The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,50
feeding.”
With a quick, hard kiss, he left the room, whistling as he went down the hallway.
Elissa waited for the door to close, indicating that he had left the house, then jumped up and got into the shower. She didn’t have her toiletries with her but she didn’t want to walk down the hallway to her own shower so she used his shampoo and soap, feeling closer to him in some odd way.
Wrapping herself in a towel, she padded down the hallway to her room and changed into a clean pair of jeans and shirt. She was too excited about seeing Mini, she didn’t want to wait to do anything with her hair so she just pulled it back into a pony tail and rushed out of the house with only the barest amount of makeup on. She suspected that Jake would be out on the range already so he didn’t have to know that she followed behind him only fifteen minutes later.
She slipped into the barn and found the stall they had moved Lucy and Mini into. Both horses perked up as soon as she entered. “Hi, little lady,” Elissa said and knelt down to pet the tiny horse. Lucy, still exhausted from her ordeal from the previous day, made sure that Elissa wasn’t a threat and then laid back down to recuperate.
“I thought I told you to lay low, Elissa,” Jake’s voice said from behind her. Elissa jumped slightly, feeling guilty only for a moment. “I did.”
“For all of thirty seconds?” he asked, and handed her a bottle of warm milk. “There are more bottles in the refrigerator over there. She’ll need to be fed about every three or four hours until her momma get’s more energy to feed her herself.”
Elissa was thrilled that Jake was letting her take care of the foal. She took the offered bottle of milk and happily fed the sweet little animal while her mother watched cautiously.
Jake thought of over fifty things he needed to do on various places on the ranch. But none of them overrode his need to stand here and watch Elissa feed a hungry, almost orphaned foal and see the delight on her face as the foal drank thirstily.
Once she was done, the foal sat back down and curled up against her mother yet again. Elissa watched the foal for a few more minutes, then stood up and dusted off her jeans. “I guess I’d better head over and help Ronny,” she said shyly.
“I’ll bet she could use the break since I took you all day yesterday.”
Elissa laughed and nodded her head. She wanted to talk to him, express her feelings but she wasn’t sure exactly what they were. “Well, I’d better head over there,” she said but still didn’t move.
Jake watched her for a long moment, knowing she wanted to kiss him. But something inside her kept her from initiating the kiss. He wondered if she would ever feel comfortable around him. He hoped so. But he didn’t mind bending over and taking her in his arms, kissing her thoroughly. Once she was completely dazed, he let her go. “I’ll see you at five o’clock tonight,” he said and patted her on her cute, jean clad derriere.
Elissa laughed and jumped slightly at his pat, then shook her head as she headed out of the barn toward Veronica’s house.
“Good morning,” Elissa called quietly as soon as she entered, then saw Veronica with tears streaming down her face, a sleeping baby in her arms although she wasn’t sure if it was Michael or Maxine.
“What’s wrong?” Elissa asked, rushing over to take the baby in her arms. Veronica instantly relinquished the baby and fell onto the sofa.
“Nothing,” she sobbed.
Elissa looked at her friend and blinked. “Okay,” she said and sat down next to her. “Then why are you crying?”
“Because I’m so tired,” she sobbed and leaned back onto the back of the sofa. “And you’re going to leave here in a few days and I’m going to be marooned here all by myself with no one to talk to and I’ll end up hating my children because I can’t get any sleep. Then Rick will hate me and leave with some beautiful blond woman who won’t be fat and pregnant anymore and not lactating or sobbing like a fishwife.”
Elissa took a deep breath. “Well, then. That’s a whole lot of nothing,” she said, wondering how she was going to handle this situation.
“Yeah, I know,” she sniffed. Veronica took a handkerchief and blew