To top it off, the mare adored Riley, and toted the little girl everywhere. While many ranch bred horses made decent kids’ horses, Travis knew that mare could be trusted with a five year old when he wouldn’t have trusted any other horse.
In his hip pocket, his cell phone vibrated. Muttering under his breath, he pulled the phone out and looked at it. It took him a moment to recognize the area code came from Houston. The only person he knew who had a Houston phone number was Addie. He clicked the button to answer it.
“Travis here.”
“Hi, Travis. It’s Addie.”
Reining Spike to a walk, he kept an eye on the herd and any potential rebels among them.
“Hey, Addie.”
“I think I caught you at a bad time.”
“’Fraid so. We’re moving the steers and cows to another pasture.”
“Okay, I won’t take up a lot of your time. I looked over the documents Colton brought me, and I think we can get the case dismissed. The survey is quite accurate.”
“Great.”
“I can convince the judge that this is a nuisance lawsuit, and that Parnell only wants to make trouble. The problem might be Parnell’s attorney.”
“Why would he be a problem?”
“If he thinks the suit is solid, he also makes money if Parnell wins. He will fight the dismissal. But he will also need evidence to back up his client’s claim. So it’s a bit of a toss up.”
“I see.”
“I wrote a reply to the suit, asking for it to be dismissed, and we’ll see, but meanwhile I got the court date moved up to two weeks from now. Since I know you don’t want this to drag on.”
Travis watched the herd amble on the heels of the boss cow. The boss cow was old, and knew what she was doing, but Travis didn’t like leaving the responsibility of the herd to a cow.
“I have to get going, Addie.”
“I know, I’m sorry. Just one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“If I can get it dismissed, I’ll need you to sign some paperwork. Will you come in and sign, or should I send them in electronic format?”
“I have work to do, so send them electronically.”
“Okay, sure thing,” Addie’s voice came over the line. “Bye, Travis.”
“Later, Addie.”
Travis clicked his phone off and shoved it back into his pocket. He knew his voice sounded cold, uncaring, but at the moment that didn’t matter. She had broken his heart twelve years ago, and he couldn’t afford to let her get close to him again.
But did she deserve such cold and callous rudeness?
No, he amended, nudging Spike into a canter along the herd’s flank. She did not. Addie did what she felt she had to do to get ahead in the world. She had not needed to ask Travis to come with her – he would never leave Honey Creek. She knew it even then. She had her dreams to fulfill, as did he.
The two just couldn’t make it.
The boss cow led the herd through the fence that had been broken down to allow the free passage of a few thousand head. Travis galloped Spike toward the front of the herd, keeping a sharp watch for any stragglers. He didn’t see any, and Spike would have taken command and gone after any if there had been.
The herd crossed into the pasture that had been allowed to grow since winter departed, scattering wide. The massive fields held a deep stock tank that watered the cattle as well as the deer, the coyotes and the feral hogs that also made the ranch their home.
Brady cantered his mare toward Travis and reined in. “We’re good, bro,” he shouted over the noise of hooves and lowing cattle. “I think we got them all.”
“Great,” Travis answered, watching the progression of the cattle into their new residence. “Where’s Colton?”
Brady pointed. “Still at the rear.”
Beyond the dust and the cows, Colton rode the filly he recently broke to saddle. He cantered back and forth along the tails of the cattle, the filly wheeling and turning like a pro. From what Travis could see, the youngster took to chasing cows the way a bird took to the sky. As the last straggler trotted across the downed fence, Colton loped toward them.
He lowered his bandana, revealing his wide grin. The lower half of his face appeared clean, the upper coated in dust. “Got every last one of ‘em, boss,” he yelled. “Didja see this lil gal? Working like she was born to it.”
Travis eyed the filly who breathed hard, snorting, sweat streaming from the her ears and poll all the way back to her flanks. “She’s good all right, little brother,” Travis replied. “But don’t risk breaking her down. She’s only three.”
“You think I’d break a horse down?” Colton scowled, his anger flaring. “I know how to work a horse without breaking it down, Travis.”
“Hey, don’t get mad, Colt,” Travis protested. “You know the stock comes first around here.”
“It’s not that. It’s how you don’t trust me to know what I’m doing.”
Travis gazed helplessly at Brady.
He shrugged. “He’s right, Trav. You never trust him. He’s got a skill with horses you and I will never have. Let him do his thing.”
Travis watched the last of the cattle cross the fence, feeling both shamed and annoyed. “Sorry, Colt. Look, I don’t mean to fuss at you all the time. I just worry. You know?”
“Well, you need to quit your fussing.” Colton glared at him. “I know my job, I do my job. Just remember, you’re not Dad.”
As Travis felt shame, anger and humiliation rise to the surface, he opened his mouth to retaliate. But Colton reined the filly’s head around, and loped her toward the fence. He dismounted, leaving the filly to rest while he worked to put the fence back up.
“You handled that well,” Brady observed dryly. “Not.”
Kicking his mare into a canter, Brady joined Colton in raising the wire fencing back up, tacking it to the fence posts with hammers from their saddle bags. Travis watched them for a while, then nudged Spike up the hill toward them. Dismounting, leaving Spike ground tied, he joined his brothers in sealing the cattle into their new home.
“So are you and Addie getting back together?”
Travis eyed Brady sharply as the three of them rode back toward the ranch proper. They walked their horses to cool them off from the hours of exertion, following the trails that crisscrossed the entire ranch. “What are you talking about?”
“She’s back, she’s beautiful, and you are still in love.” Brady grinned impudently while Colton listened to the conversation with rounded eyes.
“Not only are you wrong,” Travis snapped. “You’re insane. Do I look desperate to you?”
Brady watched him calmly. “Yes.”
Snorting, Travis stared ahead through Spike’s ears. “She busted my heart in two,” he growled. “You think I’m stupid enough to let her do it again?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you just take your curiosity and jump in the lake,” Travis retorted lightly.
“I can’t swim.” Brady smirked as Travis glowered. “Oh, come on. I know you still have feelings for her. Just go with the flow, dude.”
“No, thanks. That river is too bumpy.”
“The folks at the market said Addie is still single,” Colton piped up. “Seems she had a lawyer all tied in knots, then she kicked him to the curb.”
“See?” Travis rounded on his brothers in defiance. “There’s all the evidence you need. She did that to me, then her fancy lawyer. I know where the wind blows, and she’s not doing that to me again.”
Brady stared at him blandly. “So you believe rumors and hearsay now. I thought you were smarter than that.”
“I’m smart enough to not get myself blown out of the water again,” Travis retorted. “Just leave it alone, will you?”
“Fine.” Brady stared straight ahead. “Live the rest of your life in regret. That’s nothing to me.”
“Will you get over yourself?” Travis groaned. “Stop playing matchmaker. I am not going to trust Ad
die Baker ever again.”
“Your loss.”
“They say the second time’s the charm,” Colton commented.
“No, it’s the third time that counts.” Brady suddenly grinned. “Though this could be construed as the third time around for our big brother.”
Travis hung his head, wishing for a herd of feral hogs to arrive and devour Brady whole.
His mood did not improve when he and his brothers arrived at the ranch. Riley’s nanny, with Riley holding her hand, walked to the barn with an envelope in her hand. “This came while you were out,” she said.
Dismounting, Travis took the envelope, gazing at the return address. “This came from Austin.”
“What’s it say?” Colton asked, loosening the filly’s cinch.
Travis tore open the envelope, and read the letter. The further he read, the angrier he got. “This is –”
“What?” Brady plucked the letter from his hand, and read as Travis rested his arms over Spike’s saddle, trying to control his rage.
“Oh, no.”
Brady turned toward him, his eyes wide in surprise, and his own growing anger. “That old fool is responsible for this.”
“Don’t tell me what I don’t know.”
Colton grabbed the paper and read. “The Environmental Protection Agency? What do they want?’
“They say we’re in violation of the Clean Water Act,” Travis grated. “Parnell set them onto us. I just know it.”
“I think it’s high time that old guy minded his own business,” Brady snapped, throwing his stirrup over his saddle to loosen his mare’s cinch. “Maybe it’s time he learned how.”
“You’re not going over there and punch him out, Brady,” Travis told him, unsaddling Spike. “He’s an old man. And besides, that’ll lead to another fancy lawsuit.”
“You gonna stop me?”
Travis glowered down into Brady’s hot eyes, his hands on his hips. “Yes.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Don’t be such a hard case, Brady,” Colton chimed in suddenly. “Maybe for the first time in his life, Travis is right. Getting in that geezer’s face isn’t the answer.”
“Then what is?” Brady snapped back.
“We have an attorney on retainer,” Travis replied. “We let her handle it.”
Brady muttered something unintelligible under his breath, and continued to unsaddle his horse. As angry as Brady was, Travis inwardly prayed for patience, and slowly calmed himself. Why Parnell felt the need to cause trouble for them was beyond his comprehension, but he had to deal with this new problem in a sane manner.
That meant contacting Addie again.
Recalling his cold rudeness to her earlier in the day, Travis’s guilt rose again. I had no call to treat her like that. Part of him wanted to apologize, the other part said she had it coming. But did she? Torn between his guilt, a little excitement at the prospect of seeing her again, even professionally, and dread, Travis felt as though he had roped a Mexican fighting bull.
And that it was about to turn on him.
Chapter 6
Oh, boy, oh, boy. Driving to the Hamilton Ranch along the two lane country road, Addie saw the same farm houses that hadn’t changed at all in the years since she’d been here last. There was the rusted geriatric tractor still sitting in the field next to the cotton mill that had been there for as long as she could remember. Beyond it were the acres and acres of growing cotton, fluffs of last year’s crop still clinging to dead twigs on the ground.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Turning onto the ranch’s long driveway, her little Toyota Hybrid Prius kicked up a rooster tail of dust behind it. She saw little of the ranch’s primary crop – cattle – along the way, but as the ranch owned thousands of acres and leased still more, it was not surprising she didn’t see any.
The houses, the big gray and red barn, the corrals and roping arena appeared around a bend, and her nervousness kicked into high gear. Though he had been polite on the phone when he asked her to come to the ranch, ostensibly to talk about their current problem, Addie hadn’t forgotten how cold he’d been the previous day.
“Just play it cool and professional,” she muttered. “You took the man’s money, you are here to do a job. That’s all.”
Two men emerged from the barn at the sound of her car’s engine, and Addie had little difficulty in identifying Brady standing beside Travis. As she had enough credits to skip forward a grade in high school, he had been in her class. She grinned to herself as the memory of some of his school pranks returned to her.
“Addie!” Brady yelled as she stopped the car, and opened the door. “You are a sight for sore eyes, girlfriend. C’mere and gimmee a hug.”
She laughed, grinning, as she obeyed, aware of Travis standing close as she embraced Brady. His scent of cologne combined with horses, and his arms seemed as hard as a mature mesquite tree. He pecked her noisily on the cheek, then draped his arm over her shoulder.
“Our knight in shining armor come to save us from the big bad wolf,” he exclaimed.
“Your knight’s armor is a little tarnished,” she replied, laughing. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Tarnished or not, we’re lucky to have you on our side,” Brady commented. “Aren’t we, Trav?”
Half expecting Travis to give her a chilly reception, Addie glanced up at him as he tilted his hat back on his head with his thumb. Yet, he also grinned. “I’ll say,” he answered. “Now we have the feds on our case, and we don’t need the trouble.”
“What are they claiming?” she asked.
“That the water we take from the irrigation canal for our stock tank is polluted,” he said, his grin fading.
“That doesn’t sound right.” Addie recalled other similar cases regarding the Clean Water Act while in Houston. “Have they tested the water?”
“No.” Travis stuck his thumbs in his pockets, a habit he’d had since school and obviously hadn’t dropped. “The inspector will be here in a few weeks.”
“It might be a good idea to have it tested ourselves,” Addie suggested. “I know a good lab, and they have a small office in Odessa. Their turnaround time is very good.”
“See?” Brady interjected. “I told you Addie was a smart gal, and would help us out.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Travis said, but clearly was still in a good humor. “That would be a good thing to do, Addie.”
“I’ll get in touch with them when I get back to the office,” she told him. “Now did they happen to say what was polluting the canal?”
“Manure from the cattle,” Travis replied. “But that’s nearly impossible. The cattle can’t get anywhere near it. We have it fenced off.”
“And no breaks in the fence?”
“Not that we know of.” Travis exchanged a look with Brady. “We don’t normally have to check it, since the cattle are not that close to it.”
“But cows get thirsty, and can be clever about slipping through, then going back,” Addie said thoughtfully. “If the wire is loose enough, that might be happening.”
“For a city girl, you know an awful lot about cows,” Brady remarked with a grin.
“I did grow up in cow country.”
“Speaking of a city girl,” Travis said with a laugh, gesturing toward her car, “look at what you’re driving. A city car.”
“In the big city,” she answered with a grin, “Hybrids save gas. Your monster truck puts out pollution, dude. Some would say you’re adding to the climate crisis.”
“At least my truck earns its keep. How did you get all your stuff into that itty bitty hatch?”
She shrugged, not really liking to talk about her life in Houston with him. “I got rid of a lot of stuff when I moved. I didn’t come back here with much.”
“That was probably smart,” he remarked, still smiling.
That was something that had not changed at all with him. His body had matured, but his smile still had t
hat boyish quality she had always loved. Even so, the wariness that lurked behind his eyes told her more than the smile – he didn’t trust her and probably never would.
Lord knows I deserve that mistrust. I wounded him badly. Is there any hope for forgiveness and redemption for me? Why is it I hurt those who care for me?
Addie dropped her gaze from his in order to collect herself, her thoughts, push her guilt into the background. She had to focus on the issues at hand, not her self recriminations that continually crept into her consciousness. Brady said something she didn’t catch, and his voice brought her back into the present.
“Excuse me?”
Brady rolled his eyes. “I lost you there for a second. I suggested you and Trav take a ride out there, and have a look at the irrigation canal.”
Addie blinked. “Uh, on a horse?”
Brady stared at Travis, whose smile widened even as he shrugged. “Can you believe this chick? This is a working cattle ranch whose primary means of transportation is a horse, and she wants to know if we’re going to put her on one.”
Flushing, Addie laughed. “It’s just that I haven’t ridden in a very long time. I probably forgot how.”
“No worries,” Brady replied cheerfully. “You can borrow mine. On her, you’ll be as safe as you would be in your own rocking chair.”
“Rocking chairs don’t have tendencies to buck.”
“Neither does Zora.”
“Zora?”
Brady steered her into the barn. “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”
Zora turned out to be a splashy bay mare with four white stockings, a blazed face, and the distinctive curved dish of an Arabian. Her huge dark eyes, soft and kind, regarded Addie as she caressed her neck.
“She’s beautiful, Brady.”
“And smarter than my big brother,” he added with a cheerful grin.
“Can it, meathead.”
“See? His vocabulary drops to grade school levels when he gets around beautiful females. I’ll saddle her up.”
Addie ambled around the barn as Travis and Brady saddled the horses, peered into stalls at the inmates. Horses of all sizes and colors looked back at her, some pushing their noses against the bars in search of a pat or a treat.
Cowboy Billionaire's Second Chance Page 4