As if he knew we were talking about him, Emmett came riding up, whistling at a stubborn cow. “How’d you do, greenhorn?”
“Ask your granddaughter,” I answered with a smile.
The herd mooed, spooked and were altogether ridiculously noisy. That, coupled with the “ha’s” and whistles from the ranch hands, and we had to raise our voices to hear one another.
“He didn’t do too badly,” Cricket told him, winking at me. I almost fell off my horse. “Is everyone in?”
“Ethan’s still wrangling up five head pretty far from here. Somehow they got around that fence on the north side of the property.”
“How many in all?” she asked.
“About ninety-three. We’ve got most of them though. Should be on our way soon.”
Cricket nodded as Emmett headed back into the herd, then pulled her scarf over her mouth, making her look like an old-fashioned bandit. I did the same. The warmth from my breath was a nice reprieve.
“Bonnie,” I called to her.
“Yeah, Clyde,” she deftly responded, making me laugh.
“How long will it take to drive the herd?” I yelled.
“It takes about four hours. There’s a bit of road we have to cross to get to the main ranch. That’s always a pain in the ass as the cattle spook easily by passing cars. They get confused.”
“Why is there a public road running through the middle of your property?”
“It’s thousands of acres, Spencer, and when the city comes knocking on your door with a paper stating ‘eminent domain,’ you don’t really have a choice but to comply.”
I nodded.
“Did they at least pay you for it?”
“Nope.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly.”
A sharp whistle caught our attention. Emmett made a loop signal with his arm and everyone fell into place. Emmett up front, Jonah and a ranch hand I couldn’t remember the name of to his left and right, Ethan and his dad behind them, ranch hands Pete and Drew behind them, and Cricket and me in the back. All the dogs were scattered around except for Eugie, and they were like little well-oiled machines, checking unruly cattle and keeping them in line. I was fascinated watching them work in sync with such incredible efficiency.
“Hope you feed those dogs well,” I said.
“Oh, they eat like kings,” Cricket laughed.
Suddenly, I saw Ellie ride up and join Jonah’s side.
“Your grandma is helping?” I asked in disbelief.
“She’s a tough old bird. Nothing could keep her from this. Driving is her favorite part of the ranch. Grandma strives for adventure. She always rides point right behind Pop Pop.”
“Point,” I said.
“Yeah, if this were, say, a hundred years ago and we were driving the cattle for weeks, Pop Pop’s position would be called ‘trail boss,’ Jonah and Joe would be ‘point,’ Ethan and Huck would be ‘swing,’ Pete and Drew would be ‘flank’ and you and I would be the ‘drag.’”
“Cool,” I said, interested in what she was talking about, possibly because I sat at the rear of five thousand cattle, or more possibly because it was Cricket talking and anything she said fascinated me. “How do you know all this?”
“I used to read my great-great-grandfather’s journals. He used to ride the trails as a hired hand before he settled here.”
We began the drive about an hour after sunrise, which was welcome, because it had already begun to warm us through. Halfway there, I was starting to sweat because I was working so hard to keep my section of cattle from going renegade. I would look over at Cricket and just the slightest movements on her horse would influence her cattle. I found myself studying her, learning how she anticipated their actions and trying to emulate her. About an hour into it and I thought I’d gotten the knack of it until one cow shot out of the herd like someone had smacked her. All the dogs were occupied, so it was left up to me to get her back.
I banked my horse left and chased after her but every time she would shoot right, I would overcorrect and miss her. She kept slipping out from my control, and I was starting to get frustrated. I heard Cricket come galloping behind me. I turned around to gesture for her to return to the herd, that come hell or high water, I was going to get this troublesome cow back to the group, but I was stunned silent when she pulled out her rope and started swinging it over her head. In one try, she roped the cow’s neck. She turned to return to the group and I watched her slack-jawed, my gaping mouth refusing to close. Damn.
I had never seen anything sexier than Cricket Hunt roping a cow. I whistled low. Still can’t have her.
She released the cow and we fell quietly in step with one another. The herd had slowed to a snail’s pace and things became mellow.
“Didn’t want to overstep,” she offered in apology.
“No, it’s fine,” I said, still reeling from how talented she was.
“I just-we were getting ahead of you and I didn’t want to lose you.”
I read way too much into that and my heart leapt in my throat.
“It’s seriously fine,” I said with a smile.
She smiled back.
When we reached the road, Jonah and Emmett swung open the gates at the crossing. Ellie and Jonah stationed themselves in the road to prevent any cattle from straying and the herd quickly began meandering through. It was stressful because it thinned the herd out and it felt like an impossible task to keep the entire herd together.
Cricket and I watched as a truck began to approach, going too fast. We sat up in our saddles, our gloved hands gripping the horns of our saddle with serious tension.
“Stop,” Cricket breathed under her breath, her chest rising and falling with the stress.
Ellie kept raising her hands above her head, but the fool made no move to slow down until it was almost too late.
“Slow down!” I yelled vainly, braced to jump from my horse, as if I was anywhere near them.
Cricket’s hand wrapped around her throat. She looked panicked and unsure. I grabbed her shoulder in reaction and we sat helplessly waiting. There is nothing more pitiful than feeling that out of control.
Slamming on his breaks, he narrowly stopped himself from hitting Ellie. I heard Cricket inhale a sharp breath.
“Oh God, he missed her,” she breathed, bringing her hand to her heart.
There was a split second of utter calm before pure chaos and all hell broke loose. The cattle spooked, most ran through the gate and dispersed into the pasture but at least seventy head lost route and followed the fence line in all different directions.
Jonah, Pete, Drew and Ethan scrambled to get as many as they could, while Cricket and I took care of as much of the herd as we could on our side, guiding them across the road and into the new pasture. Once all the cattle were through and the first gate was closed, Jonah dismounted his horse, wrapping his horse’s lead at the closed gate. Before I’d had a chance to react, Jonah approached the driver’s side, ripped open the door and started yelling.
“Shit,” I whispered and dismounted, handing Cricket my lead and running over to Jonah’s side.
Ethan quickly stood beside Jonah as well. The driver got out and got in Jonah’s face, chest to chest and I pulled them apart, holding Jonah back. Ethan held the driver back.
“What in the hell is your problem!” Jonah yelled. “You had to have seen us!”
“Fuck you!” the guy responded, because he had nothing else to defend himself with.
Jonah surged forward and I had to use all my strength to hold him back. He was livid.
“You could have killed her!” he screamed.
The guy staggered back a little and it became apparent why his reaction time was so lethargic. Ethan let him go and joined Jonah’s side.
I studied him. “You’re drunk,” I told him.
“You!” he yelled, not hearing me. He pointed at me. “Let’s go!”
“I’m not gonna fight you, asshole, but I will fix your problem,” I told him calmly, setting Jonah aside. I looked at him, letting him know to stay where he was.
I walked around the inebriated fool and removed his keys from the ignition. The guy tried to swipe them from me, but it was an exaggerated attempt, making him fall against the side of his truck.
“I’ll be keeping these,” I told him. I looked around for Cricket. She was still on her horse. “Call the cops?”
She nodded.
The guy stood upright, but it took his door to help him do it. “I’m gonna kick your ass,” he slurred.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “You’re going to wait right here and when the cops show up, you can explain why you’re plastered at eleven in the morning and driving.”
I turned and began to follow Jonah back to the fence to retrieve our horses but felt a tug on my jacket. My head fell back in reaction. Oh, shit.
I spun around and ducked as the idiot took a swing. Don’t hit him. Don’t hit him. He took a swing again, but I stepped back quickly.
“Stop,” I demanded.
He staggered forward. “Your ass is grass, pretty boy,” he taunted.
“Sit your ass down in your truck, or I’ll put you there.”
His face flamed red and his eyes narrowed in hate. Here we go. He took a swing but I avoided it easily, then laid an uppercut that knocked the bastard clean out.
“Whoa!” Jonah yelled, dragging it out. “Awesome.”
“Help me,” I told him, panicking, pulling the guy by his jacket toward his truck.
I laid the guy down on the side of the road and had Jonah reposition the truck on the shoulder. I let down the guy’s bed and we lifted him onto it.
“He’ll be safe here until the cops come,” I said.
I looked around. Everyone was gathering the herd within the field, but they still had one eye on us. I jumped the fence and took my horse by the reins, encouraging a gallop until I met up with Cricket.
“They’re on their way,” she told me.
“Cool,” I answered, feeling anything but.
I’d just clocked a guy, in a rural town with rural cops who have nothing better to do than investigate an assault against a rural drunk driver in the middle of a rural fucking highway.
Cricket read my body language. “If they ask us what happened, we’ve all agreed we saw nothing. You were never here.”
I smiled at her, relieved beyond measure. “Thank you.”
Chapter Twenty
We’d gotten the herd going again and were out of the view of the highway by the time we heard sirens. Regardless if they could see us, I was still paranoid as shit.
“You’re quiet,” Cricket stated.
“Yeah,” I said, giving her a small smile.
“No one will find out you hit that guy, Spencer.”
I took a deep breath. “I know. It’s just-I knew better than to do it.”
“I saw what happened. It was either you or him. You did what you had to.”
“I could have left him there.”
“Imagine you’d just done that. Then imagine his drunk ass was staggering around the road and got hit by a car.”