Page 51 of Roping Her In

“In a heartbeat,” he said.

Joy filled Hailey, and she relaxed further as Jake flipped on his blinker and made a right turn off the highway. The neighborhood he entered spread before them, and Hailey hadn’t been up here for a long time.

“How big are these properties?” she asked.

“I think they’re ten-acre plots,” Jake said. “At least that’s what Henry’s got.”

“How many animals?” She reached for the file folders she’d brought with her. Jake had been fed details of what his friends and fellow ranchers had endured during the ice storm, and what they needed help with.

Hailey had seen the ranching and farming communities come together more than once over the past couple of decades, and it warmed her heart.

Jake made another turn and then continued straight down a driveway, where a beautiful farmhouse rose from ice-covered ground. Henry and Angel had cleared their front walk, but they actually still had icicles dripping from their eaves.

“It’s beautiful,” Hailey said. “Even if it is destructive.”

“I used to like winter,” Jake said. “Until this year.”

She smiled over to him. “It’s been a brutal winter.” No one could deny that, and Hailey dropped out of his truck the moment he came to a complete stop. Both Henry and Angel came out onto the front porch, each of them in charge of a child.

Henry carried a little girl in his arms, while Angel kept a firm hold on a little boy who looked old enough to go to kindergarten. “Hey, you two,” Henry said, and he came down the cleared front steps.

“Howdy.” Jake chuckled as he shook Henry’s hand. “Did anyone come by yesterday?”

Henry shook his head while Hailey waved to the little boy at the top of the steps. He looked up at his mother, and Angel held his gaze for a long moment, then dropped into a crouch in front of him.

“You can go with them if you stay right by Daddy.”

“I will, Momma.”

Hailey trotted up the steps to them while Jake got the details from Henry on what had happened here on their hobby farm. “What’s your name?” she asked. “I’m Hailey, and I’m one of the vet techs who’s going to look at your horses.”

“Wrangler,” the little boy said, and Angel transferred his hand to Hailey’s.

“I’m pretty good with kids,” Hailey said to her, a smile warming her face. “I grew up with so many cousins at Shiloh Ridge.”

Angel gave her a quiet smile. “I can’t even imagine.”

Hailey giggled and looked down at Wrangler. “You stick with me, bud. Let’s go see what’s goin’ on in your barn.”

She started down the steps. “Will you show me where it is?”

“It’s around back,” the little boy said, and he took her to the left once they reached the bottom of the steps.

“I’m headed out to see what’s going on,” she said over her shoulder.

Henry passed their little girl to Angel, and he and Jake followed Hailey. Wrangler led her into the barn, where the smell of wet hay met her nose immediately. She hadn’t started working with Charlotte yet, but even she knew that dampness in a barn wasn’t good.

“It’s leaking,” Henry said. “But I don’t have anywhere else to put my horses.”

“You’ve got chickens in here too,” Hailey said, noting the stacks of roosting boxes on her left.

“Yeah, but I can pull them out,” Henry said. “I should do that today, since it’s sunny.”

“I’ll help, Daddy.” Wrangler moved over to the chicken coop, and Hailey let him go while she moved over to the stalls.

Jake came with her. “What’s going on here?”

“They’re going to have hoof problems,” she said. “If they’re standing in wet straw. They’ll get bed sores too, if they lay in it.” She opened the gate to the first stall and reached for the dark brown horse inside.