Blame It on the Rodeo (9 page)

Ashleigh prepared the milk replacer while Lexi attempted to milk Crystal without getting herself kicked. The colostrum contained the necessary antibodies to protect the foal from infection, providing the horse lived. They had an emergency reserve of frozen colostrum, but Lexi always wanted to try every option to get the mother’s before she went that route.

“Let’s see if we can get this boy to eat.” Lexi felt all eyes were on her but she directed her words to Shane. She knew how much this horse meant to him and the rest of the Langtry family. If the foal readily accepted the milk replacer, it was another good sign. “It takes around twelve hours for the signs of lethal white syndrome to show. I’ll be right here with you.”

While Ashleigh fed the foal, Lexi ran outside to grab her strap-on headlamp from the car. She’d been wrestling with telling Shane the truth about their child when she received the call to come to the barn. Shocked to see him there, Lexi knew she had to push any thoughts of him and Hunter aside and focus on the potentially devastating situation inside. On the way back to the stables, Hunter met her outside the doors.

“Is he going to die?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” The moment felt surreal. Hunter was, in all likelihood, her son, and he was looking to her for answers about the foal. “I’m not a hundred percent sure he’s a lethal white horse.”

Hunter shook his head and looked at his bare feet. “Everyone was excited when he was being born. It was sick...well, kind of gross, but a sick gross. I don’t understand why everyone’s upset he’s an albino. Why are you calling him a lethal white?”

Lexi sat on the wrought-iron bench outside the stable entrance and patted the spot next to her. Explaining the hardships of genetics and the lack of control over the situation wasn’t easy with adults, even harder with children. But Hunter was almost a teenager and Lexi felt he could handle the truth. His parents might feel otherwise, but she didn’t want to lie to him. She noticed Billy standing in the doorway, and while he was six years older than Hunter, this was probably confusing to him as well.

Motioning for Billy to join them, Lexi tried her best to explain the situation.

“A lethal white is different from an albino. A horse with overo lethal white syndrome usually has blue or gray eyes, but it’s a genetic condition where both parents carry the defective gene. If this foal does have it, he will have an underdeveloped digestive tract and will not be able to pass anything. Surgery has never been successful, and within hours, he’ll show signs of colic and cramping and will have to be put down.”

“I thought we did genetic testing before we bred them,” Billy said.

“We did, and these horses have been DNA tested for that gene. The problem is, American Paints are one of the breeds this syndrome runs in, and many of the Bridle Dance horses are the frame-overo color pattern, where the base is any color, but they have irregular white patches and many have bald faces. Even with testing, there is still a rare possibility that one will carry the mutation. Keep in mind this foal’s parents don’t belong to us, and if this is a lethal white, neither one can be bred again.”

“But you said you weren’t sure if this horse was a lethal white,” Hunter said.

“That’s why I came out to get this.” Lexi held out her hand and showed Hunter the strap of her headlamp. “This will help me see his coat and skin clearer so I can get a better idea. I thought I saw a slight pattern to his coat, and if that’s the case, then we may have a horse that’s considered dominant white. The true test is if our foal passes the milk replacer we gave him.”

Hunter nodded at her words and she knew it was a lot for him to absorb. Billy wasn’t convincing in his stoicism, and she feared he might break at any given moment. She knew he had a strong love for horses, but in this field, you had to be able to take the good with the bad, or else you’d never make it.

“I think everyone should call it a night.” Lexi rose, fighting the urge to wrap her arms around Hunter and tell him everything was all right. But it might not be and Lexi feared if she touched him, she wouldn’t be able to let go when the time came for him to return home to his family. “Shane and I will stay with the foal all night.”

“I want to stay.” Billy squared his shoulders, confident and ready to assist her, but his shaky voice betrayed him.

“It’s okay to be nervous.” Lexi reached over and squeezed Billy’s arm. “I’m nervous and this isn’t my first time in this situation.”

“Can I stay, too?” Hunter chewed on his bottom lip, awaiting a response.

Lexi nodded and they walked down the long corridor to the foal’s stall. The barn was exceptionally quiet and Lexi eerily felt everyone’s eyes were on her. She wasn’t a miracle worker and she hated that everyone thought she held the power to keep this horse alive. Nothing was more out of her hands and she had to let nature take its course.

Shane sat in the corner of the stall, the foal standing in front of him, acting essentially normal. This was a better sign than a half hour ago, when it was lying on the floor. Shane rubbed his forehead. Just like his father, the wildest Langtry boy would give his life to save that of a horse. When they were kids, she always found him in the stables or riding one of the many trails. Lexi would be willing to bet his horses held as many of his secrets as her own did.

Directing her attention to the crowd in the hallway, she said, “I think it’s best for everyone to go back to bed, and if anything changes, we’ll let you know.”

Kay agreed and ushered everyone from the barn, leaving Lexi and the three males to stay with the foal.

“Billy, come help me for a minute.” Lexi placed the headlight over her hair and turned it on. “I thought I saw a pattern in the coat earlier—almost a cream color on white, but it could have been bedding dust from the pellets.”

Lexi attempted to run her hand over the foal’s coat. Clearly feeling better, it bounced around the stable. She hoped this wasn’t a false sign. When she’d interned in New York, she’d witnessed a perfectly healthy, happy, nursing foal that was predominately white but had some darker markings suddenly turn, and within hours it had to be euthanized. An unsuspecting lethal white, and it wasn’t even a pure white horse. Mother Nature was the cruelest and most unpredictable force in the world.

Billy agreed he saw some variations in the horse’s shading, making them more optimistic. Hunter curled up on a hay bale near the stall door. Lexi watched him sleep, thinking about the thousands of sleeps she’d missed with him.

She looked over at Shane, who was sitting in the corner of the stall, worry and anguish across his face while he watched the foal’s every move. Billy sat in the opposite corner, half-awake. She lowered herself down next to Shane, their shoulders and arms lightly touching. Lexi wanted to comfort and protect him, as she wanted to protect Hunter from the pain they might all feel shortly if the horse didn’t make it.

Without hesitation, Shane lifted his arm and wrapped it around Lexi’s shoulder, allowing her to settle against his chest. Inhaling his scent of hay and horse, Lexi almost laughed at the irony of him trying to protect her. There were no words between them, no fleeting looks, just a silent understanding and a common hope.

* * *

H
OLDING
L
EXI
TEMPORARILY
erased the pain of the past. He’d forgotten how much he needed her until he felt her body next to him again. Hating to see any animal suffer, Shane wished there was more he could do to help the foal. There was some comfort knowing Lexi had done everything possible, but now they had to watch the clock painfully tick by.

Shane smiled when Hunter shifted in his sleep. All the kids had grown on him, something he never thought possible. Looking down at Lexi, he wondered if they had a chance of having children someday.

“I saw Dylan last night in Belle Fourche.” Shane wasn’t sure if Lexi wanted to hear about the child that tore them apart but he needed to let her know that chapter of his life was finally closed.

Lexi stiffened slightly before she spoke. “You finally found him after all these years. How did it go?”

“Tab told me Dylan didn’t remember me.” Shane sighed and rested his head against Lexi’s. “He has a brother and a sister, a new mom and what looked like a really nice family.”

“You’re okay with that?” Lexi asked. “With letting go of him?”

Shane laughed. “What choice do I have? I’ve wanted to see the kid for the longest time, and when I did, he didn’t have a clue who I was. In the back of my mind, I knew he wouldn’t. Of course, I hoped he would, but it’s better this way. He’s happy and that’s what really matters.”

“Sometimes they’re better without us,” Lexi said.

“Us?” Shane asked.

Lexi sat up, rolling her shoulders. “It’s just a figure of speech. I was generalizing.”

Shane felt there was more to it than that but he also knew not to push Lexi. He enjoyed her presence around the ranch and he didn’t want to push his luck, although the kiss the other day probably didn’t help. Hunter woke and groggily made his way over to them. The foal was curious and sniffed at him. Ramrod-still, Hunter allowed the horse to take inventory before it was seemingly satisfied and walked away.

Weary, Hunter sat down next to Lexi and rested his head against hers. Shane saw Lexi’s face go from pink to pale in under a second, her hand frozen in midair as if she didn’t know what to do.

“He doesn’t bite, Lexi,” Shane whispered, trying to recall if he’d seen her with kids before. When the schools did their “visit a profession” day, usually Ashleigh led the groups around and had the most contact with the kids. Lexi gave her speech and that was it.

The foal bounced across the stall, trying out his newly discovered legs, stopping only to urinate, and even then, it was a bouncy event. A few minutes later, he attempted to lie down, bending his front knees and then standing back up, uncertain of the process. Finally finding his coordination, the foal gracefully lowered himself to the ground. Shane saw Lexi place her hand over Hunter’s and squeeze gently to reassure him this was normal behavior. Shane had seen a foal’s awkwardness a thousand times but they hadn’t had a horse this unusual before.

“He seems like every other foal I’ve seen here, except for his color,” Billy said from his corner, startling Lexi. She immediately broke contact with Hunter. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you guys, but are you getting any sign one way or another?”

“I’ll feel better when he gets back up on his own,” Lexi told him. “He should only be down for about thirty minutes, give or take.”

It had been a few hours since the foal’s birth and they anxiously awaited the horse to do its business. It wasn’t what Shane called a date by any means, especially with Billy and Hunter as chaperones, but sitting there, on a stall floor in the middle of the night with Lexi, was pure and real. They had their differences, but horses were the one constant between them and Shane thanked his father every day for bringing Lexi home. He wished he had told Joe that while he was still alive instead of always giving his dad a hard time over one thing or another.

Lexi looked at Shane, and he wondered if she could read his thoughts. Half smiling, she gave him her full attention. “All right, tell me more about Dylan.”

Shane bit back the sob that almost broke through. The one he’d been holding since the child he’d loved all these years, the child that he’d sworn to protect and take care of the first year of his life, didn’t know who he was. That hurt like hell. He appreciated Lexi wanting to hear more, knowing the mention of Dylan was a reminder of his infidelity.

“He was taller than Hunter, but had the same build,” Shane said. “Definite resemblance to Tab, but mostly he favors his mother. I’d stare at Dylan in his crib, trying to find even a little part of him that looked like me. Maybe I knew he wasn’t mine, but once I held him all bets were off and I loved that kid. God, I miss him.”

“Hunter told me the other night that he has a birthday in a few days.” Lexi absently rested her hand on Hunter’s shoulder. The boy had fallen asleep with his head on her lap. “I’m assuming you’re having a little party for him like Dance of Hope did for Josh’s birthday.” Recovering from a traumatic brain injury, Josh had turned seven last week and the entire ranch was there to celebrate the occasion with him.

“You’re welcome to join us,” Shane said. “You know kids—thirteen’s a big deal. He’s officially a teenager.”

“Are his parents flying in?” Lexi asked.

“They’re coming at the end of the month for Family Day,” Shane said. “They sent a package down that I’m holding in the house for him.”

“Family Day?”

Shane felt Lexi stiffen and wrapped his arm around her tighter. “Just like when we were in sleepaway camp. Are you all right?”

Lexi nodded, but Shane once again sensed there was more than she let on. At first he’d dismissed her interest in the school, thinking it was a curiosity, but she seemed to be spending more time around the kids lately, and Shane wondered if her biological clock was kicking in.
I’d love to be the one to stop that clock.

Taking a chance, he threw the words out there. “Do you ever think about having kids?”

Judging by the look on her face, Shane thought she was about to haul off and slug him. The foal moved and quickly leapt to its feet. Billy slid across the wall to Lexi, causing Hunter to stir awake. Lexi reached out and they all joined hands, anxiously awaiting its next move, all wishing for the same thing. The four of them huddled in the corner of the stall, one white foal staring back at them.

“You should name him Apollo,” Hunter whispered.

“Apollo?” He hadn’t considered that name before. Regardless of which way this went, the animal deserved to have a name.

“I learned about him in mythology. He was the Greek god of the sun and light and you can’t get any lighter than that.”

They all laughed. “No, you can’t.”

The horse moved to the center of the stall and stood still, its tail raised in the air. Shane shut his eyes and said a prayer under his breath. Lexi tightened her grip on his hand.