Chasing McCree (22 page)

“
Stinker loves to roll in
cow patties.”

She made a sour face. “That’s
disgusting.”

“
Come on, the sooner we get
away from him, the sooner our eyes will stop watering.”

“
Where’s Ruby?” she went to
the stall and peeked inside.

“
With Mac. She has a loose
shoe.” I wasn’t too keen on the other horses. Some were a little
spirited for Briar.

“
We’ll ride together on
Ash.” She smiled, deciding for me.

I was thinking about putting her on Ash
and saddling one of the others. But she liked riding double with
me. “Okay, you can help me get him ready then.”

We had him geared up in no time. He was
excited to get going, as usual. I reminded Briar where to put her
foot in the stirrup and helped her get seated.

“
You know, I forgot to ask
what this is.” She asked, holding onto the horn with both hands as
I led Ash outside. The wind wasn’t too bad, a little gusty. We were
in the clear for a nice ride to check out the east pasture and some
of the cows before a rainstorm.

“
That’s called the
horn.”

She frowned. “What does it do…other
than not honk?”

“
Very funny. Hold tight.” I
swung up behind her and gave Ash a pat. He seemed to be
anticipating the ride and was excited to get going. “When I rope a
runaway cattle, I secure the rope to the horn. It’s like having a
wench.”

She shook her head. “A
what?”

“
A tow truck has a wench to
pull the car out of a ditch. I can use the horn in the same
fashion.” I made sure she was holding the reins correctly and had
her walk Ash forward. She laughed when I showed her how to back him
up. “Now we’ll turn him right. Don’t tug on the reins or jerk them,
gently. There you go. Now just nudge with your left leg. Good. This
is all you, Briar baby.”

She blushed really pretty when I called
her Briar baby. “I’m driving a horse!”

“
Riding, but yeah, you
are.” I grinned.

“
Wait, what about that
metal thing?”

“
What?”

“
In his mouth, when I see
horses normally they have a metal thing attached to the reins.” She
leaned to the side to pet him and look at his mouth.

I grabbed her waist. Didn’t want her
falling off. “That would be the bit.”

“
Doesn’t he need
it?”

“
Nah, the bridle I use is
bitless.” I said. “How would you feel if you had to spend the day
with a piece of metal in your mouth?”

“
Not happy, that’s for
sure.”

“
And that’s how he feels,”
I helped her get him to a steady trot and we made our way out of
the yard. The landscape, the mountains and the vastness of the
pastures distracted her. I took the reins, allowing her to watch
the scenery. A dirt path led from the house down a hill and into
the east pasture. We stopped by to see the cows and she got down
with me to pet one. An older girl wearing a red collar wandered
over to get some attention.

Briar petted the cow on the head and
smiled. “She’s so sweet.”

“
Yeah, Betsy likes
attention.” I gave the cow a pat.

“
I thought you were in the
beef business.”

“
Oh, we are. Betsy is a
special case. She got sick and Millie got attached taking care of
her, which is rare for my aunt.” I shrugged. “Jerry didn’t see the
harm having a mascot of sorts, and I like having her
around.”

We left Betsy and I took Briar down by
the creek. A hawk circled overhead, looking for its next meal. She
was enthralled in everything I showed her. She appreciated the land
and was amazed by the beauty of it, and that made me fall for her
even harder.

She’d taken the reins again, more
confident, and was doing great with minimal help from
me.

We came upon a few of the hands that
worked for the ranch. They were fixing a piece of the fence, which
was part of their job. Though it shouldn’t take three men to do
it.

“
How’s it going?” I asked,
knowing that it was hard for men twice my age to take orders from
me. Two had already been fired for bad attitudes. I couldn’t help
that I’d inherited all of this. Now, on my eighteenth birthday, it
was all officially, legally mine.

Rick was with the men. So far he hadn’t
done anything wrong. He was a good worker. I just hoped we didn’t
have trouble with him. He rubbed Jerry the wrong way. With the way
he was looking at me, I got a feeling it was only time till someone
had words with the man.

Briar shifted in the saddle to shake
hands. The men smiled and said hello, except for Rick.

“
City girls don’t last long
out here.” Rick leaned back against the fence, crossing his
arms.

Briar turned to catch my gaze,
concerned. He didn’t have the decency to address her like she was
actually with us. I took the reins. “Who’s monitoring the
herd?”

“
Tom and Harvey,” one of
the men said.

I nodded and eyed Rick. “Go help
them.”

At first Rick didn’t move. I raised my
eyebrows and waited.

“
Jerry told me to help with
the fence.” He finally said.

“
Two men are perfectly
capable of doing this job. In fact, one could do it, but it’ll get
done faster with two.” I lowered my voice. “I need you to monitor
the cattle. They’re our priority here, not a downed hunk of wood
and wire.”

“
Sure thing… Boss.” He
shoved away from the fence and got on an ATV, kicking up dirt as he
sped toward the pasture.

Briar relaxed and leaned back against
my chest. I relaxed the further he drove away. There was something
off about that guy, and I sure as shit didn’t trust him.

“
David, Frank…” I said to
the men left working on the fence. “Keep an eye on him. He does
anything questionable you bring it to Jerry, Grant, or me. Pass
that on to the other hands as well.”

They nodded and went back to work. I
pointed Ash in the direction of the creek and we road along the
bank for a while, enjoying the sound of water trickling over the
rocks, and the distant hoot of an owl named Frances.

After a few minutes Briar spoke with a
question in her voice. “Rick doesn’t like you, or me.”

“
Yeah, I know.”

“
Why? I’d never met him
before.”

“
Good question.”

“
You want to fire him,” now
that wasn’t a question.

“
Very
perceptive.”

“
You’re not hard to read.”
She laughed, taking the reins. “Where to?”

I pointed at the rise of hill, “There,
we’ll be able to see a good chunk of the surrounding
property.”

We rode Ash for a while longer and then
I took off his saddle and left him to wander one of the fields and
graze. I finally got Briar in a tractor, which she seemed a bit
intimidated to drive, though I gave her plenty of chances. We drove
it down to where Grant was working and dropped off supplies that
had been delivered earlier in the day. Mostly feed for the horses.
We stopped off to see how Sprite and his mother we doing, and Briar
managed to plant a kiss on his little head before we left
them.

Late afternoon we found Ash and I
grabbed a cooler, couple fishing poles and bait from the shed and
rode him down to the lake. He waded around in the water by the
bank, having himself a good time, while Briar and I fished from the
dock. I taught her how to cast and reel.

I was thinking we wouldn’t get a bite
when something tugged on Briar’s line. She jumped up, almost
pushing me into the lake.

By the time we left for the house,
she’d caught two catfish and I reeled in a rainbow
trout.

I dropped Briar off at the porch and
put up Ash so she could run the fish to Millie.

I came out of the stables. Briar was
standing outside the corral that held Jerry’s…er, my half wild
mustang. The cooler was at her feet on the ground.

I watched her and the horse.

Neither of them moved. They studied
each other from opposite sides of the fence.

It wouldn’t have been so strange if I
hadn’t seen how the animal had been acting since I got home. She
was restless, pacing. I’d spent time with her, but haying had been
tough, didn’t have much time to spare. I planned on training her
starting tomorrow. But now she was calm, and starting to move
toward Briar.

They were three feet from each other
when Briar slowly reached out her hand and touched her fingertips
to the horse’s nose.

My heart slammed hard in my chest.
“Careful, Briar.”

“
Why?” She pulled her hand
back, much to my relief, and turned away from the horse.

“
She’s not trained.” I
couldn’t help grinning. “No one on this ranch, to my knowledge, has
ever touched her.”

She pressed her hands to her cheeks and
gasped. “No way.”

“
Yeah, so let’s not push
our luck.” I grabbed the cooler and we walked back up to the
house.

“
What’s her
name?”

“
Doesn’t have one,” she
stopped me on the porch before I opened the door.

“
Can I name
her?”

I smiled, pulling her in for a kiss.
“Sure, go for it.”

“
Firefly.” She looked back
at the horse and smiled. “I want to call her Firefly.”

Chapter 21

Briar

“
I don’t like him,” I added
to the conversation about Rick. “He’s got an attitude.”

Jerry nodded. “He’s a good worker. It’s
a shame”

“
I guess…seems like he
could be more trouble than he’s worth.” Chase folded his arms
across his chest.

We were in the office talking after a
big birthday dinner of fried fish, potato salad, cake, and peach
ice cream for dessert. I’d taken a corner of the couch and curled
under a quilt. Chase had the spot beside me and kicked off his
boots to prop his feet up on the coffee table. Jerry sat behind the
desk watching the security feed from the outside
cameras.

The ranch was wired with cameras, not
only to monitor workers, but the animals as well.

“
Rick still wants to break
the mustang.” Jerry said.

“
Hell no.” I
blurted.

Chase and Jerry turned their heads at
the same time and stared at me.

Whoops…

I slouched down and winced, “I
mean…breaking sounds so…mean.”

Chase started laughing and nodded.
“Took the words right out of my mouth. Hell no, he’s not going to
break Firefly.”

“
Who?” Jerry glanced
between us.

“
I named the horse.” I
said.

“
Of course you did. We’ll
make it a family affair. Between me, Chase and Grant, Firefly will
be trained.” Jerry smiled, reaching for his pipe. “So how are you
liking the ranch?”

I smiled back. “I love it.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah, it’s amazing. I
don’t know how Chase was able to leave for Florida.”

“
Speaking of…when are you
headed home?” he was fishing like Millie, and by the look in his
eyes he’d caught a whopper when Chase didn’t answer him. “Damn, I
wasn’t sure I believed Millie when she told me. Are you sure you
wanna do this?”

I swallowed. “Well, it’s not fully
decided yet. Mostly, I’m considering my options.”

“
And what will your parents
say?” Jerry puffed a few times.

“
They don’t actually know
I’m here…” at this point, I also figured they didn’t care anymore.
I hadn’t spoken to my father since the night of the dance. It’s not
like I couldn’t have called, there were a few times I almost did,
but I wasn’t going to go out of my way to seek them out. If they
wanted to know where I was, they’d call me.

“
Good lord, you two really
stepped in the shit.” His uncle started laughing and had to set his
pipe down. It fascinated me that Chase wasn’t getting into trouble
over the fact that we had this unspoken plan of me not going back
to Florida, ever. “Well, if this is meant to be it will
be.”

“
You’re awfully calm.”
Chase observed.

“
Since when have I ever
been the kind of man to make decisions for you? I’m not your
father. I’m your guide. I’m here to help you be what you’re
supposed to be, not run roughshod over your life.” Jerry shrugged,
picking his pipe back up. “Besides, I don’t have any room to talk.
I married Millie when I was a year older than you two. Just make
sure you really think this through, that’s all I ask.”

“
Jerry!” We jumped at the
sound of Millie’s shrill cry and were on our feet when she came
into the office, gray hair in a tizzy. “Dustin called. Your
brother’s been in a car accident. He’s at the hospital.”

“
Oh god,” I gasped about
the same time as the rest of them.

Jerry sighed. “When it rains, it rains
hard. We’ll leave in fifteen minutes.”