The Rancher Meets His Match (4 page)

             
Hilary and the rest of the men were busy gathering up cattle.  They would fan out, find a few and drive em back to one spot where a couple of the men were staying keeping them all together.  Bubba was hard at work with a mama cow, when a shout rang out.  “Boss, Watch out!”  Hilary turned to see a bull charging
at
J.W.
,
knocking his horse to the ground.  Bubba was there before she even gave the command.  He was in between the bull and J.W. keeping the bull from him.  The bull snorted and pawed then went about his business.  The little dog trotted
over to J.W. and licked his hand a couple times as if to
say,
“I got your back.” Then he went back to work on the mama cow as soon as he knew J.W. was alright.

             
“I’ll be damned.” J.W. stared at the dog as he went back to work, like nothing had just happened.  That dog had just saved his life and thought nothing of it.  He looked at the
dog’s
owner who was staring at him with concern and then she turned and smiled at her brave little dog
that
had just saved his life.  She was aching with pride and it was all over her face.  She loved that dog and was as proud as a mama could be.  She assisted the dog in getting the mama cow out of the brush and into the now growing herd. 

             
After several hours in the
saddle,
no one could find
any more
cattle and it was getting dark.  “Did anybody get a count?” 
The sheriff was waiting to see how many cattle were stole.  He had already determined the tracks definitely belonged to an eighteen-wheeler. 
He had every county checking cattle trailers
between the ranch and the state line
.  “I say we got about 40 missing boss.”  The foreman said.  “Damn, alright we’re gone bed down here tonight.  Somebody give me a hand fixing this fence.  James and Jeremy you’re on first watch
, Samuel
you’re on the second watch with Clinton.  I’ll take the last watch with Heath and Hilary.”  He wanted to be sure that Heath was watching the cattle and not Hilary.

             
Hilary was the first to volunteer to help fix the fence followed by Clinton.  She was proving her skills more and more by the minute and she had only been here a day.  It had surprised him at how hard she worked.  Most of the women he knew thought this to be too tough.  “Alright time to bed down men.  Get some
sleep;
we got a long drive in the morning.”  J.W. said quietly, walking to get his bedroll and saddle.  He used the saddle to rest his head on, since he couldn’t bring a pillow with him.  Someone had taken to building a fire and they all gathered around it to stay warm.  Hilary dug through her pack and pulled out some
jerky
to eat.  Then she gave some to her heeler, and they lie down beside one another. 

             
He couldn’t help but watch her.  She was so interesting to him.  She was also beautiful and he didn’t like that.  Beautiful women were always a problem.  He needed to be worrying over who was stealing his cattle instead of worrying over this woman but he couldn’t seem to help himself.  Morning watch came quickly.  Too quickly, and it left J.W. in a foul mood.  He was awake for most of the night thinking about the woman sleeping in his camp.  He was supposed to be taking the last watch with them to make sure Heath’s mind was on watching the cattle but he couldn’t seem to keep his own mind on the cattle. 

             
“You know you can get some more sleep.  Heath and I can handle it.  You look like you didn’t get much sleep last night.” Hilary said noticing that his eyes looked sunken with dark shadows.  He kept rubbing his eyes to try
to
keep them open.  “I said I’ll help keep watch and I will.  I don’t need no woman telling me how to run my ranch.” He snapped.  Hilary’s face turned
hard with anger.  She was trying to be nice and there was no reason for him to bite her head off.  He watched as she set her jaw and her nostrils flared.  She stared hard at him then away toward the cattle.  She stood
up, grabbed some coffee and a pot from her pack,
and set to making coffee over the fire.  She was good and pissed with good reason.  He shouldn’t have snapped at her like he did but she was right. He was tired and he should’ve gone back to bed but the thought of her being alone with Heath had bothered him. 

             
She sat down by the fire and Bubba sat down with her placing his head in her lap.  J.W. walked toward her and the heeler let out a low warning growl. 
Evidently, he sensed his owner’s feelings and was not too pleased. 
J.W. would have to be more cautious around the dog when the woman was mad.  He may have just saved J.W.s life but he was not opposed to biting him, when it came to Hilary.  “I’m sorry I snapped at
you
.  You’re right I do need some more sleep but it’s too late now.  We have cattle to start moving within the next couple hours, and going back to bed now will only make it harder for me to get up.”  Hilary stared up at him out of the corner of her eyes.  She looked straight through him, it was the kind of look a mother would give a lesser man chills.  He could see her grinding her teeth as her jaw flexed.  He sensed that she was still mad and decided it best to leave her alone. 

             
He turned to walk away, and heard her say; “I don’t get paid to herd your cattle, I’m paid to train horses.  I came along as a favor to you.  I’m not one of your hired hands that you can boss around.  I can leave anytime I decide to leave.  I just thought we should get that straight.”  She never took her eyes
off
the fire in front of her.  He was staring at her, eyebrows raised and his hands on his hips.  She took another swallow of coffee and then tossed the rest on the fire.  “You’re welcome to the coffee. 
I only have
the one cup.  She set it down beside her, stood up and went to saddle up. 
             

             
A yelp rang out and the herd started moving.  The cowboys were all in their places on each side of the herd.  When a stray would break away from the herd the cowboy would ride after it, and turn it back into the herd.  Sometimes Bubba was there instead and the cowboy didn’t have to move from his place amongst the herd.  Hilary broke off from the herd signaling to the man behind her to squeeze in. 
She was after a steer that broke away from the herd. 
She chased it down a hill through some briars and into a thicket.  When she heard the horrifying sound of a rattler, the horse she was riding reared up and dumped her off.  She hit a pine tree with the back of her head and the lights went out.

             
She awoke and grabbed for her head.  The pain shooting through her head was bad, she squeezed her eyes shut to block out the pain, but the rattling sound behind her brought her up straight.  The rattler was ready to strike.  She reached for her gun but it was nowhere to be found.  The rattler struck out and a shot rang out, blowing the head
off
the snake in front of her.  She turned to see who her rescuer was and found J.W. atop his horse with his pistol
drawn.  The sun glared behind him and the sun hitting her eyes brought back the pain in her head.  She shut her eyes and grabbed her head, just before everything went black again.

             
She awoke for the second time to a concerned bunch of men staring over her.  They had obviously made camp.  Someone had taken the time to wrap her head, and place her on her bedroll.  Her faithful companion lay at her side with his head cocked sideways and his ears perked up at her. 
She reached out, pat his head, and smiled at him. 
“Wow, lady you been out for hours.  We were beginning to get concerned.” It was Heaths youthful voice behind her.  She turned around.  “Hours, you’re kidding me.”

             
“How are
you
feeling?” J.W. asked.  “Fine; Thanks for killing the rattler for me. I would have shot at it myself except I lost my gun.”  “I found the gun not far from where you were it must have fallen out of the holster when you came off of the horse.”  She tried to stand up but was having problems getting her limbs to work right. “You took a pretty good lick to that head.  I’d take it easy if I were you.”  Samuel said.  “Thanks but I’m fine.  I need to get up and move around.”  “Sam you and the boys go check on the cattle and somebody find her something to eat.”  J.W. waited until all of the men were out of earshot to start again.  “You really don’t need to move, around too much.  We’re gone camp here the rest of the day and start back out in the morning.  Let me take a look at that cut.” He unwrapped the bandage around her head. 
It’s pretty, deep. 
It’s gonna need stitches.  I didn’t want the boys to see how bad it was.  I wrapped it before I brought you into camp.  Can you follow my fingers?  Good, now how many am I holding up?”  She squenched her eyes trying to see through the blurriness and clear her head, “three I think.”  “Wrong I’m holding up two.
You probably have
a concussion. I don’t want you on the back of a horse by yourself.  I think you should ride with me the rest of the way.  I don’t want you passing out again.”  “I’m fine, I can ride.”  She said with a little bit of attitude. 
She didn’t like to be told, what to do. 
“You’re not riding alone and that’s final.” He snapped at her and Bubba growled.  “Shut up dog!”  J.W. barked out the order at the dog by her side. 

             
Hilary knew when to, just give up. 
Right now was one of those moments.  She was hurting to
o
badly
to waist her energy on arguing with a man that didn’t lose easily.  “Fine; I’ll ride with you!  How did you find me?”  She asked.  “Bubba started barking like crazy in the direction you had gone, then, when your horse come running back to the herd without you, we knew something had happened.  I followed the dog right to you.  He’s been by your side the whole time.  At
first,
he didn’t want to let me near you. But, he gave in when he realized I was there to help.”

             
“Bubba’s very territorial.  It’s the breed they’re all like that. 
However,
they make the best damn cattle dogs around.  And once you make friends with one they’re your friend for life and they’ve always got your back.”  She grabbed her head and lay back.  “You need to see a
doctor as soon as possible. We’re going to leave the herd with the rest of the men. 
I have
to get you back to the house.  As soon as you eat we’ll go.” He said. 

             
Heath walked over to where they were with a plate of stew and something to drink.  “Thanks.” She said taking the plate from him.  He squatted down beside them and stared at her smiling a big brilliant smile, as if he was completely oblivious to his boss and everyone else but her.  She looked up from her food at the boy with a concerned look on her face and rolled her eyes back down to her plate and kind of shrugged it away.  J.W. was also watching the boy.  “Heath, go find something to do.”  “Yes sir.  Can I get you anything else Ma’am?”  “She’s fine Heath.  She don’t need anything else.”  Heath strolled off back toward the horses.  “Thanks, he was kind of starting to weird me out a little bit.”  J.W. laughed. “Yeah, I could tell.  He seems to have a little crush on you.”  “Oh Lord, please don’t say that.  I ain’t got time for some boy to start following me around like a puppy.” She said with a
half-cocked
grin on her face.  They laughed together this time.  

             
J.W. picked
Hilary up and placed her on his
horse, and then mounted behind her.  “Samuel, get these cattle moving first thing in the morning.  I’m taking Hilary on to the house so we can see about getting her to a doctor.”  There was only a couple hours of daylight left and he wanted to get as much ground covered as he could before it got dark. 

             
Hilary leaned back against him and relaxed.  Her head was pounding and she didn’t have the energy to hold herself up.  She realized he had been right about her not being in the saddle alone.  She was having problems keeping her eyes open as it was.  J.W.s big broad chest was a perfect resting spot. He was strong enough to keep her from falling and had no problem wrapping his arms around her to rein the horse. 

             
She was asleep in his arms in no time.  He would have to wake her soon. 
But, for now, he would let her rest. 
Her hat was hanging around her neck it had been in the way when she leaned back to get comfortable so she had allowed it to fall off her head in front of her.  Her hair smelled like strawberries and J.W. found that he was aroused, which angered him and yet at the same time his concern for her softened him and he couldn’t help but kiss the top of her head.  She was perfect.  Everything he’d ever thought a woman should be and everything he could never find in any other woman.  She was strong willed, intelligent, and hardworking.  She could show up any man on the back of a horse. She was mostly quiet, but not afraid to speak her mind when the moment arose.  Why couldn’t he have met her before?  She had to have some kind of flaw, but so
far,
he couldn’t seem to find one.   She was too good to be true.