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Ty glanced again at the heifer in labor Stu cohile he went to assist one of the other cowboys, whose coas rejecting her newborn calf When Ty had coht shift, Stuh each calving, giving hione s little assistance from Ty

There hadn’t been ht crew had come on duty to take over fro the fall roundup gave hi hi hi one Ty had done his best to ignore them

Ty ran a glance down the calving shed, but there was no sign of Stu, and he looked back at the heifer Her labor ell advanced; she was fully dilated, but nothing was happening The large brown eyes were rolling, showing rings of white around the wrong

Jiggling his weight froenerate so to fall off despite the wool knit scarf that covered them He’d never been so cold in all his life as he moved closer to the heifer and crouched down beside her tail

“What’s holding back your calf, little momma?” The words of concern were stiffly murmured, his facial muscles too numb with the cold to let his mouth properly form the words

“Is she in trouble?”

Ty looked up to see a red-cheeked Jessy Niles, layered in warht waddle to her walk She didn’t wait for an answer as she caet a closer view of the situation

Earlier in the evening, he’d noticed her around the calving shed, but he hadn’t seen her for a while Ty didn’t like the idea of so over his shoulder, especially when he didn’t know for sure what he was doing

“What are you doing out here? It’s past your bedtime, isn’t it?” he muttered

“I couldn’t sleep, so I got up” The shrugging movement of her shoulders was barely noticeable under the heavy jacket she earing “The calf should be co any minute now”

That hat Ty had thought several n of it The coas in sos of a nervous sweat started to chill his skin Then he saw soh him

“Here it comes,” he announced as a contraction expelled another inch of the dark, sac-enclosed object

A second later, his hope sank to the pit of his sto, it was the calf’s white-faced head His hands curled into fists

“You’d better get your dad,” he told the girl “Tell hi head first”

Jessy Niles needed no second urging as she sped away to locate her father and advise hi for help to coh to pers The natural calving order was front feet first; then came the head of the fetus