Picking Up the Pieces

by Carolina Mac

  “He must have had a reason,” I said, although I couldn’t think of a single one.

  “I’d like to know what it was,” said Clay.

  “Don’t think we’ll find out,” said Jacky boy.

  The Bank.

  BROKEN Spur didn’t have a bank. We had to drive five more miles to Preston to access the funds we didn’t know we had.

  I talked to one of the tellers to find out what we should be doing and she in turn sat us down in the manager’s office. He was the one who would take care of the McKenna boys.

  “Is this the royal treatment you get when people find out you ain’t dirt poor?” asked Jacky.

  I nodded and plunked down in one of the manager’s leather chairs. “Must be.”

  Mr. Tallman waltzed into his office moments later wearing a big smile on his face. “So y’all are Kenny McKenna’s boys.” He offered us each his hand and shook with a firm grip. “So sorry to hear about your Daddy. A wonderful man, and a brilliant money strategist.”

  “We didn’t know Daddy was a brilliant money strategist,” I said. “We just found that out yesterday.”

  “Your Daddy was always planning ahead for his boys. That’s what he told me every time he came in to make a sizeable deposit.”

  Where did he get those sizeable deposits?

  “Uh huh. We’re grateful to him,” I said. “No question about that.”

  “I have some papers for each of you to sign, then I’ll set you up with bank cards. There will be low limits on your cards until the will is probated. Mr. Wellington probably told y’all that.”

  “He may have mentioned it,” I said, but I couldn’t remember him saying it.

  “Your Daddy told me it was better for y’all not to know you had a dollar in the bank. It would make y’all better men and harder workers.”

  “Funny he never said that to us,” said Clay.

  We left the bank with shiny new bank cards and hot-off-the-press pin numbers and drove straight to the Spur for a little celebration.

  The three of us agreed not to talk about our new-found wealth. Better if nobody in Broken Spur knew about it.

  Way better.

  Broken Spur Roadhouse.

  SEVERAL empty stools at the bar beckoned to us as we walked through the familiar doors into Miss Jane’s roadhouse. It was like a second home to us.

  We’d barely planted our butts on the stools and ordered drafts from old Hank when Carson came charging over trying to boss us around in her way that I had lately found annoying.

  “Let’s get a table, boys, where we can have a private discussion.” She grabbed my arm and fairly yanked me off my stool.

  Jacky boy and Clay gave her the stink eye and I felt the same, but I’m the polite and mature one, so I try harder. I pointed to a table near the empty dance floor and the boys followed me over carrying their beer.

  “How was the will reading?” asked Carson. “What did y’all find out? Did your Daddy leave you a little something to start up your business?”

  I held up my hand. The boys kept quiet and let me talk. “Nope, nothing noteworthy in the will. Sorry. Daddy left us the ranch and that’s about it, I guess. Nothing to work with.”

  The smile vanished from her face and the dollar signs in her eyes got a little dimmer.

  “Figure all three of us will be looking for jobs starting tomorrow.”

  Jack and Clay nodded their heads.

  “How disappointing for y’all. Your Daddy didn’t leave you a little nest egg? Nothing at all you could use?”

  “Nope. Sorry. Nothing we can do about it.”

  “Too bad,” said Carson. “It was a sweet idea.” She gathered up her briefcase and her notes and walked towards the stairs.

  Clay watched her go and said. “Glad that’s over with. She would drive us all nuts in the first twenty-four.”

  Jacky boy picked up his beer. “I’ll drink to that.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Wednesday, April 8th.

  Wynne Ranch. Blackbird Creek.

  WE left right after breakfast for Blackbird Creek and arrived in plenty of time for our ten o’clock appointment with Mrs. Wynne who owned the ranch.

  According to Jacky’s extensive research on his phone, Mrs. Wynne was queen of the rodeo bulls and an expert in her field. Jacky Googled the Wynne operation and according to the internet the Wynne family appeared to be pretty successful. A lot of their bulls were on the PBR circuit and were fan favorites.

  We would do well to learn everything we could from her.

  “Nice ranch house,” said Clay as we parked next to one of the corrals filled with horses.

  “That is a beautiful house.” I admired stained timbers and the long narrow windows and the wide porch across the front. “We should fix our house up,” I said. “Wouldn’t take much and we might be entertaining buyers in a few months.”

  “You need an office, Logy,” said Jacky. “There’s gonna be like bills and all kinds of shit for you to take care of.”

  “How come I get nominated for that chore?”

  “Because you’re the natural one to do it,” said Jack. “The oldest, smartest, and like that.”

  “I’ll need a computer,” I mumbled to myself as we walked up the two porch steps to knock on the door. The inside door was open and only the screen was closed.

  “Hey, y’all. You the McKenna brothers?” A pretty girl opened the screen and stepped out onto the porch.

  “Yes, we are, Miss. I’m Logan. These are my brothers, Clay and Jack.”

  She smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Rachael Wynne. “Mama is busy so I’m gonna take y’all on a tour of our bull operation.”

  “Nice to meet you, Rachael,” said Jacky boy as he eyed her up and down.

  Long blond hair, blue eyes and a healthy tan, Rachael Wynne was a looker.

  “Mind if I take notes?” I asked. “We’re starting from zero and we have a lot to learn.”

  “You’re Logan McKenna, aren’t you? I’m a big fan of yours.”

  I felt heat rise in my face and remembered how I hated it when fans recognized me. “I haven’t competed in over a year and a bit.”

  “Did you need to quit so soon?” asked Rachel. “You were a shining star on the circuit.”

  “Too old,” I said. “Over thirty is old in rodeo time.”

  “He did quit too soon,” said Jacky. “Logy still has a couple of winning years left in him. He just needs practice to get up to speed.”

  After the tour of the super clean barn, Rachael walked them back to the house. “Have a seat and I’ll get y’all some sweet tea before y’all drive back home.”

  We got comfortable in the wicker chairs on the wide porch and Rachael came through the screen door with a tray of glasses clinking with ice and a plate of homemade squares.

  “Anything else y’all want to ask me, go ahead. Me and my sister help Mama everyday with the bulls.”

  I asked her a couple of things I was in doubt about and wrote the answers in my notebook. Most of our questions were answered just seeing the setup and knowing what we had to do to get our barn into shape.

  After I expressed our appreciating to the Wynne family for letting us see their setup, we left for home.

  Broken Spur.

  ON the trip back to Broken Spur, we talked about everything we’d seen and how we’d fix up our barn to duplicate what the Wynne’s had on their ranch. A lot of work loomed ahead of us if we were going to do this thing for Daddy.

  Jacky talked a lot about Rachael Wynne, enumerating her assets and commenting on them one by one.

  After an hour’s drive, we passed through Broken Spur on the way to our ranch. “Hey, what’s that?” hollered Clay. “Ain’t that a new sign?”

  “Vet services,” I read. “We never had a vet in town before.”

  “We’re gonna need a vet, Logy,” said Clay. “We should pop in there and lay our claim on the new doc before he gets all booked up with yappy lap dogs and finicky cats.”
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br />   “Gonna be handy having a vet in town,” said Jacky. “Daddy always used old Harvey Wagg from Preston. Sometimes took him a whole day to come to the ranch.”

  “Yeah,” I said, “but if the new guy is setting up in a house in town, who’s to say he’s a large animal vet? He might be just for pets and not keen on taking on a herd of ornery bulls.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt to find out,” said Jack. “Then I’m all for some hot wings at the roadhouse before we go home and get down and dirty with all the work we have to do.”

  “I’m in for wings and beer,” said Clay.

  “I third it,” I said. “I can taste those hot wings now.”

  The Vet.

  I parked at the curb in front of the two storey white frame house with the brand new sign attached to one of the porch columns. The boys were out of the truck and on the porch before I had the engine shut down.

  I caught up and stood behind Jacky as he knocked on the front door. A girl in denim shorts yanked the door open and she wasn’t smiling.

  “Y’all need a vet?”

  “Howdy, ma’am. Just thought we’d stop in and give the new vet a shout out. He here?” asked Clay.

  “I’m the new vet,” said the girl. “Fiona Lonnigan.” She wiped her hands on her shorts and shook hands with me first and then the other two boys.

  I was a little stunned at the thoughts of having a knock-down gorgeous vet in my barn wading through bullshit, but I pulled myself together in time to say, “I’m thinking we will need a vet. We’re starting up a bull-breeding operation and there’s bound to be some glitches along the way.”

  “Bull-breeding. Interesting. I like it.”

  I kept going, feeling a bit like an idiot but not a quitter. “We dropped in to get acquainted and to put you on notice in case we call you sudden-like in an emergency situation.”

  The beautiful doctor took a stance in front of me with her hands on her hips. “Any cows ready to deliver?”

  “Umm… not quite yet.”

  “When you boys get a little more organized, you can let me have a copy of your birthing schedule and I’ll be on alert.”

  I raised an eyebrow thinking a birthing schedule was a long ways off. “Just what I was thinking, Miss Fiona.”

  “You can call me Doctor Lonnigan,” she gave me a sweet smile and I nodded. She just put me on notice. We weren’t on a first name basis.

  “If you need a hand settling in to your new house here,” said Jacky boy, “I’d be happy to help you, Doctor Lonnigan.”

  “Thanks. Nice of you to offer, Jack.”

  We jumped in the pickup and as I drove to the roadhouse to round us up some food, I said, “We need a cattle auction, boys. How many cows are we going to need?”

  “At least fifty to start,” said Clay. “At the Wynne ranch they had two hundred and a steady supply of baby bulls.”

  “Take us time to build up to two hundred,” I said.

  “We got time,” said Jack. “Bout all we got today.”

  McKenna Ranch.

  BACK home at the McKenna Ranch me and the boys got another surprise. “Who’s that sitting on our porch with Rusty and Cadence?”

  “Beats me,” said Clay, “but I can tell it’s a girl.”

  “You’re a smart one,” said Jacky. “Did you go by her long hair or look down her top at all that cleavage?”

  “A little of both.”

  “Wonder what she wants with us?” I asked. “And how did she get way out here with no vehicle?”

  “Why don’t you go ask her, Logy? You’re the brains of this outfit and the head of our new bull-raising enterprise.”

  I parked the truck and walked over to the porch-sittin girl with a friendly smile on my face and she smiled back. Nice long blonde hair—kind of streaky, big brown eyes and a good tan. “Afternoon, Miss. Help you with something?”

  “You one of the McKenna’s?”

  “That’s right. I’m Logan McKenna, and you are?”

  “I’m Laney Gabriel.”

  I stuck out my hand. “Nice to meet you, Laney Gabriel. You sitting on my porch for a reason?” I leaned on the support post and got lost in the big brown eyes.

  “Umm… heard you might be hiring, and I need a job.”

  Who knows about our plans?

  “What exactly do you do, Miss Gabriel?”

  “I’m a ranch hand. Ex-barrel racer turned ranch hand—like that.”

  “Uh huh. We might be needing people fairly soon,” I said. “But we’re not quite ready. Who was it sent you out here?”

  “Umm… can’t remember who it was said it. Heard it at the Spur that y’all were fixing to raise bulls for the PBR.”

  That shocked the crap out of me, but I tried not to show it.

  Nobody knows about our idea.

  “Our bunkhouse ain’t ready for occupants. A lot of cleaning has to be done first.”

  “I can do the cleanup. I’m good with a mop and a scrub brush. ‘Sides, my cousins can help me when they get here. They’re coming along for jobs too. They should be here soon.”

  “Your cousins?”

  Jacky boy and Clay had gathered around and were staring with their mouths open listening to the news coming out of this girl’s beautiful mouth.

  “We heard this was gonna be a big operation and we want in on the ground floor. We know who you are, Logan McKenna. You’re like the best rider and roper on the planet.”

  “Appreciate it, but I don’t know about the jobs…”

  Clay jumped in and said, “Why don’t you check out the bunkhouse with Jacky boy while Logy and I figure out the job situation.”

  Jack took over and did what he was good at—scoring points with members of the opposite sex. “I’ll show you the bunkhouse, Miss Gabriel, but it’s not ready for humans.”

  Clay and I went into the kitchen and plunked down at the table. “What are we getting into here, Clay? Shouldn’t we be hiring big strong guys for hands?”

  “Let’s give her a chance. Maybe her cousins are big strong guys.”

  “We’re not even needing any help yet,” I protested.

  Clay whipped out his phone and whizzed through a few screens.

  “What are you doing?”

  “If we got all these hired hands coming on, we better get us some cattle and get the lead out.”

  “Damn right. Find us an auction.”

  WHILE Clay worked on the cattle auction, I sauntered out to the old bunkhouse to see what was happening and I was about halfway there when an old green pickup drove down our laneway and stopped about two feet away from me.

  A girl stuck her head out the window and hollered, “Hey, is Laney here?”

  “Yep, she is,” I said, “You her cousin?”

  “Uh huh.” She jumped out the passenger door all tanned and long-legged in the shortest shorts I ever saw. My heart thumped in my chest wondering how me and the boys would ever work with these hired hands right next to us. “I’m Kate Gabriel.” She smiled at me and I was toast.

  The other cousin jumped out of the driver’s seat and came running around to shake hands with me. “I’m Harper.”

  “Nice to meet y’all. I’m Logan and my brother, Jack, is showing Laney the bunkhouse where you girls will be staying, but like I told Laney, we ain’t ready.”

  “Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” said Harper. She gave her head a shake and her long red hair went flying out behind her. “We’re hard workers and damned good cleaners. We can fix any place up. All we need is a place to sleep and food on our plates.”

  “Food on your plates. That might be another challenge that I hadn’t thought of. Any of you girls cook?”

  “We can all cook,” said Kate. “Born to it.”

  “Good,” I said. “I wasn’t born to it.”

  Clay joined me outside the bunkhouse and posed the question uppermost on my mind. “Where’d you girls come from?”

  “Other side of Preston,” said Harper. “We been hunting jobs for a whil
e now. We work ranches. Girls like us don’t wait tables and serve customers at Walmart.”

  “No?”

  “We was born ranchers,” said Kate. “It’s in our blood. How many horses y’all have here?”

  “Four,” I said knowing we were short on horses for these born ranchers.

  “We’ll need horses,” said Kate.

  “Sure, thing.” I looked at Clay and he nodded.

  Jack came out of the bunkhouse with Laney and she was excited to see her cousins. “Come on in and see our bunkhouse. It’s gonna be perfect as soon as we get it cleaned up.”

  The girls ran inside, and I looked at my two brothers. “What are we going to do? Any ideas?”

  “Nope. None.”

  AFTER the girls cleaned up the bunkhouse that hadn’t been used in years, they trouped onto the porch with a list of what they needed to make their new home livable.

  I looked the long list over and nodded. “Uh huh. I’ll have to go to Preston to get the bedding and towels and stuff. For tonight y’all will have to sleep at home and come on back tomorrow.”

  “What if we don’t want to go home?” Laney planted her boots firmly on the faded porch boards, placed her hands on her hips and stuck her chin out.

  “Other side of Preston ain’t that far,” said Clay wearing a smirk.

  “We didn’t say how far we lived on the other side of Preston,” said Kate. “It’s too far to drive all the way back there just to sleep.”

  “Okay then, two of y’all can sleep in Daddy’s room,” I said, “and I’ll bunk in with Jacky just for tonight.”

  “Yep, we can do that,” said Harper. She flashed me a smile and winked at me.

  “How about supper?” asked Laney. “Y’all got any food in the pantry we could turn into a meal?”

  “Don’t think so,” I said. “We weren’t expecting company.”

  “We don’t know how to cook,” mumbled Jack.

  “We’ll have to drive into Broken Spur and eat at the roadhouse,” said Clay. “Nothing else we can do.”

  “Nothing else for it,” said Jacky.

  I shrugged and it was unanimous.