“When are you wanting to go?”

“Tomorrow, if that’s all right. It’s Saturday, and I don’t have any classes.”

Wyatt saw the yearning in his brother’s eyes and didn’t have the heart to tell him no. “Okay, but the cows are starting to calve, so I may be busy. I might not be able to do all my work and yours, too. I’ll need you to catch up on things when you get home, so don’t stay gone too late.”

“You’re the best!” Kennedy stepped forward to give Wyatt an enthusiastic hug. “And I’ll hurry back. I promise.”

Wyatt watched his brother walk away. Then he decided to find Erin. He didn’t believe in putting off things until tomorrow if he could get them done today. He needed to talk to her, and he’d only stew about it if he waited. But before he could even move his feet, Tex rode into the ranch proper on a red quad and sent dust up in a mushroom cloud as he brought the vehicle to a sliding stop.

“We got a calf comin’ breech. We need you out there, ASAP.”

Wyatt swung onto the four-wheeler behind Tex and grabbed the bars of the back cargo frame, and they tore off for the pasture.

* * *

The following day, Kennedy’s absence seemed to kick Erin into an even higher gear. She rushed from one task to the next as if she were being timed by a stopwatch and needed to break a speed record. Wyatt hoped she would eventually wear herself out and slow down, but she continued to lift more weight than she safely could. When she went into the hay barn and came out carrying a hay bale that probably weighed a third as much as she did, he bit down hard on his back teeth. But it was late that afternoon when she finally pulled a stunt stupid enough to make him see red.

He’d taken a gelding into one of the barn stalls to check its frog for stones because the animal was limping. He tied the horse off and had just bent over to get its front hoof turned up and wedged between his knees when Erin entered the stall. Even though he’d warned her several times not to walk up behind a horse without speaking to it and putting a hand on its rump, she did exactly that. Walked in and stood directly behind the animal in its blind spot.

Crouched with his rump pointed toward the barn wall, Wyatt glanced up at her.

“I’ve finished everything on my list. What should I do next? Everyone else is still working on the chores you told them to do this morning. Should I help them get finished, or do you have something else for me to do?”

He could tell by the gleam in her blue eyes that she felt proud of herself for finishing first, and that pissed him off even more than the fact that she had put her safety at risk. “I’d like you to move out from behind the horse!” Wyatt wasn’t sure if he yelled. He only knew his throat had gone tight and it felt like the veins were distended in his neck. “Now. Not tomorrow. Move!”