| |
Damon watched with a smirk as the petite woman railed against the snow, cursing at it and shaking her fist as if it would cause the cavalcade of snow packed neatly against the doorway to cower and slide out of her way. Unfortunately for her, they had other things to worry about.
“When you’re done swearing at the frozen water, would you come here?” he asked mildly.
Fists on hips, she whirled fast enough that she slipped on the straw beneath her boots and ended up on her backside. He tried not to laugh...he really did.
She glared at him. “And what’s a bigger problem than being stuck in a tiny barn with smelly animals? Present company not excluded.”
His mirth faded, and he nodded over to the pregnant goat. “She’s been in labor for most of the night.”
Valerie’s mouth gaped open, and her eyes widened half a size as she glanced between him and the goat that was pacing the side of the pen nearest the chickens. The other goats were leaving her alone and had crowded over by him at some point in the night.
“No, no, no. She can’t be having her baby. Not now!”
“Don’t look at me. She’s the one you need to have that talk with.” Not that it would do any good. The goat was panting and looking fairly uncomfortable as she paced. Damon was glad he was born a dude and thankful for what women were willing to go through to keep the species alive. He didn’t think he’d have it in him to have a baby if given the chance.
Valerie had worry creasing her face, but she eased to her feet and walked carefully over toward the goat, talking softly to her.
“Hey, girl. I’m so sorry this is happening when your owner isn’t here. I wish you could talk and tell us what you need.”
“She’s been laboring for about seven hours. Anything over twelve, and I’d start to worry,” Damon offered.
“Twelve?” Valerie looked horrified.
“She just needs us to make sure she’s coming along well.”
“And what exactly does that mean?” She had her hands clasped on her heart as if it might give out with this information.
“Just keep an eye on her, and if it seems like she’s struggling, and she’s been in labor for twelve hours or more, I would call the vet.”
Valerie groaned. The goat walked over to her and nuzzled her face. He was surprised when Valerie didn’t pull away, but instead planted a little kiss on the goat’s face. Normally, he would find it bizarre for someone to be jealous of a goat, but in that moment, he was.
“Well, I’m not going to be entombed in here for the rest of those hours.” Valerie strode back to the doorway and started scraping at the snow with her gloved hands. Damon eased the goat lying on his lap off, got up, nearly groaning as something cracked, and went over to help. It would take a lot of digging to get all that snow out of the way. If they were lucky—which he wasn’t counting on—it had simply drifted, the snow pushed into a specific area by the wind, and the drift was tall but not thick.
He didn’t get his wish. Side by side, he stood with Valerie, digging snow out of the doorway. The only place it went was onto the straw around them and he vowed to help scoop it back out once they were able to get out of here and could get to shovels so it didn’t melt into puddles in the straw and rot it.
It took a few minutes, but he managed to break through to the morning darkness.
The wind had stilled so, when they poked a hole through the insulation that the snow provided, the distinct call of his foreman, Wayne, came to him.
“Damon, are you around here anywhere? You better not be sleeping in that house with that pretty lady without telling us you were spending the night.”
Damon could have buried his face in the snow. Valerie chortled at the words.
“No sleeping with me, but he did make a nice bed for the goats,” she yelled out.
Usually, his men found his glares to be scary enough that shenanigans calmed down, but she just smirked at him.
“So our rescuer knows about me.”
“He’s my foreman, and he only knows about you because Patti can’t keep from gossiping.”
“Well, lookit what you two got yourselves into.” Wayne was standing on the snowbank that was imprisoning them and peered through the little hole they’d dug, his headlamp bright and illuminating everything around him.
“I wish we could say we did it all ourselves, but really, we were just trying to survive the storm,” Valerie offered.
Wayne chuckled. “And survive, you did. Let me get a shovel.” He disappeared.
“I think the plywood either flew off or was buried,” Damon said, remembering what they’d been doing before taking refuge. Storms here came in fast and were ferocious, but he was thankful they usually didn’t last too long. Otherwise, he’d never be able to get out of the house to get anything done. This afternoon would probably be bright and sunny.
“Yeah, I can scrounge something else up.” She touched his arm and looked up at him with disarming sincerity in her enrapturing eyes. “Thank you for all your help. I’m sorry I took you away from your ranch for so long.”
“Can’t say you did it all yourself.” He winked. “The storm helped some.”
“Boss, in all my days, I never knew you could be so flirty.”
He couldn’t see Wayne’s face since the headlamp illuminated everything but the wearer, but he could picture the smirk on the man’s weathered face.
“Your Christmas bonus is one more smartass comment away from being replaced with coal.”
“Oh!” Valerie punched his arm. He barely felt it through the thick jacket. “Don’t be a grinch.”
“Now you know what I have to put up with all the time,” Wayne said, his voice muffled as he shoveled a way out for them.
“Ignore him. He gets cranky when he has to leave the ranch.”
With the two inside digging at snow with their hands and Wayne outside scooping with a shovel, it only took a few more minutes to get the snow down to a level where they could crawl up and out of the cleared area on the top of the doorway.
“Oh, thank God,” Valerie said once she’d gotten out and had found her feet.
“Think you were buried alive?” Wayne sounded amused.
“I don’t think we need to put another barrier up for now.” Damon said, glancing at where they’d dug a spot just big enough to get out.
“Speaking of”—Valerie glanced at him, the light of the headlamp glinting off her concerned eyes—“what are they doing to get that bear relocated?”
“Relocated?” Wayne said. “Nah, they’re just going to—”
“Wayne, why don’t you head back to the house?” Damon interrupted, not wanting to disturb Valerie with the idea of shooting it. She’d always been sensitive to that sort of thing as a teenager. Maybe it was different now, but just in case.
With a wave, Wayne headed out, and Damon put his own headlamp on so they weren’t left in the pitch dark.
“So they’re planning to shoot it?” she asked bluntly.
He sighed. “Relocating would work, too, but for that, they need to be able to track it down and tranquilize it properly. More than likely, someone will see it traipsing across their property and shoot it. It’s dangerous in the state it’s in right now.”
“I know. It would just be nice if we could do something so the poor thing could live, and yet our animals would be safe.”
“We could see if Jason would be able to provide the tranqs, and then we could try to track it down.” Damon could have kicked himself as soon as the idiotic words passed his lips. What was he thinking? The truth was, he hadn’t been. Her sad face had made him want to make it all better. But tracking a grizzly was dangerous, and he knew better. So did Jason. He would surely talk him out of it. Yes, Jason could be his saving grace on this by being the bad guy to Valerie.
“That’s a great idea. Let’s go call him.”
Apparently, despite being woken up by a chicken laying an egg on her this morning, the crazy woman had gotten enough sleep to be frustrating as all heck. Oh well. Jason would put the kibosh on the whole thing.
A few minutes later, and Jason answered. “Vet speaking.”
“With how long you took to answer, I thought maybe the bear had gotten you,” Damon greeted his friend. Valerie rolled her eyes at his antics.
“Not yet.”
“Well, it may be sooner than you think. Valerie has an idea.”
“Hi, Jason. You’re on speakerphone.”
“Hi, Valerie. How’s Martha?”
“She’s recovering well. Going to be coming home in a couple days. Thank you for asking after her.”
“Of course. Now, what can I do for you?”
“Well, one, can you stop by and check on a pregnant and possibly laboring goat?”
“Possibly? Is she acting off?”
“She’s for sure in labor,” Damon said, arching an eyebrow at Valerie for her distrust.
“Okay, for how long and does everything seem to be normal?”
“Damon said she’s been in labor about seven hours.” She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Eight hours now.”
“I can come over later this evening and take a look at her. If something seems wrong, call me and I’ll make it out before then.”
“Great, I thank you for that. Now we also want to know if you have tranquilizers that we can get the loose bear with.”
We? Damon mouthed at her. No way did he want to be included in this absurd scheme. He waited for Jason’s resounding no, but it didn’t come. In fact, Jason was quiet for a minute.
“You know, that’s not a terrible idea.”
“What?” Damon choked.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a bad idea. We’d have to be exceptionally careful, because he’ll be dangerous, but the fish and game guys won’t be here for a few days. Let me chat with them about it and see if they have ideas about cages and transport to the zoo or sanctuary—wherever they want him to go.”
“Sounds good. Let us know.” Valerie smiled at Damon triumphantly. He narrowed his eyes.
When they’d said goodbye and hung up, Damon crossed his arms and sent the most quelling glower he could muster her way. The imp simply twitched an eyebrow at him and copied his pose.
“If we do go out to find this thing, you’re not coming. It’s way too dangerous.”
“Too dangerous? That ridiculous.”
“You haven’t been around wild animals in decades, and they’re dangerous enough to people who know what they’re doing.”
“We’ll be in our vehicles the whole time, and if Jason has a tranquilizer gun, then he will be able to knock it out from a good distance.”
The woman was as stubborn as...he shook his head. He wouldn’t argue, but he’d call Jason himself and put the idea in the trash where it belonged.
“Okay,” he said. “In the meanwhile, just be safe, and keep your animals boarded in their barns. If the snow melts much, I’ll come back to help you board up the goat pen.”
“Thank you again, Damon.” She’d dropped her arms from their crossed position and smiled at him before giving him a quick hug. Too quick. “And if we do go out to find this predator stalking about, I’ll show you that I can be useful too.”
He shook his head and reached out, touching her face for the briefest moment before dropping his hand back to his side. Her skin was silky soft under his fingers, and he longed to touch her again.
“No one would ever call you useless. I’m just worried about your safety, is all.”
“No one will be totally safe until this bear is captured.”
He couldn’t argue with that.