Taming Clay

by Raeann Blake

  She’d seen both Laine and Clay ride back towards them several times. It was the second or third time before it dawned on her what they were doing. And it pissed her off. They were checking on them, making sure they really were handling the job. She glanced over to where Lynn was and reined Soldier in to time her arrival at the center of the herd to coincide with Lynn’s arrival there.

  “Do you see them?” she called out to her.

  “Yeah, so?” Lynn snapped.

  “Checking on us to make sure a woman can handle it?” Hailey asked when Lynn turned her horse and started back across but pulled Soldier to a stop when Lynn wheeled her horse and started back to her.

  “You know, you’ve got a really big chip on your shoulder about being a woman. They’re not like that here. If they’re doing anything, it’s that they’re checking on the new hands, making sure that they can do the job. Not that a woman can do the job.”

  “Maybe,” Hailey admitted.

  “Or maybe they’re checking to make sure their new princess is safe,” Lynn snarled and spun her horse away to start back across the herd.

  “Huh,” Hailey muttered as she turned Soldier and started back across to the outside. She glanced up the side of the herd just in time to catch Clay turning Ringo back around to face away from her. She set her jaw and went back to work as she thought about all of it.

  Laine hadn’t wanted her to ride drag. Why? Special treatment for what Lynn called ‘their special princess’. That he thought she couldn’t do the job? She admitted it could be because he knew who she’d be riding drag with. She didn’t have any doubt that there was a single person out there who didn’t feel the friction between the two of them. Or had Clay told him not to let her ride drag? For one of the same reasons?

  She frowned as she nudged yet another straggler to catch up with the herd and tried to put herself in Laine’s position. If she had two men who didn’t get along, would she put them together and stay out of the way? Or would she go out of her way to keep them apart? She thought seriously about it and the repercussions of both decisions. At the end she concluded that she would put them where they were supposed to be. If that meant they were together, then she would stay out of the way. If they worked together for any length of time, they would be thrown together at some point down the line. Get out of the way and let them work it out. But for all of their progressive ways of thinking, they were still men. Men who were worried about two women who didn’t get along working in close proximity. Who were they protecting? Her or Lynn? Either one raised her temper.

  When she saw two riders headed back to them, she waited until they reached them with a wave before she moved Soldier out around the herd and up the side until she caught up with Clay. Once she reached him she jerked the neckerchief down and sent him a hard glare but waited until she took a quick drink from her canteen before she spoke.

  “If you don’t think I can do the job, you can ride closer,” she said evenly.

  “If I didn’t think you could do the job, you wouldn’t be doin’ it,” Clay shot back.

  “Then what are you doing?”

  When he didn’t answer her she snorted. “That’s what I thought,” she said as Laine rode up beside them but didn’t say anything.

  “I don’t need a protector. I can take care of myself and I can fight my own battles,” she hissed then kicked Soldier to move him forward. She reined him in and turned back when she heard a shrill whistle and saw Laine motion for her to come back. When she reached him, she blinked twice at his hard stare.

  “If you’ve got battles to fight, you do it on your own time. I’ve got a herd to worry about and I don’t need to be spending time worryin’ about when one of you is gonna decide to start a fight. You do your goddamned job or I’ll find somebody that will. You got that?” Laine snapped.

  She clenched her jaw several times then nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Fine. Move on up the line and get out of the dust for a while. Two hours, you go back to drag.”

  When she nodded once then spun Soldier away again he waited until she was far enough away not to overhear them before he turned a gaze back to Clay.

  “You got somethin’ to say?” he asked lowly.

  “Nope,” Clay said. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. Am I rubbin’ off on you?”

  “God, I hope not,” Laine muttered then turned his horse and started towards the back of the herd.

  Hailey knew immediately what she’d done wrong. She wanted them to treat her like one of the hands, but she wasn’t acting like one of the hands. She never would have stood for a hand working for her to say what she had without calling them down just the same way Laine had done.

  Maybe Lynn was at least a little bit right. She probably did come across as thinking about herself as something special. Like she was the ranch pet or something. She’d never worked where she wasn’t the only woman, but also the boss’s daughter. If she was going to be honest, she had to admit that she really did come across as something of a spoiled brat. Always fighting to get her way. What nobody would know was that she had been forced to fight for her right to do anything growing up. Now it was the only way she knew. She wasn’t going to be able to change that, but maybe she could temper it some.

  When it came time to go back to drag, she turned Soldier out from the herd and started back. Clay waved a hand silently at her as she rode by him, but she kept going. She relieved the man on her side and saw Lynn do the same. They worked without speaking and most of the time their journey to the middle of the herd and back again didn’t coincide with each other. But once it did, Lynn spoke first.

  “What’s the matter, princess? Get your wings clipped?” she called snidely.

  Hailey shrugged her shoulders and said, “I deserved it.”

  “I’m sure you did,” Lynn said as she turned.

  It rubbed her the wrong way, but she let it go, and turned Soldier back the other way. What she said wasn’t untrue. She didn’t have to like the way she said it. She glanced up once to see Clay turned back to watch them again. And she set her jaw one more time when she knew that he’d made it a point to let her know it before he turned back around.

  Clay settled back in the saddle and blew out a long breath. He was still a little worried. He loved her temper, her spunk and the way she’d bark back when barked at. But there was a time and place and this wasn’t it. He was pretty sure she knew that, but he was going to do exactly what Laine had suggested. He was going to stay out of it. This was Laine’s area. She might work for him back at the house, but out here she worked for Laine. Growing up the way she did, he had no doubt that she had been required to take orders from a ranch foreman just the same as it was here. If her father was anything like he thought he was, no way did he let her run the hands. And she had mentioned having to fight him more than once on different things. She’d probably spent her whole life fighting. But she had to have taken on the job of a regular hand there…with one exception. She couldn’t get fired. Maybe it was time she learned that she wasn’t in New Mexico anymore.

  He turned his head slightly when he heard a rider come up beside him. When Laine rode along without saying anything, Clay grunted once and Laine chuckled.

  “See…that’s what I miss. You used to do that all the time instead of asking me what I wanted.”

  “And?” Clay said.

  “I’ve been thinkin’.”

  “Uh-oh,” Clay muttered then grinned slightly. “What have you been thinkin’?”

  “Well partly about what you asked me last night. If I moved in the house, that kind of separates me from the hands. And that’s not the best thing.”

  He rushed to go on when he saw Clay’s head drop slightly. “But what I was thinkin’ is that maybe it’s time we appoint a top hand. Somebody to take over managing the hands and let me concentrate on other stuff. Sort of a higher level. Not so much having to worry about who’s working when and where.”

  Clay’s head came back up and he frowne
d thoughtfully. “Huh. That’s a thought. Who’d you have in mind? Shack won’t take it. Charlie?”

  “Yeah. That’s who I thought. I thought about Jean Ann, too. She knows what it takes to keep a ranch running. And all the hands respect her. But I’m leaning more towards Charlie. I’m not opposed to puttin’ a woman in the position, but realistically, working with a woman and working for a woman is not the same thing. I think Charlie might be the better choice in our case.”

  Clay was silent for a long time then turned his head to look at him. “I’m not against it. But I need to ask you something. How much of you deciding this is just because I asked you to move into the house? I don’t want you making a decision to take yourself out of doing something you like to do because I asked you to do that.”

  “It’s not that, Clay. Yeah, it prompted me to bring it up. But I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. You know what managing the hands involves. Making sure everybody’s where they’re supposed to be, has what they need. Dealing with little problems and issues that come up. Not that I don’t like doing that, but it does take up a lot of my time. Time that I could use doing some of the other things that need taking care of that sometimes have to slide. I think we need to do this whether we move in the house or not.”

  Clay nodded and said, “Okay. Let’s talk about it some more. And we’ll need to talk to Charlie if that’s who you want, get his thoughts on it. But you know best what’s needed. And you’re right. I don’t think I ever heard of an outfit our size that didn’t have a top hand. I like the idea.”

  “Okay. We’ll talk about it after we get back. That’ll give us a chance to think it over. Pro’s and con’s. Maybe get Shack’s opinion on it?” he said with it sounding more like a question.

  Clay immediately shook his head. “No. Not that I don’t value his advice. You know that. But this is your area, Laine. We’ll make a decision based on what you think.” He hadn’t stopped to think about it, instead just saying what he thought. He was very glad that he had when he saw Laine sit up a little straighter in the saddle. Maybe he hadn’t been so great about letting him know that he valued his advice, too.

  “Okay. We’ll be stopping for lunch soon. Making good time. We should be there a little before the sun goes down at this rate. Maybe we can get one of the boys to break out a harmonica tonight. Play a little music.”

  “Maybe. And maybe you’d better sleep between me and Hailey tonight,” Clay said quietly.

  Laine waited just a heartbeat before he turned a serious face to him. “I’m not gonna wake up pressed up against your chest in the mornin’, am I?”

  Clay’s head dropped and he reached out one hand quickly to shove Laine’s shoulder as he laughed. “Get the hell out of here.”

  Laine started to turn but then stopped. “Oh. When’s the race?”

  “There is no race,” Clay said evenly.

  “Uh-huh,” Laine said then laughed again as he turned his horse to ride around the back of the herd. As he rode by Hailey he slowed just long enough to call out to her.

  “He says there is no race.”

  “We’ll see,” she called back and was rewarded with that bright smile that so often lit up his face. She chuckled softly and kept working as she glanced up at Clay just in time to see him shake his head and turn back around.

  The next time she saw Laine, he stopped and spoke to Lynn then rode to her. “We’ll be stopping for lunch in about five minutes. We’ll eat in two shifts. The two of you go in and eat on the first shift. Soon as you get through, head back out here and let the others go in.”

  She watched him go the rest of the way around the herd and stop to say something to Clay. When Clay nodded he moved on up that side.

  “Huh. I wonder which one of you is gonna go babysit us while we eat,” she muttered.

  When they stopped moving and the back of the herd started to spread out she quickly moved Soldier to keep them bunched together and saw Lynn do the same. She glanced up once as Clay rode up beside her and motioned to where Shack had stopped the wagon.

  “Both of you go ahead. Laine and I will take care of this area while you eat,” he said without looking at her.

  She nodded once and turned Soldier away then kicked him into a canter until she reached Lynn. She jerked her thumb back towards Clay and said, “He said for both of us to go. He and Laine will watch this until we get back.”

  She didn’t wait on a response but moved Soldier right back into a canter and rode to the wagon. She couldn’t help but smile when she started through the line and Shack met her with a cup of coffee.

  “God bless you,” she said and kissed him on the cheek.

  Shack looked back and forth between her and Lynn. “Girl, the two of you have got about six inches of Montana dirt on you.”

  Hailey smiled up at him widely and said, “I know. Isn’t it great?”

  Shack burst out laughing and shook his head. “Never saw anybody glad to ride drag. Drink that coffee. I’ll fill it up when you get up to the head of the line.”

  She took a quick sip and sighed then laughed when Charlie stuck his head out to look back at her from several positions up the line.

  “You do like your coffee, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir. My one real vice. Well…if you don’t count, cussin’. Oh, and occasionally drinking. And maybe smokin’. And…what were we talkin’ about?” she asked then took another sip as those around her laughed.

  True to his word, Shack refilled her coffee cup when she reached him and she took it and her plate over to where Charlie had sat down. She settled beside him in silence and waited to see where Lynn would sit. If it was her, she would sit directly across from her. She didn’t look up but knew that was exactly what she did.

  “Hey, Hailey. I’ve got some chewing tobacco if you wanna add to that list of vices,” Davey called from several spots down.

  Hailey immediately shook her head. “Uh-uh. I let myself get goaded into that once. Nobody told me not to swallow. Threw up for three straight hours. No, thank you.”

  The laughter erupted around them until Lynn spoke sarcastically. “Well, it’s nice to know there’s at least one thing you can’t do.”

  She lifted her eyes to her slowly in the ensuing silence and then smiled sweetly. “Tons of things. The list of things I can’t do is many times longer than the one of things that I can. I can’t draw worth a damn. Never flew an airplane. Never drove a truck. Wouldn’t know where to start to write a book. About the only guns I ever learned how to shoot were a rifle and a shotgun. The list could go on for days.”

  “I was thinking more about things on a ranch,” Lynn countered.

  “Oh, that. Well figure out what the hell I did to you for one thing. When you decide to let me know, if I owe you an apology then you’ll get one. But we can save that for another day. By the way, I decided you were right about that chip on my shoulder. I’ll work on that.” She stopped long enough to glance to where she knew Jean Ann had sat down.

  “Jean Ann, tell me some more about these moves we need to teach these guys.”

  “Yeah. Tell us about that, Jean Ann,” Charlie added quickly with a wide smile. As the others started laughing he cut his eyes slightly to Hailey and nodded just slightly. He had to admire the way she had backed Lynn into a corner, putting her in a position that anything that she said back to her would sound petty and childish after Hailey had come across as nothing but open, frank and honest in her approach.

  “Child, some things are better shown than explained,” Jean Ann said with a completely straight face.

  Hailey looked up at her in surprise and saw the amusement in her eyes and burst out laughing with the rest of them.

  “Show and tell, huh? Okay. We’ll let you go first,” she said and Jean Ann immediately laughed.

  “Sugar, I’m not shy. I’ll be glad to go first. We might even get Shack out there,” she said loudly enough for Shack to overhear them.

  “When and where? I’ll be there,” Shack
shot back and a lot of hoots went up. Hailey laughed even harder when she looked back at Jean Ann and saw her wiggle her eyebrows straight at her without the slightest hint of embarrassment on her face.