“Could I?”
The answer was: yes, I could. I’d had a dog growing up, but I’d never in my life been this close to a horse, let alone a pregnant one with the baby ready to be born. Yet, here I was, staring at two of them in separate stables, who seemed restless to me.
“Is it because the babies are coming out?” I asked Remy, having found him propped up against a stall, watching one of the mares.
“More than likely. It’s normal for them to shift around, but the way they’re doing it is because their bodies are preparing for the birth, a bit like a woman’s does.”
Wow.
“I’ll bet it’s a lot more painful to give birth to a baby horse than it is a human baby,” I mumbled. “Then again, I’ve never given birth, so I can’t say that for sure.”
“I was outside the room when my mom gave birth to my little brother,” Santana said, finally speaking up. She hadn’t said a word since we’d walked into the barn, but I didn’t miss the looks shooting back and forth between her and Remy. “I was thirteen, and I can still remember the stuff she was screaming at my stepdad.”
I made sure I kept my laughter low in case I scared the horse and that poor baby came shooting out of it.
“My brother was in the room with Mom when she had me. He was four-years-old and says he can remember thinking she needed a huge Band-Aid. It wasn’t until I started crying and Dad told him to come and meet his sister that he realized the bump in her stomach everyone had been so excited over sucked, and he wanted a puppy instead.”
“Did he ever get one?” Remy asked, his lips twitching.
“Sure did,” I snickered. “Two days after they brought me home, Dad took him to get a puppy because he wouldn’t stop crying and saying he didn’t want me. Just over two years later, my sister, Adia, came along, and Dad told him not to expect another dog, seeing as how he didn’t pick up the poop from the one he already had.”
Remy and Santana both chuckled.
“I think me and my brother were the same with our sister. Rett’s sixteen months older than me, so he was still little enough when I came along to not feel a huge impact by my arrival. Odette, though, she’s been a hellion from day one. She’s two years younger than me, and—” Remy snorted “—she changed everything.”
Intrigued by the fact he wasn’t just talking, but he looked more relaxed than I’d seen him so far, I asked, “Are you guys close now?”
“Sure.” He shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the other pregnant horse behind us. “Rett’s in the Marines, and Odette joined the Navy after she left school, so I don’t see them a whole lot.”
Seeing he was coming out of his relaxed state, I directed my next question at Santana. “What about you? Are you close to your brother?”
“I’ve got two—one older, one younger, and I’m close to both of them. Croix is in the Marines like Remy’s brother, and Hart’s only a teenager, so he’s still at school. They’re both awesome.” Then, she surprised me. “Have you met any of Marcus’s brothers yet?”
He’d told me about them the first night we’d met, and I’d seen them, but I’d never met any of them. Well, aside from Remy, who might not be a blood brother, but he was definitely a brother to Marcus.
“No, I’ve only met Remy.”
The look they shared would have unnerved me, but I came from a family made of steel.
Patting me on the shoulder, Remy sighed. “I can confirm there’s now post Townsend therapy. I’ll get you the number.”
Shifting awkwardly, I thought back to how Dad had been after he’d met Marcus the other day. “Might wanna see if there’s some for him after he deals with my dad again. He’s probably going to need it.”
A week ago, I’d thought this was going to be a move from hectic and stressful to quiet and serene. I had no idea it’d merge the two opposites together and create a whole new type of lifestyle. At that moment, I thought I understood where I was, but I had absolutely no idea how wrong I was.
Chapter Six
Marcus
Leaving Addy had been physically painful. I knew Santana would look after her, so I hoped I’d done the right thing making sure she was around when she woke up.
Remy had filled me in on their conversation in the barn, and it didn’t surprise me that he’d relaxed around her. She just had that about her, and I knew Santana did for him, too.
Marni, on the other hand… she didn’t relax anyone, myself included.
I’d had to ride fence this morning to make sure them and the barns on the outer perimeter of the ranch were okay after the rain. Last year we’d had some water damage to the shit we kept inside them. After some repairs and creating a better drainage system for the water to run away from them, they were doing better, but it paid to keep your eyes on everything to avoid issues that’d cut into our time and money to fix. I didn’t mind doing that, even with Addy still asleep at my place, but I fucking minded it when Marni came along and got in the way.