Page 25 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

“Good sign. If she keeps licking and that milk does its job, he should be on his feet soon.”

Sure enough. Half an hour later, when they checked after Trev showed Maclyn where the replacement waterer parts were kept, the baby was tottering around his mother on shaky legs. He rooted his nose at her chest, then under her front leg.

“He’s catching on,” Mac said.

“Yeah. I think he’s going to be fine.” He glanced at his watch, an old-school Timex that he preferred to digging his phone out of his pocket.

“It’s past quitting time.”

“Is there a quitting time on a ranch?”

“Touché.” He walked with her to her truck where Maclyn had tucked Raisin after they’d gotten the calf into the barn, to keep her out of harm’s way. “Heading back to the motel?”

Maclyn shook her head. “I’m making other arrangements.”

He had a decent idea of what those arrangements were, but before he could dig into the matter, Wade stepped out onto the porch.

“Jordan wants you to call him. You should consider turning your phone on.”

“Right.” Trev preferred his phone to be off. There were fewer distractions that way. “Something serious?”

“He didn’t say.”

Maclyn surprised him by touching his arm. “I’ll check my horses, then head to town,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

And with that, his quicksilver ranch hand slipped away.

Chapter Five

“Hey,” Trev said when Jordan picked up. He was returning the call he’d missed hours ago.

“Things going okay there?”

Trev had been about to ask the same thing of Jordan. His brother’s voice sounded strange. “We’re short on help.”

“Wade said you found a replacement for the Staton brothers?”

“I did. Kind of.”

“What does that mean?”

“She knows horses and is good at light ranch work, but she’s a total novice at calving, so Wade and I aren’t getting a lot of sleep.”

“Why did you hire her?”

“No one else applied and I thought my brother was going to be here shortly.”

“Yeah. About that. I will, maybe more quickly than I’d thought.”

There was something in his brother’s voice that was distinctly off. “What’s going on? More project issues?”

“Always.” It was a throwaway comment. Jordan pulled in an audible breath, then said, “I just got the most weird-ass letter. Certified, so I don’t think it’s a scam.”

“Okay …”

“Apparently I have a father I didn’t know about.”

“What?”