Page 34 of Fall or Nothing

I held back at the first stall. Whatever this was, it wasn’t ranch business as usual. That’s when I spotted Carter, entering at the other end of the barn with a pitchfork in his hand, dusty with hay clinging to his shirt. I stayed where I was, near enough to catch most of it, far enough that none of them noticed I existed.

The older woman’s gaze landed on Carter and stuck there. “I know you.” She stopped Carter in his tracks.

“I don’t believe so, ma’am.” He skirted around them, but I caught the way his shoulders tensed. Whatever that was about, it seemed to rattle him.

“He’s a newly hired hand.” Ash attempted to redirect. “Now, if you’ll let me show you?—”

“Oh. You’re Mavis’ son…” If she said a name, I couldn’t hear it clearly as she twisted her body toward him, but judging by Carter’s reaction, it must have hit a nerve.

“I just have a common face.” Carter laughed it off smoothly, pulling his hat lower over his eyes.

“Richard, doesn’t he look like Mavis’ son?”

"Mother, you’re mistaken,” he said.

“No, I’m not. Rex, you remember her from the Met Gala?” She turned to the other man on her right. “My oldfriend? She used to help me plan the Buchanan Family Foundation events.”

The man squinted at Carter, but dismissed him and linked arms with her. “Mother, please. Let the man do his job. Ash, let’s continue the tour.”

“But… but…” the woman tried to argue to no avail, glancing back one more time at Carter, who’d ducked outside, running off to the quarantine stable. My stomach dropped an inch, though I couldn’t have said why. He never once looked my way.

Ash turned the group in the opposite direction. “As I was saying, I’d recommend a steel roof if you’re going to build a state-of-the-art barn with all the latest features…”

The group moved on. I waited around for Ro and Eli to finish here, but then they begged to give treats out at the quarantine stable, too. I let them, only as an excuse to seek Carter out.

They ran ahead, and by the time I got there, they were up on the rails of one stall, feeding a horse peppermints two at a time despite my rule about one each. I let it go. I had bigger questions on my mind than horse dental hygiene.

I looked around and finally found Carter in the last stall—belonging to Sassy.

He was on the ground, sitting in the straw, legs out in front of him. The horse’s swollen body curled beside him, her head resting heavily in his lap.

“It’s okay, sweet girl,” he murmured, stroking her neck with long, gentle strokes. “You’re alright. I’ve got you.”

Guard fully down, his voice soothed. The sight of this big, exhausted man sitting in the straw with a laboring horse’s head in his lap cracked my chest wide open.

I’d come in here to ask him why he looked ready to disappear through the floor in front of that woman at the barn. The question died somewhere on the way to my mouth, witnessing this side of him.

Then he saw me, and the air shifted.

“Sage.” He startled enough that Sassy’s ears flicked. “I think something’s wrong. She’s breathing heavily, and she’s all sweaty.”

I entered and dropped to my knees beside them, inspecting. Her sides heaved, her tail lifting and falling, lifting and falling. But not for long. Sassy struggled to stand, and we both quickly got out of her way, crowding the door of her stall. Her back hoof came up, kicking at her stomach, and she bit at her flank. Then came a rush of liquid, like a dam bursting, flooding the floor.

“She’s in labor.” I panicked, reaching for my phone.

“Now? Is—is that bad?” His eyes bulged and his face turned white, difficult for him with his tan.

“Let me check.” I pulled out my phone, my thumbs flying over the screen. Dusty first, then Ash, and Daisy, too, one text each, three words apiece.

Sage: Sassy. Foaling. Now.

The phone buzzed back almost immediately with Dusty calling. I left the stall and answered and talked to him. A minute later, I relayed the news back to Carter, who was still inside the stall, speaking soothing words to Sassy while giving her space.

“Dusty is down in Bozeman at a conference. It’ll be a few hours before he can get here.” I attempted to keep my voice from climbing, but it was no use. “He says to keephim updated on her progress. Now that her water has broken, this is going to move fast.”

“Keep him updated? Who the hell is going to deliver this baby?” Carter balked. Sassy did as well, grunting and pacing.

I didn’t have time to answer. Ash burst through the doors, his little tour group nowhere in sight. We moved out of his way so he could enter the stall, but Sassy went down again, rolling onto the floor, coming to rest on her side.