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As he entered the kitchen, Etta was at the stove and Ru sat eating breakfast.
Etta glanced at him. “It’s about time. Have a seat. I’ll have your breakfast ready in no time.”
“Thank you, Etta.” He placed his hat on a rack.
Sitting next to Ru, he avoided looking at the little girl seated across the table in a booster chair.
“Glad you and Sky got everything sorted out,” Rufus said, buttering a biscuit.
Coop didn’t answer as he accepted the mug of coffee Etta handed him.
“I’m Kira,” a little voice said from across the table.
Cooper didn’t know a thing about kids so he thought it best to ignore the child.
“What’s your name?”
He took a swallow of coffee.
“What’s your name?” the kid persisted.
“For Pete’s sake, answer,” Ru snapped.
Coop looked at the little girl with the red curly hair. Dressed in a pink nightgown, she held an orangey-red stuffed animal in one arm.
Swallowing, he said, “I’m Cooper.”
“Coo.”
“Cooper.”
“Coo.”
“Coop…”
He trailed off as Etta placed bacon and eggs in front of him.
“What you eating, Coo?”
Cooper clenched his jaw. Did the kid have a hearing problem? “Bacon and eggs,” he muttered, hoping the little girl turned her attention elsewhere.
“Etta, can I have bacon and eggs, please?”
“You haven’t finished your oatmeal.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Mmm. You’ll eat bacon and eggs?”
“Yes.”
Coop dug into his breakfast and did his best to ignore the child.
“I played with Georgie yesterday. He’s having a birthday party and I’m going.”
Coop took a bite of biscuit and kept on ignoring her.
“I think it’s tomorrow. I don’t know. I have to ask Mommy, but Aunt Maddie’s making a cake and everything. Do you like cake?”
Coop took another swallow of coffee.
Rufus stood with his plate in his hand. Bending low, he whispered, “She’s not contagious.”
“Yeah,” Coop mumbled.
Etta laid a small plate with a cut-up egg and some bacon in front of the girl. The child picked up a fork and began to eat. Coop noticed her watching him. Every time he put a bite in his mouth, so did she. When he reached for his coffee, she drank her milk.
The redhead appeared in the doorway, dressed for the day in tight jeans and a pearl-snap shirt that outlined her curvy breasts. Not that he noticed.
The child swung to her. “Look, Mommy, I’m eating with Coo.”
Sky glanced from her child to him. “You ate eggs?”
The girl nodded, sporting a milk mustache.
“Time to get dressed, baby.”
Cooper rose to his feet, banking down any resentment he felt toward this woman. “I thought I’d check the hayfields this morning to see how much rain we got. As soon as it dries out, we should be able to get a first cutting.”
Sky did a double take. His voice sounded cordial. Almost. But she wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth. He was here, eating. That was a step forward.
“Good,” she replied.
“I saw some wild pigs this morning and I want to make sure they’re not rooting up the fields.”
“Wild pigs?”
“They’re common around here.”
“Yeah.” Rufus joined the conversation. “Skully Lutz traps them. I can give him a call if you want.”
“What does he charge?” Sky asked.
“Nothing. He just keeps all the pigs he catches.”
She looked at Cooper. “Do you think it’s a good idea to call him?”
“It couldn’t hurt. They travel in groups and they could really damage our hayfields. Our pastures, too.”
“Then call, Ru. We don’t need anything else working against us.”
“Will do.”
Both men ambled toward the back door.
“Coo,” Kira called.
Cooper stopped in his tracks and slowly glanced back.
“Bye.” Kira smiled.
He nodded, grabbed his hat and was gone.
Sky suppressed a grin. Evidently Cooper was a little nervous around children. But her daughter had a way of working magic.
“Come on, baby. Mommy has to get you dressed. I have to go to work.”
“I can dress myself.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Kira crawled from the chair with Sky’s help. “I’m big like Georgie and Coo.”
Cooper was in a whole different ballpark than Georgie, but obviously Kira saw them as strong hero types.
“Miss Dorie and I will help her,” Etta said. “You better go or you’ll never find Ru and Coop.”
“Thanks, Etta.” Sky bent low to kiss her child. “Mommy will be back later.”
“’Kay.”
“Etta…”
“I have your cell number. Stop worrying.”
She grabbed a worn felt hat as Etta and Kira walked out, the little girl chattering nonstop. Sky and her baby had been together so much Sky thought Kira would miss her. But Kira was social and adaptable to every situation, much like her mother.
So many times during her youth, Sky had had to adjust to new living arrangements, a new home, a new stepfather, but she never did it with as much grace as Kira. Sky tended to pout and rebel. She prayed that part of her nature was gone forever.
She hurried out the door to start this new phase of her life. She was going to be so damn agreeable, Cooper Yates wasn’t going to know what hit him.
THE DAY WENT BETTER than Sky had hoped. Cooper didn’t ignore her, but she felt her presence was a strain on him. Yet they were trying. That was the important part.
The ranch had gotten two inches of rain, so the crops were thriving. A week of sunshine and they could start cutting hay for baling.
At noon they went back to the house for lunch. Kira and Gran were having a tea party in the parlor around the coffee table. Kira wore a hat with faded satin ribbons and feathers, definitely from the forties as was Gran’s.
“We’re having camel tea, Mommy,” Kira said, lifting a cup to her mouth with her little pinkie stuck out.
“Camel tea?”
“Chamomile, my baby,” Gran corrected her.
“Yeah, that.”
They were having fun so Sky left, feeling better about being away from her daughter.
That afternoon she, Rufus and Cooper rode through the herd. They stopped putting out feed long ago, since there was plenty of green grass. Toward the woods, they could see buzzards circling.
Cooper pulled up the paint. “Let’s hope that’s a dead squirrel or a raccoon.”
Sky and Ru followed as he steered the paint into the woods.
“Son of a bitch.” Cooper swung from the horse and ran to the black cow stretched out on the ground. A baby calf’s feet protruded from her rear end.
Coop knelt by the cow and she didn’t move. “Damn it! I knew this heifer was fixing to calve, and I was keeping a close watch on her. With the rain and all, I didn’t check her last night.”
Sky knelt beside him. “Is she dead?”
“No, but she might as well be.” He removed his hat and swiped an arm across his forehead.
“Isn’t there something we can do?”
Cooper ran his hand over the cow’s swollen stomach and studied the unborn calf. “First, we have to get this out of her. It’s dead. No telling how long she’s been out here like this. Damn it! Damn it!” He stood and marched to his horse, grabbing a rope. “We have to pull the calf.”
Sky didn’t say anything, because this was something she knew nothing about. She had a feeling she was going to get a lesson in ranching today.
From a man who wished she was anywhere but here.
CHAPTER FIVE
COOPER STUDIED THE CALF once again.
“What’s the plan, boy?” Ru asked.
“Both feet and head are in the right position. My guess is the calf was too big for her to have and must have died during the struggle of birthing.” Coop looped the rope around both its hooves and tied a knot. “You and I have to pull it.”
“Can I help?” Sky asked.
“Try to keep the heifer calm.”
“How do I do that?”
“Use your instincts,” he snapped.
If she was a whiny female, that just might have hurt her feelings. But she’d show Mr. Yates.
He strolled to his horse and rummaged in his saddlebags, returning with a tube of something. Squirting what looked like a lubricant into his palm, he rubbed it over both hands.
