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“And mine,” Rick added.
I closed my eyes, and I couldn’t look, couldn’t look as the time came. I had to force myself, heart pounding as I looked at the result.
A gasp, and a sharp breath, and the strangest feeling, the strangest shock.
“What?” Carl said. “Is it? Are you? Are we?”
“We are, aren’t we?” Rick asked. “Oh my God, we are.”
I nodded, and I couldn’t stop smiling, couldn’t stop the tears pricking my eyes.
I turned the test result to face them, two solid blue lines.
“Congratulations, guys,” I said. “You’re going to be daddies.”
I waved to Jack as we passed him in the Range, but Rick and Carl hardly noticed him, they were too busy looking at the yard beyond.Happy birthday, he mouthed, and I gave him a thumbs-up.
“Fuck,” Rick said. “This is really coming on.”
“Last few days really,” I said, and I was proud and excited. I couldn’t take the grin off my face.
We parked up on the new flash paving and I let out a groan as I dropped from the Range, waving away the guys as they tried to fuss me. After all I was pregnant, not an invalid, and I’d had worse, so much worse.
A stint in a wheelchair had made pregnancy feel a doddle in comparison, even if I was waddling like a big fat penguin.
The new stable block was almost constructed, a gleaming brick and steel structure directly opposite the old stalls. “They’re bigger,” I said. “A lot bigger than the early plans.”
“Only the best for our furry boy,” Carl said. “He’ll love that.” He peered inside, and so did Rick, and I knew it looked good, I knew it all looked good here.
I’d been dreaming about it long enough.
“Talking about our furry boy.” Rick grinned, and held up some mints.
I led the way, slowly, not just because my swollen belly took the breath from me, but because there was so much for them to see. A refurbished school, piled high with new woodchip and bordered with decent solid fencing. A new jumping paddock, with really swish poles and fences — not that I’d be the one using them, not for the foreseeable, if ever.
These days Samson didn’t come running when we arrived at his gate. His limp was less pronounced than it used to be, but he was still lame. It didn’t seem to bother him all that much, not with a couple of new little field buddies to keep his interest.
He took his time to join us, letting out a snort as he presented his snout for his mint treat, and the ponies came trotting up, wanting in on the action.
“I’ll miss you,” I said to him, scratching his ears. I pointed at my belly, as though he might understand. “I’ll be back soon, just as soon as I can. You’ll have to put up with Auntie Verity in the meantime.”
Carl and Rick mock groaned.
“Auntie Verity!” Rick laughed. “Bloody hell, Sammy, she’ll have you doing all that poncey footwork again. What a bummer, eh?”
It turned out Verity was as tenacious in all aspects of life as she had been in the office. She was still adamant Samson would recover enough to hack out again. I hoped she was right.
One of the ponies nipped at Carl’s leg through the bars, just playing, but it was enough to make him groan. “Vicious, these little bastards,” he said. “They hate me.”
I laughed. “They don’t hate you.”
“I don’t know how those kids aren’t scared of them, I really don’t.”
But the village kids weren’t scared of them at all. Not even close. The village kids loved them, just like I’d always hoped.
And I hoped our little girl would, too. Just as soon as she wasold enough to meet them.
After all, I’d chosen them for her, just in case. Just in case she shared my insatiable love of all things equine.
