laughed, but that got Glory struggling to her feet, so all attention went to her. As soon as she was standing, Annie entered the stall to comfort her. She moved slowly,