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“And you shouldn’t blame Lexi for wanting to help. You know she cares about you, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
Coop eyed him, and Jackson pressed send on his message, the email flying through cyberspace with the familiar whoosh sound.
“Are you ready to leave?”
Knowing his brother lived in an income bracket way above Jackson meant he felt no remorse about letting him pick up the tab, offering Marlene a hefty tip for her trouble.
They were soon pulling into the drive, and the questions and explanations and apologies churned within. He couldn’t wait to find Lexi and beg her forgiveness. He opened the door before Coop had unbuckled and was about to hurry up the steps when Denny called for him.
“Boss? There’s something you’ve gotta see. Now!”
Jackson sighed, the weight of responsibility steering his feet around to the back yard. Fido’s tail wagged ecstatically, and he gave her a scratch behind the ears as he drew near to the foreman. “What’s happening?”
“Take a look.” Denny pointed to the near pasture, where Brutus was—oh.
“Whoa.”
“Exactly.” Satisfaction lit Denny’s voice.
“Good for Brutus.”
“Mmm. I wonder if maybe he’s finally recovered.”
Judging from the bull’s athleticism, it seemed so.
Something his Granddad had once said floated through his mind. Summer heat could render a bull temporarily infertile, and infertility could follow for sixty days after a fever.
He did the math. This wasn’t quite sixty days. Maybe it was one of God’s miracles?
Denny gave a raspy chuckle. “Looks like someone’s finally figured how to get on with the ladies.”
That made one of them. Which reminded him … “I need to get back to the house.”
He clapped Denny on the shoulder, and hurried back up the hill, calling Jess Martin with the good news as he walked.
“Really? That’s awesome. And what I hoped, too.”
“So you think he’s better?”
“I’ll message you the results when they come through, but in looking through all the paperwork, I’m nearly one hundred percent positive he suffered some form of heat stress which affected things. But I’m pretty confident the results will show he’s not firing blanks anymore.”
Thank you, God. Now if only the bull’s actions would result in calves one day …
He ended the call and slid open the glass door. “Lexi?”
“Is that you, Jackson?” Ellie called from the front of the house. He moved into the living room and found her sitting with his mom, looking at old photograph albums. “How’d it go?” Ellie asked.
“We’re safe for another month.”
She smiled. “That’s good.”
“Yeah. And it seems like Brutus is on the mend, too.”
“That’s awesome!”
He nodded, shoved his hands in his back pockets. “Hey, where’s Lexi?”
