Cowboy Honor--Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  “Grab a towel and start rubbing her down. She’s still alive, but she’s almost frozen. It’s unusual to get a calf this late in the year. We’ve got to get the circulation going and get her on her feet.” He tossed a towel to Zaylie and one to Claire.

  “Where?” Zaylie asked.

  “Anywhere,” Levi answered.

  Claire started at the middle of the calf’s back and worked toward the tail. Zaylie cradled the animal’s head in her lap and rubbed its ears and head. Levi worked on its legs and belly section.

  “Jesus loves you, this I know.” Zaylie sang through the children’s hymn several times before she finally leaned forward and yelled at the calf. “Open your eyes and get up on your feet. If you don’t Santa Claus ain’t goin’ to bring you a damn thing.”

  “Zaylie Noelle!” Claire scolded.

  “Well, he ain’t,” Zaylie said.

  The calf opened her eyes and shivered.

  “Don’t scold her. Whatever she’s tellin’ her is workin’,” Levi said.

  Zaylie started rubbing again. “You’re sweet as ’ennessee whiskey and warm as a cup of ’trawberry wine.” She grabbed the calf by the ears and looked right into its eyes. “You’re goin’ to do what I tell you to do.”

  “Little bossy, aren’t you?” Claire was suddenly reminded of the Christmas story about Jesus being born in a barn with animals all around. She cocked her head to one side and imagined Levi as a shepherd standing beside the baby in a manger. “Maybe in another life,” she said softly.

  “Another life?” Levi asked.

  “I was thinking out loud,” Claire said.

  Zaylie popped her hands on her hips. “Daddy says I get bossy from you.”

  Levi chuckled.

  Zaylie turned toward him. “This baby cow can’t do nothin’ if we don’t tell her.” Then she whipped around toward the calf. “Get up! Right now!”

  The calf rolled its big brown eyes and quivered from head to toe.

  Zaylie tossed the towel aside and covered the calf with all three horse blankets, then laid the throw over the top of those. Then she crawled under the blankets, curled up against its back and wrapped her arms around it. “When I get cold, Daddy wraps his arms around me to get me warm.”

  Levi stuck his hand under the blankets and smiled. “She’s got a steady heartbeat. She’ll get up in a little while. I’ll make her a bottle of special milk. She’ll need to be fed about every two hours all night. Looks like I’ll be sleeping in the barn.”

  “Me too,” Zaylie said. “She needs me. She ain’t got a mama, and she might want me to sing to her.”

  Zaylie would fret all night if Claire made her leave, which meant she would be staying in the barn too. And that didn’t sound nearly as ridiculous as it would have a month ago.

  Levi whispered, “Let her stay, please. When she goes to sleep, I’ll carry her to the bunkhouse for you.”

  “And leave that precious calf all alone? If Zaylie woke up in her bed she’d throw a fit. We’ll all stay until you are sure it’ll be okay.” Claire settled into the corner of the stall. She’d never been that close to a newborn calf before, and there was something adventurous, downright exciting to think of spending a whole night with Levi.

  “What’s its name?” Zaylie asked.

  “That’s up to you. You’re the one who’s a calf whisperer,” Levi said as he headed toward the tack room. “Be back in a few minutes.”

  Claire peeked through the rails and watched him. He damn sure wasn’t one of those wannabe cowboys that she’d run into—the kind who probably spent hours in the gym to get their muscles and had never gotten dirty and sweaty working on a ranch in their lives. No, sir! Levi was the real thing. Those biceps came from lifting hay bales and putting up fence, from carrying heavy loads of feed—not from pumping iron.

  “What’s a whisperer?” Zaylie asked.

  “That’s someone who can talk to a baby calf and the animal knows what you are sayin’,” Claire explained. Levi was more than just a calf whisperer. He was the total package when it came to caring for animals. Anyone who could rescue a turtle and a wild cottontail rabbit, well, that man had a heart of gold.

  “Why wouldn’t it know? It’s got ears, don’t it?” Zaylie asked. “Whoa! It’s standin’ up.”

  “Man, alive!” Levi exclaimed from the gate. “Zaylie, you’ve sure got a way with animals. You should be a rancher when you grow up.”

  “Nope, I’m goin’ to be a movie star,” Zaylie said. “Can I feed it that bottle?”

  Levi groaned. “How about an animal doctor?”

  Zaylie shook her head and reached for the bottle. “Are you goin’ to put on your ’jamas, Levi?”

  “Nope.” He sat down beside Claire in the corner.

  “Then I don’t need mine.” Zaylie touched the calf’s nose with the nipple, and she turned her head away. “It ain’t hungry.”

  “She has to eat,” Levi said.

  “It’s a girl?” Zaylie asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Zaylie stuck her finger inside the calf’s mouth. When it started sucking, she put the bottle in its mouth and removed her finger.

  “I tell you, she’s a natural,” Levi said. “I’d give your brother a job on the ranch just to get to keep her here.”

  “You’re funny, Levi.” Zaylie giggled.

  “How’s that?” he asked.

  “My daddy is a soldier. He knows about missions and ployments, but he don’t know about animals. Look, she’s likin’ this stuff. Her tail is waggin’.”

  Claire checked the time on her phone. Eight thirty and getting close to Zaylie’s bedtime.

  Levi stood up and extended a hand to Claire. “Let’s move over into the next stall. I’ll get a couple more blankets from the tack room.”

  “She won’t go to sleep for a while,” Claire said.

  “We’ll have things ready for when she does.”

  “I’ll stay right here with Nomie,” Zaylie said. “She wants me to sing to her some more.”

  “Nomie?” Levi raised an eyebrow.

  “Nomie is in the Bible just like Moses. So that’s her name.”

  “Naomi,” Claire translated.

  “Sounds like a right fine name to me,” Levi said, and grinned.

  The calf settled back down and laid its head in Zaylie’s lap. “There we go. Hopalong might come see about you, but Gussie don’t like cows so she won’t be here.”

  Levi spread out three blankets in the next stall, creating a king-size bed. “When she falls asleep, I’ll bring her over here to you and then I’ll take Zaylie’s place. I didn’t think there was a chance of saving that baby calf, but I’ve got hope now.”

  “What happened to the mama? Did she die?” Claire sat down with her back against the solid barn wall.

  “Don’t know. I couldn’t find her, but I imagine that it’s her first and she rejected it. It happens sometimes. We keep good records, but somehow one of the young heifers must’ve gotten bred without us knowing. This is absolutely the wrong time of year for a cow to throw a calf. If Beau hadn’t thrown a fit for me to follow him I wouldn’t have found her, and she’d have frozen to death in another hour.” He eased down next to Claire. “Are you warm enough? Want my coat?”

  “I’m just fine,” she answered. “If we ever get Zaylie out of that stall and over here, we might need another blanket to cover her with.”

  Nomie took right to the bottle at ten thirty, and not long after that Zaylie fell asleep curled up behind the calf. Levi eased her away and slipped a rolled-up blanket in her place and then carried the child over to the next stall. Claire pulled her close to her body and covered both of them with a blanket.

  “Might as well sleep a couple of hours, and then I’ll see if the new baby needs another bottle,” Levi whispered.

  “How long do you keep this up?” Claire asked.

  “Just tonight. Tomorrow she’ll get fed three times, and then we’ll step it back to twice a day after that. Sh
e just needs a good start,” he answered as he started to make his way back to the other stall.

  She hesitated for a second and then said, “No sense in you gettin’ awake every time Nomie wiggles. This is one giant bed. Catch a couple of hours right here.”

  “Thank you.” He kicked off his boots and curled up on the far side of the blanket with his face toward the other stall.

  Had someone told her six months ago that she’d be sleeping in a barn with a cowboy, she would have wondered what they’d been smoking or drinking.

  In seconds his steady breath said that he was asleep, but Claire kept analyzing everything that had happened since she wrecked the van. Franny said one time that fate was a bitch on steroids, and right then, with a sleeping child in her arms and a sexy cowboy not three feet from her, she understood exactly what that meant.

  Sometime in the middle of the night, after the two-o’clock feeding, Claire flipped over to the other side and snuggled up to Levi’s back. Zaylie did the same thing, and when Levi stirred a couple of hours later, they were all three spooned up together sharing a single cover.

  Levi slipped his hand through the railing and checked the sleeping calf. “She’s good. I’m waiting until six for the next bottle. Are you warm enough?”

  “Oh yeah,” she answered.

  Warmth was not a problem at all, not when she was right up against Levi’s back.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Claire reached for Levi, but all she got was a hand full of blanket. Her eyes popped open to see him leading the calf out of the stall toward the door. She sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Levi returned without the calf and eased down beside her. “Don’t know what happened with that calf, but her mama came to claim her. She’s in the corral right now, and Nomie is having breakfast.”

  “Does that happen often?” Claire asked.

  “Never seen it before. When they reject them, we have to raise them on the bottle,” he answered.

  Zaylie sat up and yawned. “Where’s Nomie?”

  “Her mama came back to get her.”

  “Okay.” Zaylie raised her arms and stretched. “But can we still go see her sometimes?”

  “Of course you can,” Levi assured her. “Nomie will be in the corral for several days or maybe longer. She and Little Bit will probably become good friends, and you can come and see both of them.”

  Zaylie kicked back the blanket. “I’m hungry, Aunt Claire. I want biscuits and gravy this mornin’.”

  “Oh, you do?” Claire raised an eyebrow.

  “Please, Aunt Claire.” Zaylie sighed. “Can we have biscuits and gravy? I’ll help you make it.”

  Levi nudged her shoulder. “I’d be willin’ to help too. But first I need a cup of good strong black coffee. How about you?”

  “Yes.” Claire got to her feet. “You goin’ to drive us home?”

  “For biscuits and gravy, I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go, darlin’,” he answered.

  “Yay!” Zaylie was on her feet and running toward the barn doors. “And can we have banana muffins too?”

  “Don’t push your luck, young lady,” Claire called after her.

  “She’s an amazing kid.” Levi laid a hand on Claire’s shoulder. “You and your brother have done a good job with her. Someday I want to have a whole house full of sassy little girls just like her.”

  “No sons?” Claire asked.

  “Maybe half a dozen of each.” He grinned.

  “You better get a wife who don’t mind bein’ pregnant for about fifteen or twenty years,” she said.

  He opened the truck door for her. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and have two at a time.”

  A cold shiver shot down her spine as she thought of someone as short as she was carrying twins. Lord, she’d look like she’d swallowed an elephant. She’d always been jealous of Grant for having a daughter and thought she’d like to have one of her own someday, but a dozen kids? She didn’t know if she was up for that.

  “Why would you want such a big family?” she asked when he was behind the wheel.

  “I was an only child. Justin and Cade are like brothers, but…” He paused. “We would have all been better off if we’d had a sister in the mix.”

  “How’s that?” Claire pressed on.

  “From guys who have sisters, I understand they can be a real pain in the butt, but in my opinion they teach a brother a lot,” Levi said.

  “And what if all you ever get is sons?” she asked.

  “Then I’ll be happy with them and beg Grant to let me borrow Zaylie once in a while to keep them in line.” He parked outside the yard and hurried around to help her and Zaylie out of the truck.

  That means he’s plannin’ on bein’ in your life for a while. Franny’s voice was clear in her head.

  The smile that was so big it almost hurt her face said that she sure didn’t mind that idea. Zaylie entered the house first, and Claire almost tripped over her when she went inside. Instead of hurrying over to the counter, she’d stopped at the doorway from the utility room into the kitchen and planted herself right there. Arms over her chest and head tilted to one side, she stared at the strange woman who was busy making breakfast.

  “Well, hello, Levi.” Allison looked up from the stove, and her eyes traveled from his boots to his hair. “Looks like you spent the night in the barn.”

  Justin’s pearl snap shirt came almost to her knees. Her toenails were painted bright red, and her dark hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head. “Y’all hungry? I made biscuits and gravy. Coffee is in the pot.”

  “Who is that, Aunt Claire?” Zaylie whispered loudly.

  “I’m sorry,” Levi apologized. “This is Allison Walker. Allison, this is Zaylie and her aunt Claire, who are helping us out until after Christmas.”

  Zaylie walked right up to her and stuck out her hand. “I’m almost five. How old are you?”

  “More than five.” Allison laughed. “Justin is in the shower. He’ll be out in a few minutes, but I can put the food on the bar and everyone can eat when they’re ready.”

  Claire stepped around Zaylie. “Pleased to meet you, Allison.”

  There was no doubt about what bed the woman had slept in the night before, not when she was wearing Justin’s shirt. Or maybe that was using the term sleeping too loosely. A crazy surge of something akin to jealousy shot through Claire’s body. Is this the lifestyle that Levi was used to? How many women had made him breakfast after a night in his bed? Had Allison been there? Had she worn his shirt when she cooked breakfast for him?

  “Likewise.” Allison nodded as she shook her hand. “Buddy was moanin’ at the bar last night about how you turned him down.” She reached out and plucked a piece of hay from Claire’s hair. “Guess y’all all stayed in the barn last night?”

  “Yep, we did,” Zaylie said. “Nomie needed us to feed her all night long, but this mornin’ she went back with her mama.”

  “Nomie?” Allison’s eyes went back to Levi.

  “A newborn calf that got separated from her mother. Zaylie named her Nomie,” Levi explained.

  “Moses is in the Bible and so is Nomie,” Zaylie informed her as she got into her chair at the table. “Orange juice, please, and two biscuits with gravy on them.”

  “We have a bull named Moses,” Levi explained. “So she named the new calf Naomi after someone in the Bible.”

  Allison bumped her hip against his. “Are you gettin’ religious on me, Levi?”

  “One never knows.” Levi slipped an arm around Claire’s shoulders.

  “Good mornin’, folks.” Justin stopped in the doorway, and Claire swore that she could see a little bit of a blush on the big cowboy. Water droplets still hung on his brown hair, and his blue eyes scanned the room, taking in everyone and settling on Zaylie.

  Before he could say anything else, the sound of the front door opening was followed by Benjy yelling for Levi. “Where are y’all?”

  Mavis stopped as abruptly as Zaylie had, inhaled, a
nd then let it out in a snort. “Justin Maguire, there’s a little girl in the house.”

  “No, she’s a big girl,” Zaylie said. “She just looks like a little girl because she’s short like Aunt Claire.” She turned and frowned at Allison. “You’ve got on Justin’s shirt. Why would you wear his shirt? Did you spill milk on yours?”

  “Yes, I did.” Two dots of high color turned Allison’s cheeks crimson. “Breakfast is on the bar for anyone who wants to eat. I should be going now; let me get my things. Justin, walk me out to my car?”

  “Sure thing.” Justin looked eager to get away from the awkward situation.

  “Y’all want to join us? Looks like there’s plenty,” Levi asked Mavis and Benjy.

  “I do.” Skip came through the back door. “We had pancakes and they were good, but man, this looks great. Good job, Claire.”

  “Aunt Claire didn’t cook,” Zaylie said.

  “Justin’s friend Allison did the cookin’.” Claire was sure glad that she wasn’t dressed in a man’s shirt that barely reached her knees that morning. The way Mavis glared at Allison, it was a wonder that she wasn’t anything but a greasy spot on the floor.

  “Ohhh.” Skip’s eyes were suddenly as round as saucers, and he turned toward Mavis. “Don’t let it get your blood pressure up, darlin’. Boys been bein’ boys since time began.”

  “But not with a little girl in the house,” Mavis snorted.

  Levi filled a plate with food and carried it to the table. “Benjy, you hungry?”

  “I ate, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it doesn’t hurt to have two breakfasts so I’ll eat again. Oranges are high in vitamin C, and that’s good for the body. It protects against colds.”

  “Does all them freckles on your face make you smart?” Zaylie asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ll have to read about freckles to find out. Did you really sleep in the barn with a new calf? Was it cold?” Benjy asked.

  “We had a blanket to keep us from bein’ cold,” Zaylie said as she picked up her fork and began to eat.

  Justin slipped back into the room and loaded a plate with food. “Well, that was embarrassing. I thought she was leavin’. Had no idea she was going to make breakfast. But Mavis, this isn’t the first time…”