Page 11 of Under an Oklahoma Sky

Sage Hammond really was a beautiful woman.

Groaning, Adam rolled over and stretched out a few kinks. It was day fourteen of working at Heaven’s Pastures, and he slept better every night. Each morning before breakfast, he went for a run. During his time in prison, he’d kept up his physical fitness as best he could. With few opportunities for aerobic exercise, he’d focused mainly on weightlifting and Krav Maga Retzev drills—a continuous series of strikes meant to neutralize a threat. The routines got his heart rate up, but they were no substitute for the morning runs he’d missed. Since his release, he’d worked himself back up to four miles a day. Combined with the physical labor of keeping a ranch running, he was feeling fitter than he had in years.

The only thing disturbing his sleep these days was the occasional dream about one Ms. Sage Hammond. He’d taken a vow of celibacy upon entering the Brotherhood and, for the next fifteen years, relied on meditation whenever his thoughts strayed in directions they shouldn’t. Prison had changed how he dealt with even that. He’d quickly learned that showing any kind of vulnerability could make a man a target, forcing him to adapt in ways that conflicted with the vows he’d lived by. It had taken him a long time to accept that doing what was necessary to survive didn’t make him less faithful to his beliefs.

Standing, he headed to the small bathroom. Just as he flushed the toilet, a pounding on the cabin’s front door startled him.

“Adam! Adam! Hurry! Come quick!”

Matthew sounded frantic and breathless. Yanking on his sweatpants, Adam rushed to the door and swung it open. “What’s wrong?”

The boy’s face lit up as it were Christmas morning. “Diamond Lil is having her baby! You have to come watch it with us!” He grabbed Adam’s hand and tried to pull him outside.

“Okay. Okay. Hang on. Let me get my shirt and shoes.”

He dressed quickly, chuckling at Matthew’s impatience as the boy shifted from foot to foot and gestured for him to hurry. “Come on, or we’ll miss it!”

A few moments later, Adam followed him into the barn, where Sage, Jenna, and Evan peered into a stall. Sage smiled when she saw him, rekindling the attraction he’d been trying not to think about. Without makeup and with her hair pulled into a loose ponytail, she was prettier than any woman he’d ever met. Her hazel eyes danced with excitement as she waved him over.

“You’re just in time. She went into labor sometime after I checked on her last night around nine-thirty.”

Adam stepped closer and saw the white-and-black-spotted mare lying on a bed of hay. Her nostrils flared as her body quivered with a contraction, and sweat glistened on her coat.

Glancing at Sage and the children, Adam grinned. They’d obviously witnessed this before, but the experience clearly hadn’t lost its magic. From the looks on their faces, they’d been anticipating this moment for weeks.

Jenna looked up at him. “Have you ever theen a baby horthe being born, Adam?”

“No, Little Bird, I haven’t.” He’d looked up the meaning of her name after their first dinner together and used it as a nickname ever since. It fit her to a “T” with her sweet voice and constant chattering now that she was comfortable around him. “But I saw a cat have kittens once when I was about Matthew’s age.”

“Our barn cat had kittenth before, but a baby horthe is even better!”

“Really? How come? I thought all babies were special.”

She held out her hands as if the answer should be obvious to him. “Becauthe the baby kittenth can’t do anything until they get bigger, but a baby horthe can thand thoon after being born.”

Beside him, Sage chuckled and leaned toward him. “Can’t argue with that logic, can you?”

He laughed along with her. “No, I guess I can’t.”

“Look,” Evan announced. “Here come the front hooves.”

Sure enough, the newborn was making its entrance into the world. After much snorting and straining from Diamond Lil and several contractions later, the foal slid from the womb with a final gush of amniotic fluid to the soft cheers of the small crowd watching. She was a beautiful animal, mostly white, with splashes of black on her nose and hindquarters. The relieved mare began to clean her filly.

From where she stood behind him, Sage put her hands on Matthew’s shoulders. “Okay, buddy. It’s your turn to name her. Did you decide which name you wanted from the list we made?”

“Uh-huh. Since today is Tuesday, I’m going to call her Ruby Tuesday.”

Adam grinned at Sage. “A Rolling Stones fan, huh?”

“My dad was a big fan, so I grew up listening to every album they made.” She tilted her head toward the house. “Come on. Maddie came over to cook breakfast a little early after I called Evan about the foal.”

He looked down at his thrown-on attire. His run could wait until later. “Sure. Just give me ten minutes to clean up, and I’ll be right over.”

“Okay.”

After giving Jenna a wink and ruffling Matthew’s hair, he hurried back to his cabin, where he quickly made himself more presentable and pulled on the old pair of cowboy boots he’d found at a thrift shop in town.

When he entered the main house’s kitchen, Maddie handed him a heaping plate of pancakes and bacon, sans the grits. Try as he might, he still couldn’t acquire a taste for them. Taking a seat at the dining room table, he thanked Sage when she placed a mug of coffee next to his plate. As he added cream and sugar, he glanced at her after she sat at the other end of the table. Evan and the children were missing, probably still out in the barn with the newborn.