“If they did I’d wonder what century they’re living in.”
“One where some of those guys participated in range wars over land leases, water rights, fencing and a host of other dumb things.”
“Shows my ignorance. I thought all of that was ancient history. But I almost forgot. I have a question. Do you know if anyone’s seen hybrid wolf dogs running loose in the area? Maybe up along the rim?”
“Wolf dogs?” Manny stripped off his hat and scratched his head. “I’ve heard a lot of grousing over your wolves. Don’t recall any talk of hybrids. Why?”
“On my first hike above the foothills, I glimpsed an animal or two with wolf characteristics. They were bigger than wolves in my team’s Mission pack. They disappeared in underbrush. I lost their prints.”
“No ranchers run cattle up there, Wyatt. Do you think your wolves made off with some ranch dogs? Is that adding to the neighbors’ anger?”
“What I know is our four adult wolves haven’t been free long enough to have mated with cow dogs the size those were. Plus, our females were pregnant by their mates when we turned them loose. It’s something we make sure to do.”
“Then I’ve no idea. Sorry.”
“Since you’re going after a bull, would you casually inquire if there’s been any talk of hybrids?”
“Stew Darnell lives on the flats. I’ll ask, providing he’ll talk with me at all.”
“I’d planned to trek out today to hunt my wolf pack, but I can go along with you as backup.” Wyatt grimaced. “Unless my being there would make things worse.”
“It might. Thanks, though. If you can spare the day I’d rather you ride with Tandy and Scotty. Yesterday we moved half her cattle to leased grassland. It borders Hicks’s spring range. I caught the flash of sun off glass. It could’ve been binoculars, like he was watching us. I didn’t tell Tandy ’cause by the time I dug out my field glasses, the flash was gone. Hicks doesn’t much like me. Never has. He’s acting weird. Just sayin’.”
“I can spare the day. I told Scotty I’d show him how to distinguish different tracks. For the fun of identifying a cow print from a horse or elk, or his dog’s print from a rabbit. He seemed excited, and it’s something as a lonely kid I spent hours learning.”
“He is lonely. And full of spunk. He’s not old enough to be of any real help herding cattle. But he’s a trooper to stick with us all day. It’s nice of you to take an interest. Curt wished he could’ve spent more time with his only grandson. Even if he’d lived, that wouldn’t have happened. I ’spect Tandy might’ve stayed in the army.”
“Would she have after her divorce?”
Manny hiked a shoulder. “I dunno. I never married or had kids. I know cattle and horses. I don’t know squat about women. Curt hired me when a lot of folks around didn’t trust Mexicans. Didn’t matter that I was born and raised in Texas. My papa died when I was sixteen. Mama and my older sister went back to Mexico. I quit school and worked cattle drives until South Texas ranchers decided I was too old at forty. I kept moving north and found Curt. He kept me on thirty years and I outlived him. When my time comes I’m gonna ask Tandy to see I get buried near her folks. They treated me like family. That’s why I’ll do all I can to help her and the boy.”
Wyatt mulled over the old cowboy’s words. He reflected for a moment on his own life. He’d long thought his parents shouldn’t have had children. Like Manny, he felt closer to his best friend’s family than his own. “Tandy needs your experience, Manny, so don’t go digging your grave just yet.”
“All I can do is my best. Well, I gotta get going,” Manny said. “It’s slow traveling with an empty trailer. With or without buying a bull, I won’t be back until dark. Oh, look, I see Tandy and Scotty coming out of the house.”
Glancing around, Wyatt caught her smile and his heart tripped faster, which it shouldn’t be doing. He was here temporarily, at best.
Scotty barreled past his mom, launching himself at Wyatt. “Can we look at animal tracks now? Maybe Mama will wait.”
Manny hesitated after opening the door to his pickup. “I suggested Wyatt saddle up and join you on the range today,” he said, addressing the pleading boy.
“Really? That’d be so cool. Will you? Will you, huh, Wyatt?” Scotty unwound his arms to stare up at the tall man.
“What’s cool?” Tandy inquired once she’d strolled into their orbit.
Manny had climbed into the cab of his truck, but he had yet to close the door. “I thought you could use another hand shuttling stubborn heifers from the canyon to the mesa. I took the liberty of suggesting Wyatt go along. Scotty was just adding his two cents. Wish me luck with Darnell so that by tomorrow we’ll have a nice range bull to start growing your herd.” He waved goodbye, slammed his door and immediately started his rig with a loud rumble.
Wyatt deftly edged Scotty and Tandy a fair distance away from the arc of the trailer. Swiveling at the hip, he asked Tandy, “Where’s Mr. Bones? Manny’s lead-footing it out of here and he’s kicking up mud.”
“Mr. Bones is still a puppy in some ways. Yesterday he got underfoot. I decided to leave him in the house. Are you really okay with filling in for Manny today? It’s not necessary to take you away from your work. Manny’s such a worrywart. Who would’ve guessed that of an old bachelor cowboy?”
“I want Wyatt to go with us,” Scotty burst out, again throwing his arms around Wyatt’s legs.
“I don’t know that he’s so much of a worrywart. But he knows all there is to know about raising cattle. He probably believes two or three riders have an easier task of keeping cows moving in a straight line. It’s totally your call.”
“Mama!” Scotty implored her again.
“Sure.” She bobbed her head. “I just don’t want you to feel obligated.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay. I’ll go saddle our mounts then.”
As a man, Wyatt’s first inclination was to tell her he’d saddle the horses. Then he resettled his cowboy hat and took a moment to gauge her true reaction. There was something in the tilt of her chin. Was it that she didn’t want to impose on him, or more that she didn’t want him thinking her incapable? He didn’t. But, not wanting her to think the latter, he jerked a thumb toward his casita. “Let me grab my lunch from the house and a day pack. At least from what you said last night you’re planning to be out in the canyons all day, right?”
“Yes, based on how long it took us to round up half the herd yesterday. Come on to the barn, Scotty.”
“Hooray, hooray!” The boy let loose of the man and excitedly galloped off.
His mom rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the jacket collar to steer him toward where the horses and his mule were stalled.
Chuckling to himself, Wyatt quickly hid his mirth and set about locking up his vehicle and retrieving his lunch and thermos from the house.
When he entered the barn, Tandy handed Wyatt the reins to a long-limbed buckskin. “This is Bandito,” she said. “I hope he’s not feisty. I haven’t ridden him yet. Manny exercises him. He’s a backup in case my mare or Manny’s gelding pulls up lame.”
“He looks familiar. Did he belong to your dad?”
Her eyes widened. “Why, yes. Manny said he couldn’t bear to part with the horses after Dad died. Scotty’s mule, Patch, is new.”
“Someday I’ll be big enough to ride a horse,” the boy said, looking at Wyatt from atop his saddle. “I want to ride fast sometimes and Patch pokes along.” He made a face.
“I had a pony as a kid. They’re smaller than a horse but can be unpredictable. I think for riding the canyons around here, a sure-footed mule is just right,” Wyatt said, and it made the boy beam. “I’ll follow you guys,” he added, swinging into his saddle.
* * *
SEVERAL TIMES THROUGHOUT the ride into the winding canyons where most
of Tandy’s stock had wintered, she darted glances back to where Wyatt rode, bombarded by Scotty’s litany of questions. She wasn’t checking to see how the man was holding up, but more because he looked so darned fine sitting tall in the saddle. As well, he continued to field her son’s endless queries on a range of subjects without showing any sign of agitation.
Her mind strayed to what it might be like if he stuck around to cowboy. He could pass for one in looks. But when his deep voice reached her and she heard his enthusiasm in telling Scotty about the numbers and types of endangered wolves, it was plain he loved his job. The warmth that spread through her from merely watching him cooled marginally.
She was first to reach an outcrop above an arroyo where ten or so heifers grouped together. “There’s one batch of cows we need to round up,” she called, interrupting the other riders’ discussion about how deer, elk and moose differed.
She thought it obvious, by their antlers. But an almost-six-year-old had no clue. And Wyatt explained in greater detail having to do with height, weight, location and other pertinent facts seeming to interest her son. Who would have guessed? Perhaps she needed to sign him up for public schooling. Scotty was so eager to learn and she’d begun thinking she shouldn’t homeschool him like her mom did with her. She’d have to look into the school-registration process this summer.
“So do we gather this group up and move them to your spring feeding ground?” Wyatt asked, leaning an arm on his saddle horn as he studied the milling animals below.
“That’s what Manny had us do yesterday. It’s about a twenty-minute ride from here to the grazing mesa. Collecting small pockets of cows along the route got monotonous. However, Manny said they’d stay together more easily, which was true.”
Wyatt nodded. “Trust him to know best. Looking back, I believe when I helped round up your dad’s entire herd to ship to market, we carved them into manageable clusters. Manny and I moved them from Curt’s lease to where we met the cattle trucks.”
“That’s right—you helped with the ranch chores last year. I guess you learned quite a bit.”
“Yep. Really, though, because my parents did fieldwork at remote archaeological digs, I spent a lot of time with a ranch family in New Mexico. I grew up mucking barns, feeding and moving cattle.”
Tandy sat straighter. “Then why didn’t you become a rancher? How did you settle on the field you’re in now?”
“My mother insisted I go to college. While there I took exploratory classes and gravitated toward biology, zoology, chemistry, conservation and animal husbandry. I think my mom’s still disappointed I didn’t elect to follow in her and Dad’s footsteps as archaeologists. Why did you leave Spiritridge and choose to go into the army?”
“Yeah, Mama,” Scotty said, moving his mule closer to her.
“When I was in junior high, TV news was filled with stories about people in other countries being forced into a lifestyle they didn’t want. Women and girls weren’t allowed to attend school. Shortly after I entered high school we hosted army and navy recruiters. When the captain explained what the army did, it resonated with me.”
“You sound nostalgic.”
“What’s nos...nos...?” Scotty asked, edging closer to Wyatt.
Maintaining his role as explainer, Wyatt addressed the boy. “Nostalgia sort of means missing something. I wondered if your mom’s missing the army.”
Tandy broke in. “Perhaps what you heard in my voice was more surprise to find I don’t regret leaving it.” Her gaze shifted to her son. “Scotty said he misses living in Hawaii.”
“Not anymore,” he was quick to toss out. “I did before you came to live with us,” he said, beaming at Wyatt.
“Scotty!” His mother shook her finger at him. “Wyatt is renting one of our cabins.”
“Well, it’s the same thing,” Scotty growled defensively. “I don’t want you to go back to the army. Mark said Daddy and the person he married are gonna live with them. Daddy used to yell at me about everything. He never ’splained nothing.”
Tandy’s breath caught in her throat, and for a moment she felt heat climb her cheeks and was at a loss as to what to say. Finally she settled on correcting Scotty’s grammar. “The proper word is explained, and you can’t use it with nothing. It’s anything. He never explained anything.”
“That’s what I said.” The boy huffed indignantly.
Wyatt interrupted. “Enough said. Time’s wasting. Let’s ride down and get these heifers moving. Scotty, I assume Manny told you to make sure you always stay behind the herd. At least he told me a dozen times to not let cows surround me.”
“Yep. He said that to us, didn’t he, Mama?”
“That he did.” Touching her heels to Butterscotch, she headed the mare into the arroyo, and the others followed.
The next half hour was consumed with getting hardheaded heifers to leave the spot they’d staked out in the narrow canyon.
Wyatt waved his hat and yelled, “Hi yi yi,” several times at recalcitrant strays, making Tandy smile into her shoulder because he looked and sounded so much like a real cowboy. And soon Scotty imitated him. Seeing how happy he appeared had warmth blossoming in her chest. While it saddened her to learn this late that his dad had yelled at him, she took heart realizing he was young enough for the gentle kindness of others to erase those bad memories.
“Which way now?” Wyatt hollered to her once they’d cleared the canyon.
“Straight ahead. See how there’s sort of a path cut through the mesquite and creosote bushes? Follow that.”
He dug his cell phone out of his pocket. “Okay. I have the coordinates. I’ve got a compass app on my phone. I can’t tell you how helpful it’s been on a couple of my projects. Doesn’t work out of satellite range.” He stabbed a finger off in the direction of the mountain peaks.
“I should get that on my phone,” she said, riding close enough to him she could see his phone screen. “I wonder if the army uses that feature.”
“I have a hard time picturing you weighed down in soldier’s gear. Not that I question your ability to command or shoot,” he hastened to say.
“What do you mean then?” she asked sharply.
“You’re uh, slender and feminine and pretty. Ah, I’d better quit before I insult you when I don’t mean to at all.”
Made self-conscious by his compliments, Tandy made a big point of starting to shoo the cows forward again.
Because much of the next section of terrain required them to string out in single file, Tandy and Wyatt both looked out for Scotty as they drove the herd to the lease.
“I remember this place now,” Wyatt said. “It’s where we rounded up your dad’s cattle for market. Manny said he and Curt set the posts and fenced this entire grassland all by themselves. Should I go open the gate, or would that be stepping on your toes as ranch owner?” he added with a sly grin.
“Feel free.” Tandy stood up in her stirrups and gazed over the backs of the animals stopped by the deer fence made of wire netting strung between rough-cut wooden posts.
Wyatt was off his horse and had the gate that swung inward almost open when Tandy called, “Wait!”
The heifers, most likely seeing grass and smelling water from the stream that bisected the property, tried to surge ahead past Wyatt.
“Why wait? I can’t hold them back, Tandy,” he said loudly, secreting himself and his mount behind the half-open gate.
“Where are the cows we brought here yesterday?” She fumbled in her saddlebag and pulled out field glasses. “Oh, no. Wyatt, they’ve broken down the fence on the other side of the creek. My cows are all mixed in with some belonging to Preston Hicks.”
Her cracking voice spelled out her fear.
“Don’t panic,” Wyatt said calmly. “I’m sure this has probably happened before. At least it can happen with fencin
g this old. You and Scotty let these cows in while I ride over and see if it’s something we can easily repair.”
“Okay. I’ll try to keep the current cows from crossing the stream. Maybe they’ll be content chewing grass on this side of Cedar Creek.”
* * *
TOSSING HER A thumbs-up, Wyatt mounted up and followed cattle tracks to the low spot where it was plain the previous occupants had crossed the water. Intent on finding the place where the fence went down, he located it and was concerned by what he saw. About to signal for Tandy to come look, he heard a cough. Raising his head, the last thing he expected to see was a large man astride a larger horse facing him with a rifle pointed at his chest.
“Whoa!” Wyatt spoke to Bandito and to the man holding the gun. He recognized Preston Hicks at the same moment it was evident the other man recognized him.
“Well, well. What in hell are you doing on my land, Hunt?”
“I’m not on your land. Yet. But I’m about to cross over to round up Tandy’s cattle and drive them back here.”
“Not so fast.” Hicks sheathed the rifle, which at least left Wyatt less antsy.
“I’d think you’d be glad to not have her cattle eating your grass,” Wyatt said.
“I’m taking a count. She’s gonna owe me a substantial sum for putting her cows in with my registered bull. She may think trampling our joint fence is clever, but technically I could lay claim to a lot of her calves come fall. I’ll settle for the standard covering fee of a hundred bucks per head. Roughly the little lady owes me about twenty-five hundred smackeroos.”
“You’re saying she did this so her cows could mix with your bull?”
“That’s what I’m saying. She doesn’t have a bull because no one in the area will sell her one.” Hicks’s mouth twisted in a sneer.
“You’re wrong. That’s where Manny is today, off buying a bull.”
Marrying the Rancher Page 6