Page 75 of When the Sun Rises
Another cacophony of overlapping congratulations and excited remarks came throughout the room before I raised both my hands to quiet everything down. “Jackson and I are both obviously over the moon, and we wanted to share this with everyone as soon as we knew. She’s due early March, which isn’t ideal for foaling, but hopefully it’ll all work out.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Mack stated firmly. “We always have.”
A murmur of agreement came from the rest of my men, and I swallowed back the rising emotion in my throat for their effortless support. They’d seen me through the lowest points of my life, and on dayswhere I struggled with doing more than just existing, so to have them here on what was easily in the top three of best days I’d had, just under my wedding days, truly felt full circle.
“Have you picked out a name yet?” Lane asked, surprising me with the enthusiasm he seemed to have.
“Not yet.” Jackson shook his head, “We have some that we like, but both Tucker and I agreed that we want to wait to meet her before deciding on a name.”
We fielded a few other questions about our newest addition for a few more minutes before people began to disperse to head off to their jobs. I was just about to head out myself with Jackson when my father caught me by the arm.
“Can we talk a minute?”
I nodded, before glancing back toward my husband, “I’ll be just a few. Wait for me?”
He gave me a wide smile that always seemed to soften my heart around the edges before exiting the dining room. Once he had, I looked back toward my dad. “What’s going on?”
“I just wanted you to know, I’m real proud of you. I know you were worried about inheriting the farm, but I never once had any doubts. You’ve loved this land and these horses far too much to ever put it at risk. Now, that said, I can’t say I always understood where your head was at, but life has thrown a lot at you.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, trying not to let the sentiment in my father’s voice get to me.
“You have lived through more hardship than most other people will ever know, and I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you and Jackson. He’s a good man, and your mother and I are proud to call him a son. And we’re real excited to meet your little girl.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I said, my words thick. “That means a lot.”
We exchanged a quick hug before he cuffed me on the arm with a quick nod and left me to return to my man. Making my way outside, the summer air was already starting to heat up, but I found Jacksonleaning against my truck, his pretty lips curling back into a warm smile as I bounded down the porch steps.
“All good?” he asked as I approached.
“Yeah. He just wanted to be sentimental away from prying eyes. You know old Southern men.” I sighed, suddenly feeling so much lighter than I had.
Jackson chuckled, motioning toward the pickup. “Be careful, baby. Before too long, you’re going to be one of those old Southern men.”
Rolling my eyes, I rounded the truck, a smile tugging at my lips despite his teasing. We both got ourselves situated inside and I drove us to the main barn. A quick walkthrough proved that both of our horses had already been turned out for the morning, so we made our way out to the pasture.
A cool breeze floated on the air, providing just a small relief to the steadily increasing temperatures as it shifted through the leaves of the trees around us. Small nickers and high-pitched whinnies could be heard on the wind, carried over from pastures further over. The newest set of foals on the farm were just a couple months old and were finally being introduced to one another, the little colts and fillies having to learn their dynamics early.
Another barely there smile graced my face when I spotted Poe in the pasture, his sleek dark body looking glossy in the sunlight. And who was happily munching away at the grass by him?
“Goldie!” Jackson bellowed, his horse’s head popping up from the ground at the sound of his voice. Her once golden-brown coloring with pale markings had long since shed, revealing a deeper tan base coat as she’d grown. Her mane and tail had grown in dark, and they fluttered on the air as she galloped her way toward her favorite person.
“You know, maybe I shouldn’t be in charge of naming our baby girl. I didn’t quite get it right with this one,” he mused, the last bit being cooed to the horse when she snorted her hello at the fence line.Jackson rubbed over her face and ruffled between her forelock before reaching into his pocket to produce some treats.
“I don’t know. I think Juniper’s Golden Rebirth has quite the ring to it.”
Normally, the horses born on the farm had the initials “JG” before their registered names to indicate they’d been born here at Juniper Grove, but it hadn’t felt right for Goldie. Instead, we’d decided to give her a unique place in our lineage maps.
Poe finally moseyed his way over to us, and I offered up a few oat treats I had stashed away. He happily munched them down as I ran a hand over his wide neck. His age was starting to show, the white hairs around his muzzle becoming a little more prominent than they were before, but his spirit was still sharp as ever.
“I don’t know. What if I look at her and decide to name her something silly, like Corriander? All the kids will make fun of her for having a weird name.” Jackson muttered, real concern etching his features as he looked over at me.
“First of all, I doubt you’re going to take one look at our daughter and go ‘Yep, that’s a Coriander if I’ve ever seen one’.” My words had the desired effect of making my husband smile. “And secondly, if it’s something truly stupid, I’ll veto it. I won’t let you name our child something ridiculous.”
He was quiet for a moment, both of us petting over our horses who were quickly becoming less interested without the prospects of extra treats, before he spoke again. “When we started this process, I thought if we had a boy, maybe we should have his middle name be Raleigh.”
My eyes jumped to Jackson, his green-brown ones soft as he looked back at me. It took me a second to respond as I tried to get my thoughts in order. “I’m glad we’re having a girl then.” I finally settled on.
“Really?”
