Page 96 of Resisting Isaac

Outside, the sun has dipped lower, casting everything in that dreamy golden hour haze.

And there he is.

My golden cowboy.

Leaning against the porch railing, cowboy hat low, arms crossed over his chest like he’s been waiting for me for a while now.

“Hey,” he says. “How’d it go?”

“It didn’t. I couldn’t.”

His brows lift. “Couldn’t?”

I motion for him to follow me away from the house and toward the guest cabin where I’m staying. “They’ve been trying for a baby and haven’t had any luck.” My voice wobbles. “I couldn’t do that to her.”

He doesn’t say I should have.

He doesn’t say anything, just turns and looks back at his brother’s house.

Through the kitchen window, we see Ivy and Wyatt slow dancing in the soft light, her head on his chest, his hand stroking down her back.

Isaac tips his chin toward them. “Probably about to be baby-making time. We should get out of here.”

I manage a half-laugh, half-sniffle. “I told her I need to go see my dad.”

“Let me come with you.”

I blink. “To New Mexico? I promise I won’t chicken out this time. But thank you.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not worried you’ll chicken out. Elena, unless there’s something you want to tell me, I’m the father of our baby. I’d be honored to meet your dad, face to face, and own that like a man. Especially if his health’s not great. I want to be there—for you. And for me.”

Something catches in my throat. I nod, too overwhelmed to say yes out loud. Wyatt and Ivy’s mushy moment has rubbed off and turned me mushy.

“I’ll behave,” he tells me, brushing my pinky with his. “I’ll be as involved or uninvolved as you want when you tell them. But also, I can fly us there a lot quicker than you can drive or get a commercial flight.”

I suck in a breath, feeling more relieved than I expect when I let it go. “Okay.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shaggy donkey trotting by.

“Hey, cowboy, is that a–”

“That’s Jasper,” Isaac says on a sigh. “On his evening patrol, I guess. He’s probably the best security we have around here.”

The animal parks himself beside Ivy and Wyatt’s porch like he’s settling in for the night.

“Should we…return him to the barn or something?”

Isaac laughs. “That’d be a pointless waste of time. He’ll just let himself out of his pen and come right back.”

I arch a brow. I’ve been around donkeys before, never seen one act like this.

“Ivy has some issues about locks. They don’t have them on their doors. So…” He pauses and gestures at the donkey who is now snoring soundly. “He’s like a guard dog.”

“A guard donkey?”

Isaac shrugs. “Yeah. And he’s kind of territorial, so we should go.”

This is a strange ranch.