Her Surprise Cowboy--A Clean Romance

by Claire McEwen

  Trisha produced a clipboard and pen from the bag and handed it to Jace, on cue. These two ran a tight ship.

  Liam watched as Jace scrawled his name on the form, allowing Emily to get to work. While Jace signed, Emily pulled on a pair of long gloves and coated them in gel. Then she lay down next to the cow.

  Liam averted his eyes while she pushed the calf back and got it situated. He’d seen calves being born many times, had even needed to jump in and handle the delivery on occasion, but somehow it all seemed a lot more awkward with Trisha right there. She was really under his skin if he couldn’t even witness a cow giving birth.

  He wasn’t needed here, so he walked over to the fence and looked out over the scrubby fields. The sun was dipping down toward the horizon and that poor coyote was suffering out there. Liam heard a sound, a whimpering noise, and turned back toward the cow in alarm. Was she in trouble? Maybe the diagnosis was wrong. But Emily had a smile tangled up with the grimace on her face.

  “I’ve got it,” she was saying. “His legs are set. We should be ready to go.”

  Liam heard the sound again, kind of a squeak, coming not from the cow but from somewhere uphill. There, where the hill got so steep that it was more like a cliff, rising up far too sharply for a horse or cow to navigate.

  Could it be his coyote?

  “Good girl!”

  Liam turned at Jace’s shout to see him and Trisha crowded around Emily, watching as she shepherded the calf down onto the plastic sheet, a slippery mess but kicking, moving, alive.

  Liam jogged over to help. Trisha pulled the lid off a tub of clean rags, and Jace grabbed one and started rubbing the baby down. Emily cleaned the calf’s nostrils and checked its breathing, then sat back on her heels, an expression of relief softening her features. “It never gets old, does it?” she said to Jace.

  Jace grinned, showing the megawatt smile that had graced a few billboards in his rodeo heyday. “It never does. Liam, get over here and let’s see how the mama is doing.”

  Liam joined him by the cow’s head. She was exhausted, but her eyes were clear and she was looking over at her calf with interest.

  “I think she’ll be getting up soon.” Liam stood and Jace did, too, and in a moment, sure enough, the cow rolled onto her belly, got her legs under her and stood.

  “Good mama,” Emily said.

  Liam glanced at Trisha. Her face was lit by a sweet, rapt smile as she watched the mother nuzzle her new baby, blowing her grassy breath over its face and body. The cow’s big tongue came out and she licked her calf, starting the essential bonding process.

  Liam felt his shoulders slump with relief. “I guess one thing’s going right today,” he muttered to Jace.

  “You did what you’ve been taught to do,” Jace said quietly. “You came here to learn different ways, right? Well, one way we’re different is that we try to manage predators without killing them. I should have warned you about that.”

  Liam pointed toward the hillside. “I heard some sounds coming from up there just now. If you don’t mind, I’ll walk up and investigate. It might be that coyote.”

  Trisha had overheard, apparently. Disdain carved a line between her eyes. “You mean the one you shot?”

  Jace intervened. “Trisha, Liam was doing what he thought best.”

  Jace’s reasonable tone didn’t seem to have much effect on Trisha. “If we find it, I’ll be the one trying to help it survive.”

  Liam figured it was time to fight his own battles. “Look, Trisha, I’m sorry to upset you. But it was threatening the cow. That’s why I shot it.”

  “Why didn’t you just scare it away?”

  Her self-righteousness was starting to grate. “I did what I’ve always done. They’re a threat to livestock, they breed like crazy and at home we shoot them on sight.”

  “That’s wrong!” There was so much anger in Trisha’s eyes, Liam half expected to see blue sparks shooting out of them.

  Emily joined them and put a hand on Trisha’s arm as if to restrain her. “Let’s focus on a solution here. Liam, where did you look for it already?” Emily shaded her eyes against the setting sun as she scanned the brush where Liam had searched earlier.

  “All through that area over there. I looked under bushes, all around, but I couldn’t spot it.”

  “They’re hard to spot when they don’t want to be found.” Emily sighed. “The thing is, even if we find it, an adult coyote doesn’t rehab well. They can panic in captivity.”

  “We can try, right?” Trisha gave her boss a pleading look. “We’re doing great with the fox. Maybe we can trap this coyote and get him healed up. Liam says he heard something up the hill there.”

  Emily nodded and headed for her bag. She pulled out a flat plastic case. “I’ll bring the tranquilizer gun just in case. Let’s see what we can do.” She quickly assembled the gun. “Jace, can you stay here and keep an eye on baby and mama?”

  Jace nodded. “Will do.”

  Trisha grabbed what looked like a folded tarp and a small medical bag from Emily’s truck. Emily looked at Liam, her eyes kind enough that he could tell she didn’t blame him too much for what he’d done. “Show us where you heard the noises.”

  He led her and Trisha toward the barbed wire fence, feeling like a tightrope walker crossing a chasm. He’d already messed up today. Now he dreaded seeing what condition that coyote might be in. He’d never meant it to suffer.

  At the fence he stepped through the wire and then turned to hold it up so it would be easier for Trisha to step through.

  “I’m fine,” she said curtly. “You don’t need to do that.”

  He dropped the wire, but not before he caught the slight smile on Emily’s face. “Go easy on him,” Emily murmured to Trisha. “He’s from Texas.”

  Liam fell into step next to Emily, who at least wasn’t looking daggers at him the way Trisha was. “I don’t really get why you all want these coyotes around. They’re a danger to livestock and pets. Even people sometimes.”

  “There are ways to manage them so they don’t bother the livestock,” Emily said. “And predators are an important part of the ecosystem.” Emily froze, then put her hand out, motioning them to stop. “Maybe we can save that lesson for later. I think I heard something.”

  They all stood quietly. Liam heard the breeze rustling the bushes, the call of a blackbird farther down the hill. And then it was there. A squeak so small it was almost a whistle. Another sound, a tiny yowl.

  “We’ve got a den,” Emily breathed. “That coyote may have been the mother.”

  The look Trisha sent Liam’s way could fell men far tougher than he was. If she hadn’t completely hated him before, she certainly did now.

  “I bet the pups are right at the base of the cliff, behind those bushes.” Emily started forward. “Let’s walk as quietly as possible.”

  Liam hung back, letting Trisha follow Emily. They knew what they were doing, while he had no clue. He couldn’t help noticing the way Trisha favored one leg as she climbed the hill. What had happened to her?

  Not his business. She clearly wanted nothing to do with him. Except it was a strange kinship, both of them injured that way. His own leg ached a little as he climbed the steep slope.

  Liam focused on keeping his footsteps silent as they climbed the hill. A mother. He’d wounded a mother coyote, leaving her pups to suffer. He thought of other coyotes he’d shot, back in Texas. He’d never considered the ripples he’d made in their world. The idea of pups being left to starve didn’t sit so well.

  Emily stopped at the base of the cliff, then carefully pulled aside the bushes. “There it is,” she whispered as Trisha and Liam approached. “A good place for them to hide.”

  Sure enough, behind the bushes, dug into the cliff face, was a tunnel. And emerging from inside were the high-pitched yowls and yelps.

  “Notic
e the prints?” Emily pointed to the earth around the tunnel, covered in doglike tracks. “These pups are pretty big for this time of the year. Must have been an early litter.”

  “I wonder how many are in there.” Trisha knelt to examine the prints more closely. “It’s hard to tell.”

  “Let’s move away,” Emily directed, so Liam walked several yards back down the hill, Trisha and Emily following. He stopped by the fence and waited for them to catch up. When they did, Trisha had tears in her eyes.

  “Emily,” she said, “I just remembered. A male coyote was hit by a car near here last week. The one Liam shot might be their only parent.”

  He’d orphaned them. The guilt seeping in was disconcerting. These were coyotes and yet, he felt awful. Meanwhile, Trisha was layering blame on him like mortar, cementing him firmly into the bad-guy category.

  Liam waited for Emily’s answer. The vet looked back at the bushes shielding the den. “We need to get a camera set up here. If they’re part of a pack, that might not have been the mother you shot, Liam. Or if it was, she might return. Or another pack member might adopt the pups.”

  Liam took heart at her words. Maybe he hadn’t wreaked total havoc on the babies’ lives.

  “Trisha, can you call Maya and let her know what’s going on? Ask if we can get a camera out here.” Emily turned to Liam. “Maya runs the Shelter Creek Wildlife Center. Her husband, Caleb, is good friends with Jace, so you’ll probably meet them soon.”

  Great. So now he was going to upset his boss’s best friends. Plus, Jace’s wife, Vivian, also worked for the wildlife center. Liam had already seen how protective Jace was of Vivian. He was surprised Jace hadn’t fired him on the spot when he shot the coyote.

  His brother Wyatt and his dad should have explained a little more about Jace’s ranching methods before they sent Liam out here. He’d been expecting to learn about grass-fed beef and organics. He hadn’t known he was in for a hard lesson on wildlife management. Or that he’d become the villain in a coyote family’s life story.

  They walked back to where Jace stood watching as the calf drank milk from its placid mom. Ranger lay close by, his head raised at a proud angle, as if he’d had a hand in making all of this work out.

  “Nursing already. Looks like you’ve got a good, strong baby boy here, Jace.” Emily patted the cow’s shoulder with a satisfied smile. “We found a den up there.”

  Jace glanced up the hill, though there was no way to see the den from where they stood. “How many pups?”

  “More than one, that’s for sure.” Trisha turned to Emily. “We can only give it about twenty-four hours before we have to intervene, right?”

  Emily nodded. “About that. Two days at the most. If the parent doesn’t come back, we’ll have to consider trapping the pups and bringing them to the wildlife center. Do you have adequate housing for coyotes there?”

  Trisha’s frown crumpled the pretty arches of her brows. “We’ve talked about it but we don’t have it yet. It’s not easy to build. We have to dig out a bunch of soil, then build a cage with a wire floor or the coyotes will just dig out.”

  “I’ll build it.” Jace nudged Liam in the arm with his elbow. “This weekend. He’ll help.”

  “I will?” Liam glanced at Jace and saw the stern look in his eyes. “Yes, I will.” Really? He was going to spend his first days off in California building accommodations for coyotes? He’d been hoping to drive around the area and get to know it a little. Check out the coast, which was only about a twenty-minute drive west of here. But clearly all that would have to wait. Jace was the boss.

  “You don’t have to.” Trisha’s words came out in a rush and her cheeks were pink. “Jace, that’s so kind, but we have a carpenter we’ve relied on before. We can just use him.”

  Jace shook his head. “That money can be better spent on something else. This problem originated on my land, so we’re going to fix it. Right, Liam?”

  Liam nodded, resigning himself to not just building a coyote shelter, but doing it under Trisha’s disapproving eyes. “Absolutely.”

  “We might not need it, though, if the parents come back.” Trisha’s face was downright flushed now, and she looked like she might cry. Was he so intolerable to her that she didn’t even want his help?

  “Well, if we get lucky and you don’t need it now,” Jace said, “I suspect you’ll need it down the road. Coyotes are known for getting themselves into trouble.”

  “I think it’s a great idea,” Emily added. “The wildlife center should be ready, in case we need to move these pups.”

  Trisha blew out a soft breath, like she was giving up. “Okay, then. Tomorrow’s Saturday—how about we meet up in the morning, at the Wildlife Center? Emily, could you come and advise us on the design?”

  “As long as there are no emergencies at the clinic. Speaking of which—” she glanced at Trisha “—we’d better get back.”

  “I’ll talk to Vivian,” Jace said, “and figure out what supplies we’ll need.”

  “We’ll be in touch,” Trisha assured him. She and Emily gathered up their gear and loaded it in their truck.

  Liam knew better than to offer to carry things for them now. These ladies were tough and they seemed to want to prove it, every moment. He turned to Jace instead. “Do you have a plan for getting these two down to the barn?”

  “They’re bonding well, so I figure we can put you and this baby in the back of the truck. If we drive slowly enough, Mom can keep up just fine. Do you have any hay or pellets, in case she needs some encouragement?”

  “I’ve got pretty much everything in this truck.” Liam pulled the lid off the plastic feed tub he kept in the truck bed.

  “Including a rifle.” Jace’s dark brows creased together in concern. “I’ll ask that you keep it unloaded and the case locked. I’ve got three curious kids in my care. I don’t want any accidents.”

  “Of course. Absolutely.” Liam felt like he needed to apologize, but he wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for. If he saw a coyote around his livestock at home, would he still shoot it? Probably. He settled on “I’m sorry to cause you trouble today.”

  “We’ll get through it.” Jace took the container of pellets from Liam and fed a few to the mama cow. “Look, I know how it is where you’re from. I worked on your family’s ranch, remember? But around here, local people love wildlife. And folks really like the tourists who come out here on weekends to see it, too.”

  “So it’s part of the economy?”

  “Just like the wineries and the scenery. I know it’s hard to understand. Trust me, I had a real hard time with it when I first bought this ranch. But the best thing you can do, if you run into wildlife around here, is stop and think about a way for both of you to go on your way safely.”

  “Got it.” A part of him was still incredulous. How could any cattle rancher in his right mind encourage coyotes to hang out on his property? But, hey, it wasn’t his problem. He was just here to visit and learn enough to satisfy his dad, then he’d be heading home.

  Except there was Trisha, who was not just the sweet thing he’d imagined that night in Texas—she was also strong and tough and not afraid to speak her mind. Liam had to resist the urge to ask Jace about her. Or to tell him everything—about Trisha, about their night together and about how she seemed to hate him now.

  But his mama had raised him a gentleman. He might want to talk about it, but it wasn’t just about him. Trisha was entitled to her privacy. So he picked a different topic. “What happened when you first bought your ranch?”

  Jace shook his head slightly, as if he still couldn’t quite believe what he was about to say. “When I bought this land, it had been abandoned a long time. Wildlife had taken over. Those tule elk you see grazing around? Turns out the best pastures on this property were their only option for water in the summer and fall. Then Vivian discovered an endangered salaman
der in that same valley, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. Anyway, it’s a long story, but eventually the town bought that valley from me and it’s a wildlife preserve now. Folks around here might seem a little overenthusiastic about wildlife, but they walk their talk, you know? So most ranchers try to find a way to coexist.”

  “Like bringing your cows down to the barn before they calve.”

  “Exactly. Except this girl here got started a little earlier than I expected. Just shows that even the best-laid plans go awry.”

  Liam pictured that coyote, suffering right now because of his bad shot. “They sure do.”

  Jace must have caught the gloom in his voice, because he put a hand to Liam’s arm. “Hey. It might be too late to do anything for the coyote you shot, but at least we’ll build that pen and do right by those babies.”

  It was some comfort, but Liam was still struggling to wrap his mind around the situation. “What will you do when those coyote pups grow up, get set free again and start hassling your cattle?”

  “I’ve been meaning to get some livestock guardian dogs. Maybe it’s time I made that happen.”

  Liam gaped at him. “Let me get this straight. You’ll raise these coyote pups up, send them back to the wild, then spend the rest of your days trying to scare them off?”

  “That’s pretty much it.” Jace grinned. “Welcome to California.”

  “I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to it.”

  “You never know. It just might grow on you.”

  “I doubt it.” Liam grabbed the old horse blanket he kept in his truck. He laid it out, wool side up, in the truck bed. “I’ve got that square peg, round hole feeling.”

  Jace grinned. “I’ve had that ever since I moved here and became a parent. Don’t worry—you’ll get used to it.” He clapped Liam on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get this calf riding in style. You got any rope we can use?”

  “Sure.” Liam climbed into the truck bed and searched his storage box until he found a length of rope. Jace lifted the calf and laid it on the blanket. Gently, they tied the little guy’s feet together so it wouldn’t hurt itself trying to get up. Then they folded the blanket over it for warmth. Liam sat down next to the calf, keeping a firm hand on its shoulder.