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Minutes later Georgia stood in the Milligan barn. She’d been here plenty times before since her grandfather’s place had been just over the rise past the creek. In a way, the barn smelled like coming home—the scent of fresh hay mixed with damp wood and horse manure.
The laboring mare lay on her side, tail bound, as her heavy groans filled the barn. Georgia had witnessed a birth a time or two in her life, and knowing the mare would resent intrusion, she hung back, standing beside the worn tack on the far wall. Paul stood next to her, watching Reed approach the horse.
Reed did some preliminary observation, moving close to the horse, but not too close. The mare lifted her head and looked at him before continuing the task of giving birth. Soft grunts resumed as powerful contractions gripped the animal.
Reed set his bag nearby. Removing latex gloves from the depths, he approached the mare and performed a brief examination.
“Breech,” he said, looking over at Paul.
“Damn,” Paul breathed, shaking his head. “She’s a difficult horse. What else would I expect?”
For several minutes, Reed worked up to his elbows trying to better position the foal. The horse made sounds that made Georgia shiver. Finally, after several attempts, Reed stepped back and took a few deep breaths. “I can’t reach the damn forelock in order to move the legs back. The colt’s big and so are my arms. We may have to do a Caesarean.”
Paul swiped a hand over his face. “You can’t let nothing happen to Daisy. It’ll destroy Riley. She loves that dang horse so much.”
Georgia closed her eyes before sucking in a deep breath. Then she shrugged out of her jacket and unbuttoned her silk blouse. She wore a camisole beneath and it would have to do. “Give me some gloves.”
Reed snapped his head around to where she stood with a hand out. “What for?”
“I have long, slender arms. In case you haven’t noticed.”
“You can’t—”
“She can,” Paul said, nodding his head, looking relieved. “Georgia grew up next door. She’s done her time on a farm.”
Reed’s blue eyes reflected something she didn’t have time to overthink. He walked to his bag and extracted some gloves. “Okay, when you go in, you’ll feel the rump. Slide your hand along until you feel the hock.”
Georgia tried not to make a face as she slid her hand into the horse’s vagina. At the moment she reached what she thought was the foal’s rump, strong contractions ripped through the horse.
“Jesus,” Georgia breathed, making another face. After a moment, she slid her hand farther and found the hock. “Okay, I feel the hock and I’m moving it.”
“Find the cannon bone,” Reed said, his breath hot in her ear, “and then slide your hand to the hoof.”
Georgia did her best to find the hoof, working around the contractions. Finally, she cupped the hoof and pulled it back over the pelvis into the birth canal. “Okay, got the left one straightened.”
“Good girl,” Reed said, squatting beside her, giving her a brief pat of encouragement.
His familiarity and sexism should have offended, but it didn’t. For one thing, she was too busy to worry with it, for another, she liked the way his velvet voice stilled her nerves. He sounded confident of her ability to do what he couldn’t. “Now the right.”
Reed gave her encouraging instructions, and after several minutes, she’d found and repositioned the right leg. While she’d worked, he’d pulled on fresh gloves. “Okay, when I tell you to pull, grab both feet and tug hard.”
Georgia did as instructed and once the sac containing the foal emerged from the vagina, Reed took over. Shaking with adrenaline, she moved back, gratefully accepting the clean towel Paul handed her. Minutes later, Reed helped free the colt from the constraints of the amniotic sac and smiled as the new baby thrust its nose from beneath the tail of its mother.
“Thank goodness the cord is still attached. Let’s give them a bit of time to recover. The mare’s fine. She’ll stand and do the rest when she’s ready,” Reed said, smiling as the baby shook its head and nuzzled the flank of the mare. Daisy looked back, making a soft chuffing sound. Reed turned to Georgia and winked. “Fate set you in front of me, Georgia, for good reason.”
She couldn’t stop the smile as she watched the colt struggle to unfold itself, legs wobbly. Paul hurried from the barn, to presumably tell Riley and the rest of the family about the arrival, leaving Reed and her alone in the intimacy of the moment.
Georgia looked down at the boots she’d spent a fortune on.
Yeah.
Not quite ruined, but no longer pristine.
Her nipples puckered from the cold, but she didn’t fold her arms because gunk still covered them. Blood and something she didn’t want to think about streaked her camisole.
When she glanced back up, she caught Reed’s gaze.
“I’m a mess,” she said, making a face, scrubbing at her arms with the towel.
