The Cowboy's Family Christmas

by Carolyne Aarsen

  He had Reuben’s complete sympathy. Reuben knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of George’s demands. Never feeling like the job you were doing was good enough. Always getting pushed to do more. He wondered how long this young man had worked for his father.

  “Devin. Where are you going?” Leanne called out, the concern in her voice evident from here.

  “Get back here, Devin,” George yelled. “Get back here or you’re fired.”

  “You can’t fire me,” Devin shouted back, his voice filled with rage as he shoved open the gate, “because I quit.”

  Then Devin led his horse through the open gate.

  But he hadn’t looked behind him. Reuben could easily see what the young man, in his fury, had missed.

  A group of cows and calves had followed Devin and his horse and were right behind him as he turned to close the gate.

  Too late he noticed the animals and struggled to shut the gate on them. But by then the cows were already pushing past him to freedom. Devin jumped back, pulling his horse back, the cows now streaming out of the gate.

  From what Reuben remembered, if the cows got away, they would run toward the open fields behind the ranch and from there up into the foothill pastures, which were spread out over hundreds and hundreds of acres. If they got too far out, it would take days to round them up again. Maybe even longer once the cows had gotten their taste of freedom.

  “Devin, close that gate,” George yelled, leaning over the fence, his face purple. “Close the gate, you useless twerp.”

  But Devin had given up and was leading his horse away from the herd flowing through the gate.

  Reuben grabbed hold of a fence post and clambered over in his hurry to catch the gate and stop the rest of the cows from getting out. But it was hard to halt the press of all those large bodies and too dangerous.

  “What did you do?” he called out to Devin, who was ignoring the herd racing past him as he walked along the fence.

  “I quit.” Devin muttered as Reuben tried to get by him. “George is a maniac boss.”

  “Is that your own horse?” Reuben asked as the cows, increasing in number, now thundered past them.

  “No. Belongs to the ranch.”

  That’s all he needed to know. Reuben yanked the reins out of Devin’s hand, did a quick assessment of the young man’s height. They were about the same. The stirrups should be okay.

  Then he vaulted into the saddle, turned the horse around, nudged him in the flanks and galloped off to head off the cows before they got too far away.

  It was a race and Reuben had to be careful not to get too close to the cows and get them running even faster. He heard Leanne’s shout and tossed a quick glance over his shoulder to see her following on horseback behind him, making a wide loop around the herd like he had.

  All he could hear now was the thundering of the cows’ hooves, the steady rhythm of the horse’s, its hard breathing and Leanne shouting something indecipherable.

  * * *

  She needed to catch up to Reuben. Leanne gripped the reins of her horse, urging it on, fighting to stay in the saddle of the racing horse.

  She shoved down a beat of panic as she galloped alongside the now running herd going faster than she thought possible.

  She didn’t have time to plan. All she could concentrate on was getting the herd turned around before they got too far ahead. Could they do it with two horses? She’d never handled a charging herd before.

  Please, Lord, help me keep my seat. Help me not fall off.

  Her prayer was automatic. She didn’t want to disgrace herself in front of either Reuben, who seemed to be one with the horse he rode, or George, who had seemed on the verge of having a heart attack when the cows had surged through the open gate.

  She was so angry with Devin, but right now she couldn’t spare him much thought.

  Slowly the gap between their horses lessened and, to her surprise and relief, Reuben managed to get his horse in front of the lead cows. He waved his hat at the herd as he pulled his horse’s speed in.

  Please don’t split, she silently pleaded as she came behind Reuben, trying to gauge the correct distance between her and Reuben and the cows. Too close and she would spook the herd. Too far back and some of the cows might go right between them and they’d have two bunches to worry about.

  Thankfully they stayed together, calves bawling, cows bellowing and dust rising up from the milling hooves.

  Reuben made it to the front of the herd and slowly, slowly their forward momentum decreased. Reuben waved his hat again, yelling to get the cows turned. But the animals behind didn’t know what was happening and kept running through, ramming into the cows in the front. This spooked them again and Leanne hurried to join Reuben at the front to hold the herd back.

  But finally the animals seemed to sense they weren’t going to carry on and the herd slowed its pace, Reuben and Leanne keeping up.

  “Don’t get too close,” Reuben called out. “Stay far enough away that they can see you but not get scared again.”

  Leanne nodded, pulling her horse back.

  Reuben waved his arm at the cows again and they stopped. “Get beside me but stay about ten feet away,” he shouted to Leanne. “Turn your horse toward the cows and keep it facing them.”

  Leanne simply did what she was told. Reuben had herded far more cows than she had and knew what he was doing.

  So she turned her horse around, her heart pounding in her chest with a mixture of fear and anticipation as she faced down the herd in front of her. The cows had their heads up as if looking for a way out. What would happen now depended on the decision of the lead cows.

  “Get along, you creatures,” Reuben yelled, waving his hat at them again. Leanne had left her rope behind and her hat had tumbled off somewhere in the pasture so she waved her hands, praying it would help.

  Then, together, they managed to get the front cows turned back toward the corrals and, thankfully, the others reluctantly followed suit.

  The herd pushed and bawled as they made their way back, expressing their disappointment and confusion.

  “You keep pressure on the herd, I’ll make sure they stay bunched,” Reuben called out.

  Again all Leanne could do was nod.

  A few calves made a break from the herd, heading for the upper pastures but Reuben quickly got them back, his horse easily stopping and turning them around.

  Thankfully his horse was a seasoned cutting horse and Reuben knew what he was doing.

  The cattle had their heads down now, plodding along the way cows should be moving. Leanne sneezed on the dust raised by the herd walking over the fields that were once green. She shivered as the worst of the drama was over.

  Reuben was still working the one side of the herd as the animals headed back to the corrals. She knew they would face another challenge when they came to the gate, but hopefully the bale of hay she’d put inside the pen to lure them in the first place would draw them back again. The pasture they were riding on now was brown and chewed down so there was nothing to entice them here, though a few cows slowed to check it out.

  As they got closer to the yard, she saw the gate was still open. George was on the other side of the fence, holding it with a rope to make sure it didn’t swing shut. He also knew what to do.

  Then, finally, the first cows went through the gate.

  “Push them harder,” Reuben called out, whistling at the cows. “We need to get them moving fast enough so the front ones get pushed farther into the corrals and don’t decide to turn around when they reach the end.”

  Leanne clucked to her horse, urging the cows on, and then, finally, they were all back in the corrals and the large metal gate clanged shut behind them.

  Her hands were shaking as she unclenched the reins and pulled in a long, ste
adying breath. They had come so close to a complete disaster.

  If Reuben hadn’t been there right when Devin quit...

  She shut that thought off. She didn’t know why Reuben had returned, but he had, and right now she was relieved to have the cows safely back in the pen. It had taken her and Devin and Chad two days to round them up the first time. She knew if the cows had gotten out to the far pasture, it would have taken them a lot longer to convince them to come back.

  “Good job, Leanne,” George said as she sat, her breath shaky, her pulse still pounding.

  She acknowledged his rare compliment with a duck of her head, then grabbed her horse’s reins and turned back toward the herd.

  “What are you doing?” Reuben called out.

  “Getting these cows processed.” Time was wasting. George would be furious as it was, no sense making him angrier.

  “No. You need to get your bearings. Your horse needs to rest a moment. Shift its mindset.”

  Leanne fought down frustration that she hadn’t thought of that. Though her horse was breathing heavily, she knew the run hadn’t worn it out. But it had put it in a racing frame of mind, as Reuben had said. She needed to settle it down.

  So she nodded her acknowledgment of what he said, pulled in another breath and exerted a gentle but steady pressure on the reins to hold her horse in. He seemed to understand what she wanted and stopped its prancing and shifting, settling down and lowering its head.

  Reuben brought his horse alongside hers, talking to it in a low voice, settling it down, as well.

  Up until now Leanne’s focus had been on the cows, on staying atop her horse, on keeping things under control.

  But now that the crisis had been averted, she was far too aware of Reuben beside her, petting his horse, rewarding it, looking as if he hadn’t just faced down fifty cow and calf pairs racing for the back of the beyond.

  “So what’s next?” he asked, shoving his cowboy hat back up his head with the knuckle of his forefinger, giving her a quizzical look.

  She fought down a whirl of confusion, letting her old anger with him surface. How could he act so casual? As if they hadn’t shared so much? Been through so much?

  “What are you doing here?” she blurted out.

  He looked taken aback, but then his features hardened, reflecting her own churning emotions.

  “I came to say goodbye.”

  “You’re leaving?” She shouldn’t be surprised. It was what he did best. “What about the arena?”

  “I told Cord he needed to find someone else to do the assessment.” His horse did a turn away, restless now, but Reuben got it turned to face the cows. In the process he ended up even closer to Leanne and her horse.

  “Why are you here?” George called out, joining them.

  “So nice to be made welcome,” Reuben muttered, his jaw clenched. He turned to his father. “Like I was saying to Leanne, I just stopped in to say goodbye and came into the middle of this mess.”

  “Sure. Yeah.” George turned away from him and back to Leanne. “Chad is still here. Guess we should get going.” He walked away from them, heading back to the head gate.

  Leanne nodded, trying hard not to look at her watch. She had told Shauntelle to drop Austin off at suppertime. If it were only her and Chad and George, sorting these cows would take longer.

  “You can’t do this alone.”

  Reuben’s tone rubbed her completely wrong. So full of authority. But his words were, unfortunately, correct.

  “Done it before,” she snapped. “Can do it again.”

  “Not without Devin.”

  She didn’t need to be reminded of that particular betrayal. Though she didn’t blame the kid, it was still lousy timing on Devin’s part that he quit right now. This was only the first batch of cows they needed to work through. In the coming week they needed to get the rest of the cows down off the upper pastures, process and wean them. On top of that, she had committed to taking minutes at a meeting of the Rodeo Group. She had too much to do and not enough help to do it now that Devin was gone.

  But she wasn’t going to admit that to Reuben.

  She turned to him, fighting a confusing mix of anger and loss as she held his dark brown eyes. Eyes she had once found herself lost in.

  Focus. He’s not the man you thought he was.

  “So I guess this is goodbye,” she said, turning away from him, determined not to let him see how he affected her. “I need to get to work.”

  “Not on your own.”

  “What do you propose I do? Run to the hired-hand store?” She couldn’t keep the snappy tone out of her voice.

  She’d heard nothing for the past three years from this man. A man she had given her heart to and so much more.

  And now he swoops back into her life and tells her what she should and shouldn’t do on a ranch he walked away from? A ranch he never showed any interest in?

  “I could help out until you’re done,” he said.

  All she could do was stare at him. Reuben? Working alongside her on the ranch?

  She shook her head. “No. That’s not happening. We’ll manage on our own.”

  “You won’t and you know it,” he returned. It wasn’t too hard to hear the annoyance in his voice.

  Well, she didn’t care. He had no right to be frustrated with her.

  Leanne closed her eyes, trying to bring her focus back to what needed to be done and how she could swing it.

  She couldn’t have him around. She didn’t want to live in the past with its pain and resentment. She wanted to move on.

  Then she heard the jangle of his horse’s bit and when she opened her eyes again he was already moving his horse into the herd, calling out to George.

  “How many do you want at a time?”

  “Send me ten pairs,” George was saying. “But don’t get too fussed if cows and calves get separated.”

  A chill shot through her as she heard George give Reuben directions.

  “I don’t think we need his help,” she called out to George, anger blending with fear.

  “Too late,” Reuben tossed over his shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere until this job is done.”

  Chapter Three

  “Send them through now, Reuben. Keep them moving.”

  Reuben ignored his father’s barked commands and pushed the last of the cows into the pen keeping his horse right behind the last cow. He nodded for Chad to shut the gate. The poor guy looked exhausted, but then so did Leanne. She was slouched in her saddle now, wiping her face with a hanky. She had lost her hat in the race to get ahead of the cows. Her hair hung in a lank ponytail down her back, loose strands sticking to her flushed face.

  “Chad, come over here and help me get these cows done,” his father called out.

  Reuben leaned on his saddle, watching poor Chad clambering over the fence and joining his father on the walkway to help finish needling the cows. Beyond them, in the second, much-larger pen, the cows and calves were finally settled, munching on the hay. Once the rest of the cows were through, the work was done for the day.

  He arched his back, working out a kink, then slowly dismounted. He was going to feel every single muscle in his hips and legs tomorrow. He hadn’t ridden in years and yet was surprised how quickly the old skills came back.

  Leanne got off her horse, as well. She slipped the reins over the horse’s head then walked her horse toward him.

  Her expression was guarded as she trudged through the pen. Once again he struggled with her angry reaction to his presence. Where did that come from and what right did she have to be upset with him? She was the one who had betrayed him. Marrying his brother while he was giving her the space she said she needed.

  “This is just the first bunch?” he asked as she joined him, her h
orse heaving a heavy sigh as if the day had been too long for him, as well.

  “Yeah. We’ve got eighty more head up in the higher pastures.”

  “Shouldn’t this have been done a month ago?” he asked, stretching his neck. “Time isn’t on your side.”

  “We’ve been fortunate.” Her voice held an edge of tension, which annoyed him.

  “Considering your main hand just quit, I wouldn’t say that.”

  “It’s a glitch,” she snapped.

  “So you figure on gathering them tomorrow?”

  “I can’t. Your father and I have a meeting with the Cedar Ridge Rodeo Group tomorrow. It will have to wait until Friday.”

  “The weather is only going to cooperate so long,” he said, struggling to keep his frustration down.

  “I checked the forecast. We have a week of good weather ahead of us.” The anger in her voice wasn’t hard to miss.

  “I’m trying to help,” he said.

  “Now?” Leanne’s eyes narrowed. Then she seemed to gather her emotions. “I’m sorry. I appreciate what you just did.”

  He just nodded, realizing from the tension in her voice how difficult the apology was for her.

  “I couldn’t very well leave you hanging.”

  Reuben led his horse through a gate on the far side of the pen, trying to ignore his father’s yelling at Chad.

  “How many ranch hands have you been through in the past year?” he asked, opening the gate so she could lead her horse through.

  Leanne’s only reply was a halfhearted shrug. Which told him they’d probably been through a few.

  He wanted to push the issue but he had already said enough. Besides, what did it matter to him what Leanne and his father were doing or the difficulties they were having? It wasn’t his ranch and he had no skin in the game.

  You should stay. Help.

  On the heels of that thought came Leanne’s anger with him. Why should he deal with that on purpose?

  Daylight was waning by the time the horses were unbridled and released into their own pasture.