Distraction (17 page)

I laughed behind my gloved hand. Cade lifted a dark
brow at me.
“Did you check the fence in that area?” Cade asked.

“You know I did, Boss. It’s all secure. Maybe
Williamson’s got cows that can jump six feet if they get a running
start.”

“You’re a regular circus clown today,” Cade said,
obviously still not recovered from the abrupt interruption. “They
must have gotten in the other day when the fence was down. Round
them up and drive them back over to the Double Horn. I don’t need
Williamson accusing us of being cow thieves. And let him know he
must have a breach somewhere along his fence.”

Cade had given him the orders, but Jackson didn’t
move.

“What are you waiting for?” Cade asked.

“Right. I’ll be off then, and when I get there, I’ll
pluck off my glove and snap my fingers. I’m sure those cows will
just magically line up neatly and follow me to their ranch. There
are at least a dozen head of cattle down their mingling with ours.
I’m gonna need help cutting them out of the herd.”

“Fine. Poppy and I will finish the ride around the
perimeter, and I’ll meet you in the east pasture.”

“I’ve already inspected the fence on my way around
the herds on this side, so you won’t need to
dawdle
. You can
just ride straight in.” Jackson held back a grin as he tipped his
hat at me and rode off.

I turned back to Cade. “He can be a bit—”

“Irritating?” Cade supplied the word faster than I
could come up with it.

“Come to think of it, that is exactly the word I was
searching for.”

We didn’t mention the kiss or our moment of intimacy
as we prepared to ride back to the ranch. My legs wobbled with
fatigue as Cade helped me back into the saddle. The horses, full
with grass, lumbered lazily down to the road. Their heads lifted
and they picked up their pace when they sensed that we were heading
home. And still, nothing was said between Cade and me. Truthfully,
there was nothing to be said. There was an unspoken acknowledgement
between us now. Today, on that grassy slope, we had started
something, and no matter where it led us, there would be no turning
back.

I watched Poppy as her slim, shaky legs carried her
back into the house, her perfect bottom wrapped snuggly in the
denims. It took the long ride home for me to cool my blood after
the kiss. I hadn’t gone into it blindly. I’d known that once I’d
allowed myself the pleasure of tasting her lips that my few shreds
of remaining restraint would dissolve along with any common sense.
And now that I’d held her in my arms, now that I’d devoured her
with a kiss, now that I’d discovered that her passion and needs
matched mine, I knew I had to have her.

The wagon creaked from side to side as Samuel drove
it into the yard. Poor Charlotte didn’t look any happier than the
night before when, while suffering what appeared to be miserable
pain, my chivalrous brother accused her of sabotaging the evening.
It was rare for me to work up sympathy for the woman, but last
night, I’d wanted to punch Samuel for his cold indifference.

Charlotte, with arms crossed securely, waited for
Samuel to help her climb down from the wagon. From the look on
Samuel’s face, it had been an unpleasant trip home.

I walked up to the wagon, and Charlotte actually
graced me with a rare smile.

“What did Doc Walker have to say?”

“Nothing,” Samuel growled. “He said nothing because
he was out of the office all day. I wasted an entire day sitting in
his sour smelling waiting room, and he never showed.”

“That’s strange. Where was he?”

“Apparently, Sheriff Stanton took sick last night
after you men went out to hunt the wolf,” Charlotte said. “Probably
caught a chill, but whatever it was, Doc Walker stayed at Stanton’s
house the whole afternoon tending him.”

I helped Samuel unhitch the horses. “That doesn’t
sound good. He was fine when we left him last night. Must have
happened once he got home. I guess that means Carson is in charge.
That doesn’t bode well for the town.”

Charlotte leaned forward with a gleam in her eye.
Even sour from a long, wasted trip to town and suffering from a
swollen ankle, the woman rallied when there was gossip to tell.
“Well, Dorothy Murkel happened to walk into the doc’s office while
we were waiting, and she said if the sheriff wasn’t up and around
in a few days, the mayor of Billings would be sending us a new man
to take Stanton’s place. It seems no one wants to trust an entire
town to Deputy Carson.”

Samuel walked to her side of the wagon. “You gonna
relay the entire week’s news to Cade, or I can I get you into the
house so I can get back to my chores?”

She wriggled into position and lifted her arms,
making it perfectly clear to Samuel that she expected to be
carried.

Samuel scowled at me. “See what you started? How was
the fence line? Everything secure?”

“Yep, only we’ve got another problem.”

“What’s that?” Charlotte plopped into his arms, and
his knees collapsed for a second but he recovered. His face
reddened as he held her.

“A handful of the Double Horn’s cows ended up in our
pasture.”

Samuel nearly dropped his wife, but she threw her
arms around his neck to make certain that if he did drop her, he’d
be going down too. “How the hell did that happen?”

“I sent them a damn invitation and they accepted,
Samuel. How the heck should I know how they got there? Jacks and I
are headed out right now to cut them from our herd and get them
back home before Williamson sends that fool Carson out here to
arrest me.”

The veins in Samuel’s neck bulged.

“You’d better get your wife inside before you hurt
yourself. I’ll put the wagon horses away.”

***

I wanted nothing more than too wipe the smirk off of
Jackson’s face with my fist as we rode out to the pasture. But
sometimes ignoring Jackson worked best of all. I rode on ahead
trying to clear my mind of Poppy and set it on rounding up the
cattle, but with her sweet fragrance still lingering, that was
impossible.

Fortunately, Williamson’s cows wore a hard to miss
brand on their hips, and they tended to be scrawnier than ours, so
they were easy to spot. Or luck doubled when it seemed they’d
hardly mixed with our herd. For the most part, they’d huddled
together in a small cluster near the rear, making it easy to cut
them from the rest without stirring up the whole bunch.

Jackson caught up to me and surveyed the work we had
in front of us.

I looked over at him. “Seems you were doing your
usual exaggeratin’. They won’t be hard to separate at all. Let’s
drive them over to the gate and then I’ll let you take ‘em home.
That is if you can handle driving a dozen head of cattle a mile
down the road,
Cowboy
.”

“They were more mixed in when I first saw them.
Besides, I’m just trying to save you from yourself.”

I rested my forearm over my pummel and looked at him.
“Now, what is that supposed to mean?”

“I just think it is downright stupid of you to start
fooling around with that girl when you know her family is gonna
swoop in any minute and drag her thousands of miles away from here.
I’m trying to keep you from getting your heart stomped. I see the
way you look at her Cade. This isn’t just some meaningless
flirtation. I’ve never seen you look at a girl the way you look at
Poppy.”

“Why don’t you just mind your own business, Jacks?
Let’s get to work. I’ll cut them and you drive them over to the
gate.” Jackson knew me too well, and he always knew exactly where
to hit to make it count the most. And damned if he wasn’t a hundred
percent right. For the first time in my life, I felt as if my heart
was ripe for the taking, and the rotten reality was, Poppy would
probably be gone soon. Then she’d be so far away, I would likely
never see her again. But at this point, I had to take the risk.
Just like the cow and the cup, life sometimes had a funny way of
righting itself, and just maybe this whole thing was not destined
for heartbreak and pain.

River and I zeroed in on two of the smallest cows
that were conveniently standing nearly by themselves. It should
have been easy. As a team, River and I were experts at separating
animals from the herd, but these the two cows spun around
frantically almost as if disoriented. They nearly trampled each
other before slipping back between the other Double Horn heads.

Jackson cupped his hands around his mouth. “First you
missed the wolf, and now the cows. Told you you were getting too
distracted by that girl.”

“Jackson, if I’d wanted someone to be jabbering at me
while I worked, I would have dragged Charlotte out here
instead.”

The next run was more successful, and two of
Williamson’s cows peeled off of the herd and skittered toward
Jackson. He and Winslow chased them into a corner.

What I’d expected to take half an hour took well over
an hour. It was as if Williamson’s cows had never been cut, driven,
or for that matter, near a horse. I rode up to the corner of the
pasture where Jackson had the nervous animals hovering in a
trembling mass of cow flesh.

Jackson shook his head as I approached. “What the
heck is wrong with these animals? They are as edgy as rabbits
cornered by a fox. I’m expecting that one near the gate to faint
any minute.”

I lifted off my hat and wiped my forehead with the
back of my arm. River’s neck was lathered with sweat, and it was
hardly a warm day. “I can’t figure it out. I mean you could expect
them to be a little nervous standing with a different herd and in a
different pasture, but these cows are ready for whiskey shots. I’d
better help you drive them home after all.”

Jackson opened the gate, and the agitated animals
poured through it as if the devil was chasing them instead of two
ordinary cow horses. I shut the gate behind them and looked back.
Our herd stood calmly, so there couldn’t have been a wolf in the
vicinity. And that’s when something occurred to me. “You know
something, Jacks, I just remembered— after I mended that fence the
other day, I did a quick rough count of our heads. I sure don’t
remember counting twelve extra or seeing Williamson’s scrawny
stock, for that matter. I would have noticed if these cows had been
there.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Jackson’s smug tone had
returned.

“Jacks . . . you need to leave it alone.” Jackson
knew me well enough to know when he’d pushed things too far. And
this was definitely one of those times.

Without another word, he pressed his hat on his head,
and we drove the antsy cows up the road to the Double Horn
Ranch.

Mitchell Williamson, the rancher’s eldest son, was on
horseback. He met us halfway to the ranch. Mitchell was Samuel’s
age. They’d hung out together as teenagers until something came
between them. Samuel never spoke about it, but I was pretty certain
it had to do with a girl Mitchell liked who had set her sights on
Samuel instead. I never liked the guy. He was still as rail thin as
when he was fifteen.

“I saw the cloud of dust and rode out to see what it
was.” Mitchell looked over his cattle. His lips were drawn tight.
“I suppose there’s a reasonable explanation for why you’re walking
up the road with our stock.”

“Don’t know if I’ve got a reasonable one. All I know
is they managed to wander into my east pasture, so we’re bringing
the lost lambs home.” I met his suspicious scowl with cool
indifference. I was in no mood to fight with the man or plead my
innocence. “You’d better check your fences. They must need some
mending.”

Mitchell spit a wad of tobacco toward the ground, and
Jackson had to shift his knee to avoid it.

Jackson’s jaw twitched, and he straightened in his
saddle. “You’re lucky that wad of shit missed me.”

“Roly Jackson, what were you gonna do if it did hit
you?”

There was nothing that angered Jackson more than
being called by his childhood nickname Roly Jackson. I could hear
his teeth grind together as he clenched his jaw. His gloved fingers
twisted tightly around the reins. “I would have—”

I put up my hand to stop him. “Mitchell, we didn’t
come here to brawl. We were doing you a favor by bringing your
stupid strays back to you. And since you’re here now, you can take
them the rest of the way by yourself.” I reined River around and
motioned for Jackson to follow. He paused dramatically for a moment
then turned Winslow around and walked up next to me.

“My dad is going to find it mighty interesting that
you ended up with a dozen of our cows,” Mitchell called to our
backs.

“Let me hit him, please Cade, let me have a go at
him.” Jackson’s words slid out from gritted teeth.

“I might have to mention this to the Sheriff,”
Mitchell continued.

I stopped and spun River around to face him.
Mitchell’s eyes widened and his hand dropped over his pistol. “I
ain’t gonna shoot you, you coward.” I looked back at Jackson. “Why
the hell does everyone reach for their damn gun when they see me?”
I faced Mitchell again. “Williamson, if I wanted to steal cattle, I
sure as hell wouldn’t risk my neck stealing from your stock. These
animals are pathetic. And now I’m sorry I bothered to bring this
buzzard bait back at all. I should have just let ‘em go.” River
seemed to sense I was done and turned around again.

“We’ll see what my dad says about this whole
incident.”

“He grew up an even bigger fool than I’d expected,” I
said.

“All I know is, if that tobacco had hit me, I would
have taken that skinny asshole down off that ugly horse of his and
made him swallow his whole can of Durham.”

“Yeah, well it’s done, and hopefully, we won’t have
to deal with him again.”

“Boy, that yellow-bellied toad sure hugged his
revolver when you looked at him.” Jackson laughed. “For a moment
there, I was sure he was gonna piss his chaps.” Jackson picked up
his hat and combed his hair back with his fingers. “Look at that,
Cade. It looks like we’ve got a storm coming in. Those look like
some serious rain clouds.”