Page 19 of The Fugitive Cowboy's Baby
No matter how many times he told himself the thought was wrong, he still couldn’t stop thinking it. He felt terrible. Her expression had been one of remorse, and he’d just had to rub it in a little more. If she was someone who didn’t learn from her mistakes, then maybe his reaction would have been justified. But there was no evidence that was the case. The truth was, he had reacted in frustration without much justification outside of it.
He finished feeding the calves their medicine and went to find Kat. He had every intention of apologizing to her—without admitting fault, of course—but when he finally found her, she didn’t even let him start.
“Can you help me find a reputable seller of lambs?” she asked. “I don’t want to make the same mistake again, and you seem to know what to look for.”
His apology died on his tongue. She didn’t need it, not even a little bit. She wanted his help more than anything. “Of course, I’ll help. But why lambs?”
“Kids seem to like them,” she answered, and she flashed a quick video she’d been watching on her phone. In it, a couple of small children were fawning over a lamb at a petting zoo while their parents filmed them. “So, they’d be for the petting zoo. The cabins should be ready soon, so we should have the animals comfortable and socialized, right?”
“Do you know how to take care of sheep?” he asked.
She pulled up an e-book she had also been reading. “I’m learning.”
“You know you’ll have to shear them, right? Even if you don’t plan to use their wool.”
“Can you help me learn that, too? I feel like some hands-on experience might be better than a video tutorial.”
Although she was surprising him, he thought he probably shouldn’t be surprised. He’d noticed her willingness to learn early on. She may have been pretending she wasn’t listening, but the spark in her eyes as she mentally noted down every piece of information he gave her was obvious. “Are you free tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“It’s the right season, so I think I’ll be able to find someone,” he said. It felt like setting up a date, but he shoved that feeling rightback down where it belonged and finished the work he was in the middle of doing.
As soon as that was done, he immediately started searching. He quickly found a couple ranches within an hour that sold spring lambs. When the vet called to see how the calves were faring, Cole asked about the ranches and whether the vet had a recommendation.
Cole barely got his daily work done because of the effort he put into this one assignment. He couldn’t tell whether he was more excited about the new challenge or just spending more of the day with Kat. It didn’t matter in the end, so he put it out of his mind. All that mattered was that he hadn’t been too hard on her, or if he had, she hadn’t let it get her down or stop her. Instead, she was more energetic than ever in her fight to see her dreams come to life.
The following afternoon,he and Kat were on the road together, towing a trailer to the ranch to look at and potentially purchase a couple of healthy lambs. It was going to be a long trip, but Kat didn’t wait to bring out the snacks she’d packed. “Popcorn?” she asked.
He took a handful and thanked her. “Shouldn’t we save the snacks for later?”
“Mm,” she said through a mouthful of popcorn. “We should, but I never do. What’s the fun in that?”
“Are you a one marshmallow now over two marshmallows later kind of kid?” he asked, laughing.
“Oh, I’ve heard of that!” She sat up straight and took a sip from her travel mug, which he assumed was full of coffee. “That’s that thing where kids can choose to have one now or two later, and it says something about their restraint or something, right? I think I’m both. I’ll take the marshmallow now, but then I’ll try to scheme to get the two later. Three is better than one or two. Don’t you agree?”
He shook his head. “Not if you’re trying to avoid sugar.”
“What kid is trying to avoid sugar?” she asked, popping another two fluffy kernels into her mouth. “Never heard of such a thing.”
“They do exist,” he said, “as a matter of fact. Often there’s a health issue involved.”
She went quiet after that, thinking, clearly. He wondered what she was thinking about, and he was just about to ask her when she answered his question for him. “We should have sugar-free snacks in the gift shop, don’t you think?”
“That’s a trick question,” he answered. “I don’t think there should be a gift shop at all.”
But she was already noting down her new idea in her phone, mumbling, “Sugar-free snacks in the gift shop,” as she did. When she was finished, she started munching on popcorn again and asked, “Have you always been this cynical? Because I’m picturing a small boy who trusts no one, and it’s both sad and cute.”
He knew this moment was inevitable. She was always going to start questioning him about his past at some point. All he had to do was keep his answers short and vague. “Nope.”
“Hmm…” She made a show of thinking about his answer. “I wonder what it was that broke your spirit then. One big thing or a series of little things?”
He sighed but answered, “Neither and both. And what about you? What made you the way you are?”
Thankfully, she took the bait. “What do you meanthe way I am?”
This kind of question was a trap, and he knew it, but it was better than getting into the nitty-gritty of his own life, a topic he was eager to avoid, no matter how much it cost. “You know,” he said without looking away from the road, “stubborn. You never give up, even when you definitely should. What made you like that?”
