He checked the calf first.He ran his palm along its side and felt for a steady breath.He felt for the strength that would carry it through the next few hours.The animal answered him in small ways.It gave a twitch and a push.
It would make it.
He moved to the cow next.His hand settled against her flank.He checked for tension or anything that might turn against them.She shifted under his touch.Her attention remained fixed on the calf.
Titus stepped back after that.His work was done.The space felt different now.It was not empty, but it was not the same as it had been before.
He glanced toward the door without meaning to.He looked as if the wood might offer something he had missed.There was nothing to see.Only the same cold remained.Still, the sense of her presence lingered in the way his body had not fully let go.
He exhaled slowly and turned away.
The rest of the night passed in small tasks.He moved toward morning by laying fresh straw and cleaning what he could.He moved through it all without giving himself space to linger.By the time gray light pushed under the door, exhaustion had caught up with him.
He sank down against the wall for a minute.His head tipped back and his eyes closed.Sleep took him in short, broken stretches.It was enough to dull the sharper edges of the night.
When he woke again, the shed had changed.Light filtered in stronger now.It was not enough to warm the space, but the outlines were clearer.The calf stood on its own.It was unsteady but upright.The cow hovered close.
Titus pushed himself up.He moved slower this time.His body reminded him of the struggle.He felt the ache in his arms and the stiffness in his legs.
He rolled his shoulders once and then again.As he moved, his hand brushed the side of his neck.He paused.The contact stopped him.
He pressed his fingers there, just below his ear.That was where her mouth had found him.The memory returned with a clarity that cut through the fatigue.It was not loud, but it was steady.
He stood there for a second with his hand still at his neck.Then he dropped it.There was work to do.
He finished what remained in the shed.He moved with efficiency, though something about the routine felt less contained.The work held, but it no longer shut everything else out.
When he stepped outside, the morning had taken hold.The yard stretched out in front of him.Pale light settled over the ground.The cold remained but it was less biting than it had been hours earlier.
He paused just beyond the door and scanned the space.There was no sign of her.There was no trace of where she had crossed the yard.She had come and done what she needed to do.Then she had left.
That should have been enough.For years, it would have been.
Titus stepped down into the yard.His boots found the packed ground.The day waited for him with work already lined up.Nothing about the ranch would adjust for what had happened in the shed.He moved into the chores.
The memory eased its grip without letting go.
Titus found himself back in the present barn with the chain still in his hand.The daylight was stronger now than it had been when he first picked it up.The smell of fresh straw replaced the sharp edge of that night.The air sat easier in his lungs.
He did not move right away.The past did not sit on him as something heavy.It remained instead as something carried.
He rolled the chain once more in his palm.Then he set it back where it belonged.Work waited.It always did.
As he turned toward the open barn door, the memory stayed with him.He remained aware of what had shifted.Kyla had walked into that shed without knowing what she would find.She had stayed anyway.
That fact did not leave him.
Titus stepped out into the daylight.The present settled around him, but it did not hold the same shape as before.Some things, once changed, did not return to what they had been.For the first time in a long while, he did not try to force them to.
