By noon the next day Cassidy felt better about the sale that would start bright and early the next morning. She was surprised when Maggie and Abby showed up to work mid-morning. They’d brought a playpen along for Levi, who entertained himself by watching them move things around. They priced and moved the smaller items onto the temporary tables she made out of some old doors and plywood she found in the barn.
The playpen didn’t last long, though. Levi wanted in on the action. Cassidy scooped him up out of the playpen and let him play stickers with her. She wrote a price on a sticker and he stuck it anywhere on the item he wanted to. He loved it.
They stopped to eat a quick sandwich and then got back to work.
Cassidy started checking her watch about two.
“Is something wrong?” Abby asked. “You’ve been checking your watch a lot.”
Cassidy stuck a fifty-cent price tag on a small wind chime. She’d told them about the lambs she was supposed to go pick up, then added, “Well, I was actually expecting Jarrod. He said he would take me to pick up the lambs.”
“Oh really,” Maggie said, questions in her eyes. “I’m kind of liking this.”
Abby came out from the barn carrying the bassinette Cassidy hadn’t tossed out for some strange reason. “Hey, Maggie, look at this antique cradle. If we cleaned this up and gave it a new coat of paint, it would be darling for a new baby. What?” She halted in her tracks and looked from Cassidy to Maggie. “Okay, what did I miss? You two look like something good was being discussed.”
Cassidy eyed Abby. “What did I miss? Is someone having a baby?”
Maggie beamed. “Abby, Jarrod is going to show up any minute to take Cassidy into town to pick up her new baby sheep. And, Cassidy, I’m expecting a baby in about two months.”
“Jarrod, over here again.” Abby spoke with unabashed enthusiasm. “He is certainly spending a lot of time hanging around you. This is pretty exciting.”
Cassidy was in too much shock over Maggie to care in that specific moment. “You don’t look seven months pregnant. Really?”
Maggie chuckled. “No, no,” she managed to say, still chuckling. “We’re adopting. I work with Over the Rainbow a few miles from here. It’s a home for unwed, pregnant teens. One of the teens asked us to be the parents of her baby, and after much prayer and consideration we decided to do it. We want kids so much. We’re really excited.”
“Wow, I’m happy for y’all.” Cassidy couldn’t think of anyone who would be a better mother.
“So spill,” Abby said after patiently waiting for Maggie to finish talking. Before anything else could be said, though, Jarrod pulled into the driveway. Abby shot her a pleased smile. “Interesting.”
Cassidy ignored her.
“So how’s it going?” Jarrod asked as he strode across the yard to them. “Y’all going to make some big money?”
“You bet we are,” Abby said. “This is very neighborly of you to take Cassidy to pick up her animals. Cassidy, you go on and don’t worry about anything. Maggie, Levi, and I will just price away while you kids are gone.”
Jarrod looked suddenly leery of his sister-in-law.
“Don’t look so worried, Jarrod.” Abby smiled. “I’m glad you’re taking some time off from working constantly.”
Cassidy was very uncomfortable now about the whole situation and beginning to worry that she’d made a mistake letting him help her bring the lambs home.
“You sure are quiet today,” he said after they’d driven about halfway into town.
“Just a lot on my mind. I’ll be glad to get the sale out of the way and have one more thing off my list.”
When they reached the vet’s, Clara Lyn was standing on the porch.
“Well, hi there, you two. What are y’all up to?” She was looking from one to the other.
Extremely self-conscious for fear everyone would start to get the wrong idea about the two of them if they were seen together too often, Cassidy over explained. “I’m getting two lambs from Doc and Jarrod is helping me get them home. You know, they need extra care to make sure they make the ride home without too much trauma.” What?
Jarrod’s lip twitched and Clara Lyn grinned.
“Sure they do. I’m quite certain Jarrod doesn’t mind at all. Hey, here you go.” She handed Cassidy a white flyer with red, white, and blue fireworks exploding all over it, announcing the Fourth of July celebration the following week.
“We want to make sure you’re aware of this. It’s going to be a great day. You’re bringing your peaches?”
“Yes, I should have some ripe ones by then.”
“Great. Jarrod, maybe you can go help her pick some.”
“I’d be glad to.” His dark-blue eyes crinkled with amusement.
Cassidy’s temper rose. He was finding it funny that people were starting to do exactly what she wanted them not to do. “I’ll talk to you about it later, Jarrod. I have lambs to get now.” She didn’t wait around for more blatant hints of matchmaking. Instead, she strode through the door and immediately heard the tap, tap of the pig’s hooves on the tile floor in the hallway.
A Wet Floor sign stood in the middle of the empty waiting room, but she didn’t think anything about it until the pig came barreling around the corner. Clover saw her, squealed gleefully, and never stopped running. One second Cassidy was standing and the next the pig was sliding across the wet floor like a bowling ball. She struck Cassidy in the ankles with such force that Cassidy’s feet flew out from under her and she went airborne.
It all happened so fast that Cassidy wasn’t prepared, and she came down hard on the tile floor. The fall in the yard that first night at Strawberry Hill had nothing on this.
Her hip hit first and pain shot through her.
“Cassidy!” Jarrod rushed inside and knelt beside her. “Don’t move.”
“Oh my goodness!” Clara Lyn exclaimed, dropping her flyers as she hustled to her side, bangles jingling as she knelt down too.
Cassidy’s hip throbbed. Clover instantly stuck her snout in Cassidy’s ear and licked, making not moving impossible. She jumped.
“No, ma’am,” Clara Lyn admonished, throwing her arms around the pig and pulling her away. “You’ve already caused enough trouble, young lady.”
“What’s all the ruckus in here? Missy leaves and I can’t get a dadgum thing done—” Cassidy saw Doc’s eyes widen in dismay, seeing her sprawled on the floor. “Oh. What happened here?” He bent down to join the others.
“Clover slipped on the wet floor. I’m fine. My hip is sore, but I’m fine.”
Doc, as gruff as he was, looked worried. “Missy mopped before she took the afternoon off. I’m sorry about that. Let’s look you over. Don’t move just yet.”
“You didn’t hit your head, did you?” Jarrod sounded grave, and his gaze probed hers intensely. She became aware that he was cradling her head in the crook of his arm.
“No. I don’t think so. I’m glad. I already had one concussion recently, and I wouldn’t want another one.” The words were out before she realized she was saying them.
“When did you have a concussion?” Doc asked, probing her hip, making her wince. “Sorry ’bout that. Sore, huh?”
She nodded. “Just a little.”
“What about the concussion?” Jarrod asked.
“Oh, I hope she’s okay,” Clara Lyn added, worry in her voice.
Doc pulled a penlight from his pocket and shined it into her eyes. “Tell us about that.”
“I-I ran out in front of a car and was hit. I was—”
“You were hit by a car!” Clara Lyn exclaimed.
Cassidy did not want to talk about this.
“Hush, Clara Lyn. Now, go on,” Doc grunted, taking her chin in his hands and turning her head as he stared into her eyes.
“I was in a coma for a couple of days—”
“A coma!” Clara Lyn squealed. At least she thought it was Clara Lyn. It sounded very close to Clover’s squeal.
Cassidy closed her eyes and opened them to find Jarrod staring down at her with deep concern. Perfect. She did not want anyone asking any more questions about that accident. It was embarrassing enough.
“I woke up two days later, the doctors deemed me fine, and now, other than a headache when I’m stressed, there are no aftereffects.” Not any that anyone could see. Her being in Wishing Springs living at Roxie’s was one aftereffect that had come out of that whole fiasco. “And I’m fine now. I’m going to have a sore hip, but I’m fine.” She was tired of being coddled. She moved to rise up and Jarrod helped her to a sitting position.
“Okay, move your leg and let’s see,” Doc instructed. She complied. Pain shot through her, but she was able to move her leg fine.
“It’s good. Now, let me get up and let’s load up my babies. And how’s my dog?”
“Maybe you need to stay down and let’s get the ambulance out here and have that hip checked out,” Jarrod said. A deep scowl etched his face.
“No. Jarrod Monahan, I am fine.” Her words were clipped. She started to get up with or without his help.
“Stubborn woman. You could be seriously hurt.”
“And you could be seriously overreacting.” Pain shot through her lower back and down her leg, but she did her best to hide the wince.
“See there. You’re hurt.” He reached to assist her, his long fingers wrapping around her arm.
“I fell down,” she gritted through clenched teeth, fighting to ignore the feel of his hand on her skin. “I bruised my hip. Yes, I will be sore tomorrow. But I’m fine.”
Doc and Clara Lyn stood watching them and were unnaturally silent.
“See, my hip moves.” She lifted her leg, ignored the pain in her lower back, and smiled cheerily at Jarrod. “Stop being so protective. Thank you for your concern, but I am not a child.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it shut. She could just imagine what he was thinking.
“Doc, my lambs?”
“Oh, come right this way.” A sardonic expression twisted his features comically.
The old codger was laughing at her. She shot Clara Lyn a glance, hoping for some support, but there was worry in her eyes too.
“You’re limping. Jarrod, she’s limping.”
He wore a thunderous expression now. “Clara Lyn, does it look like I can do anything with her?”
“Ex-actly,” Cassidy enunciated. “I am not yours to ‘do anything with.’ ”
With that she followed Doc into the other room and down the hall.
“Goodness, she does have a temper,” she heard Clara Lyn declare. “At least with you, Jarrod.”
“Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Clara Lyn.”
“Oh, look at the babies.” Abby cooed as she held Levi on her hip. Jarrod and Cassidy lifted the lambs from the backseat of the truck where Cassidy had ridden with them on the way home.
“Dog!” Levi exclaimed, jumping excitedly on his mother’s hip and reaching out toward the lambs.
Jarrod laughed with everyone at his nephew. “No, not a dog, lamb,” he said, enjoying the excitement on Levi’s face. “He’s going to have fun with these little fellas.”
He was glad for the little distraction the tot supplied. Maybe he had overreacted. But when he saw Cassidy hit that hard floor, he’d worried she had hit her head. They’d both cooled down some after getting the lambs loaded up. He’d backed off, given her room, and was biding his time.
“Are you limping?” Maggie asked the minute Cassidy took a few steps.
“I fell. It seems that Clover turns into a bowling ball on wet tiled floors. And I was the bowling pin.”
“Are you all right?” His sisters-in-law asked the question in unison.
Cassidy shot daggers at him, daring him to speak. “I’m fine. My hip hurts and is probably going to be the color of a cluster of grapes soon, but I’m fine.”
He set his lamb on the ground in the pen, then took hers out of her arms and lowered him over the fence into the soft hay. Almost instantly the two babies curled up together and went to sleep.
His phone rang and he was glad for the excuse to walk away. “Jarrod.”
Madge the 9–1–1 dispatcher’s nasal twang greeted him. “Chief, got a grass fire on Bert Tobias’s place.” She called out the address. “Number one is en route.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and looked at Cassidy. “No need me asking if you’ve got this. I’m sure you do. I’ve got a grass fire to tend to.”
“A fire?” Cassidy asked as he got into his truck with other questions from his sisters-in-law echoing behind him. He rattled off the info he had, cranked up the truck, and then drove away. A fire he could handle.
He was beginning to wonder if he could ever handle Cassidy Starr.