Setting down my hammer, I looked up at him.
“I’ve been thinking. With Colt living here, we’ve got three full-time men working this ranch. It’s always been small, and thatwas fine, but now we’re building families. I was thinking it might be time to expand.”
Maddox nodded. “I can see that. What were you thinking of doing?”
“We have a lot of good calves this year. Maybe we should hang on to a few more than usual for the next few years and then get a second bull before Frito ages out.”
“So, expand the herd,” I clarified, and Angus nodded.
I looked at Maddox for his opinion.
“I guess we could do that. It will mean having to feed them, of course, and we won’t get as much money at auction. We do have some savings, but...” he left off.
“I know, it’s for emergencies. But we won’t use it unless we absolutely have to. We could cut back here and there, and with all the work David and Ben have done on the garden, we’ve sold more vegetables at the market than usual this summer,” Angus said.
“David’s been talking about making soap with the goat’s milk. If that goes well, we could sell that, too,” Maddox said.
“So, we’re in agreement?” Angus asked.
Maddox seemed unsure. “We might need more help next year.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but if we’re doing well, we’ll hire someone.”
“Fine by me,” I said.
After a moment, Maddox said, “Yeah, me, too.”
Angus and Maddox headed back out to finish checking that the animals were properly sheltered from the cold.
An hour later, judging it to be after eleven, I put away my tools and went back to the house. A quarter moon hung in the vast night sky full of stars. The coyotes started up again, farther away this time, and a couple of foxes started geckering in the nearby woods.
Inside, the house was toasty warm. I heard Angus and Maddox come in through the mudroom, followed the sound of their boots hitting the floor. Leaving my relatively clean shoes by the front door, I headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, which I took with me to our bedroom. Ben was in bed reading, one hand holding the book and the other resting on his pregnant belly. Approximately a dozen pillows of all sizes surrounded him.
“You still up?” I asked, walking over for a kiss.
He nodded. Our lips met, warm and tender. When he pulled away, he said, “I wanted to wait for you and Angus.”
I nodded. “I’m going to clean up. Make some room for me in there.” I winked at him, then went into the bathroom to shower.
By the time I returned, Ben had made a pile of the pillows beside the bed and moved to the middle. As long as he had me and Angus on each side of him, he didn’t need the pillows. I snuggled up to him.
“Mm, you smell good,” Ben said. “Like soap and sawdust.”
“If I still smell like sawdust, I didn’t do a very good job showering,” I said into his neck. “I must’ve been too eager to crawl in bed with you.”
Angus walked in, eyed us cozied up together, and said, “Don’t move. I won’t be long.”
When he joined us ten minutes later, Ben let out a squeal.
“Your feet are like ice, Angus!”
“Warm ’em up for me.” Angus pushed his feet underneath Ben’s legs, making him squirm.
“Nooo!” Ben rolled on top of me to get away.
“Wait!” I said so urgently that both Ben and Angus froze. “I feel the baby moving!” Ben sat up, his ass on my crotch, which was a little distracting, but not distracting enough to make me forget what I’d just experienced.
Placing my hands on his rounded belly, I stilled. “There!” I laughed. “I felt it again!”