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“Kinsley?” She hesitated to go in any farther.
“Shhh. Stella’s tummy hurts.”
Oh, thank God. She’s here. Quickly, she fired off a text to Jaime.
Grace: Found her. She’s in the barn. I’ll bring her home.
“You have to turn the light off,” Kinsley whispered. “She’s having a baby.”
Grace lowered the beam to the ground and headed toward the voice. She peered into the stall, and shock hit her nervous system.
She might not know much about ranches, but she figured standing behind a horse the size of a minivan was bad. The little girl was all of what? Fifty pounds? She’d be crushed by a thousand-pound horse.
“Hey, Kinsley?” She spoke softly, sweetly, to let the horse know she was there and wasn’t a threat. “Can you come here, please?”
“No. I have to stay with Stella.”
“If she’s in labor, we need to call Joseph. He’ll call the vet. There’s no better way to help Stella than to get the doctor here.” She looked at her phone to find the ranch manager’s number.
“No. Don’t call him.” Kinsley had a hand on the horse’s left rear flank, rubbing soothingly. “He’ll get mad at me.”
“I don’t know a lot about horses, but I can see that her ears are pulled back. She looks nervous. I wonder what that means.”I think it means she’s pissed and is about to go equine on you.
“I don’t know.”
The horse stomped a foot and switched its tail.
Grace was done waiting. She stepped into the stall, whisked the little girl into her arms, and quickly got out. She set her down but kept a firm grip on her hand as they hurried out of the barn. “That was scary. Okay, let’s get you home.” As she headed to the nearest search party, she found her text chain with Jaime and tapped the microphone icon. “Hey, I’ve got Kinsley. I’m bringing her to Joseph, okay?”
Once the girl was in safe hands, she headed home. After the festival, she’d stopped at the gourmet store for supplies. So, as soon as she brought the groceries inside, she called her favorite person in the world and recapped what had just happened.
“What the hell?” her brother asked.
“I know. I couldn’t believe it.”
“The kid grew up on a ranch. How does she not know shit like that?” Romeo sounded as upset as she’d been, and he hadn’t even lived through it.
But that was the thing about her brother. He was all swagger and badassery, but deep down, he was real, sensitive. Compassionate.
“I have no idea, but listen, Mom told me you punched Ian.”
“Yeah. And he deserves a whole lot worse.”
“He deserves something, all right. But it’s not violence. That’s not going to solve anything.”
“That fucker was my best friend. He hurt my family…mysister. I take that shit personally.”
“Fair point. In any event, it’s over. And I’m going to earn enough this summer to pay Mom and Dad back.”
“See? That’s why I’m so pissed. You’re thinking about Mom and Dad before yourself. You’re a good person, and I want to punch Ian into next week.”
Just the act of pulling out the heavy cream and vanilla beans kicked her imagination into gear. She needed to get to work. “Okay, listen, I’ve got to go. I’ve been on my feet all day—”
“Yeah, I know. We saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“Mom was looking up Calamity, and there’s a picture of you singing right there on the town’s website. Here.” He went quiet for a moment, and then her phone pinged with a text message. “Check it out.”
