Learnin' The Ropes

by Shanna Hatfield

  Swede, Jimmy, Keith, and Cal would take the big dually truck and pull the six-horse trailer. Ty and Lexi would drive the ranch pickup with the overnight bags and gear in the back.

  Once the dually truck pulled down the driveway, Lexi and Ty helped Gus finish the morning chores. Someone needed to stay behind and keep an eye on the ranch and Gus volunteered for the job. Ty was glad he felt well enough to go. He didn’t mind taking responsibility of the ranch while everyone was gone for a few days, but if one of the animals needed assistance and the vet couldn’t come, he had no idea what to do. Gus could handle any emergency, if any arose.

  Finally ready to leave, Ty gave Baby a loving pat on the head and told her to mind her manners with Gus. The dog barked and whined as he got in the pickup.

  “You spoil her,” Lexi commented. Every bit as guilty of babying Baby as Ty, she wouldn’t admit to anything.

  “Maybe,” Ty said, giving Lexi a sideways glance and a warm smile. “She’s not the only female I’d like to spoil.”

  She feigned a scowl. “She’s not? Are you planning on making a brat out of Delilah next?”

  Ty shook his head. “Nope. I have a girl with two very long, lovely legs in mind, not four.”

  Lexi grinned. “When have you had time to find a girlfriend out here in the sticks?”

  “I haven’t had time to find one, she found me.” His hand slid across the seat and captured Lexi’s fingers. He pressed a hot kiss to her palm before she jerked her hand away.

  His touch made it hard for her to think and his kiss threatened to alter her ability to breathe normally. When she spoke, her voice sounded breathless. “Ty, we need to maintain a level of professionalism the next few days. I can’t guarantee I’ll get you there and back again in one piece if you don’t go along with me on this. And if you keep kissing my hand like that, I’ll run off the road before we ever get to Burns.”

  Ty laughed, patted her leg, and retreated to his side of the pickup.

  “I’ll behave, for now.” He flashed a smile filled with even white teeth. “Unless you want to pull over and let me do more than kiss your hand?”

  “I’m warning you, buckaroo, to back down.,” Although she spoke sternly, the sparkle in her eyes gave away her pleasure at his teasing.

  He sighed and relaxed in his seat. “It’s gonna be a long drive if I can’t touch you at all. You better think up some good stories to keep me entertained.”

  Lexi smiled and started talking about past brandings, her uncle’s ranch, and things she remembered about her dad. Ty asked more questions about her father’s cancer, and what he was like before he got sick.

  “That must have been hard to come back to, Lexi,” Ty said. Sympathy filled him at her giving up her life in Portland and returning to the ranch only to find a tangled mess in the fallout of her father’s disease.

  “I’ve finally got the accounts straightened out and most everything back to rights except for the missing money,” Lexi said.

  “Have you found any more clues?”

  Lexi shrugged. “No. I still haven’t figured out the last one. ‘Best Bucket.’ What does that mean?”

  “We’ll figure it out.” Ty took her hand in his again.

  She shot him a grateful glance. “I appreciate your help. It was hard not to have anyone to talk to about it. It’s not every day someone hides half a million dollars on the ranch.”

  “What?” His face registered surprise. He assumed when Lexi said her dad hid some money, they were talking about a few thousand dollars. It wasn’t his place to ask her specifics. All he knew was that money was missing and she needed to find it.

  “My dad withdrew five hundred thousand dollars from invested funds I didn’t even know he had and that’s what I’m searching for.”

  “You mean he didn’t let you handle his money? But that’s what you did for a living.” Ty tried to process this information.

  “I did invest money for him. I thought what I managed was all the money he invested, but I found several other accounts he opened. He withdrew odd amounts from each of them not too long before he got really sick. The withdrawals totaled half a million.”

  “That’s interesting.” Ty struggled to imagine how Lexi would ever find the money. There were thousands of acres with more than a dozen buildings on the ranch. It could be anywhere: hidden in a wall, buried under a tree, beneath a clump of sagebrush. “Have you told anyone else about it?”

  “No. Not even Swede.” She hoped Ty understood he was the only person she felt comfortable confiding in.

  “Lexi, I… thank you for sharing this with me.” Humbled by her trust, he’d do everything he could to help her find the money. It meant the world to him to know she put enough faith in him to keep the secret, especially since he was unemployed, homeless, and desperate just a few months ago.

  “I know I can trust you.” She squeezed his hand. “Besides, if I find you rifling through the house looking for treasure, I’ll fill that fine caboose of yours full of buckshot.”

  “You think I’ve got a fine caboose?” Ty gave her a heated look. When she blushed, he let her off the hook. “I’ve got no doubt that you would. We just need to figure out the next clue.”

  “I know but I’ve got absolutely no idea…”

  Ty glanced out the window and tensed. “Stop, Lexi! Stop the truck!” he yelled. Lexi slammed on the brakes.

  Across the open expanse of sagebrush, Ty could see a herd of magnificent wild horses grazing.

  Lexi unbuckled her seat belt and leaned across the seat so she could see out his window. “Those are the Kigers.”

  “Kigers?”

  “Kiger Mustangs. They run wild here. The Bureau of Land Management manages the herd and does occasional adoptions, but they’ve been here forever. Aren’t they beautiful?”

  “They’re awesome.” Ty rolled down his window and snapped several photos with his phone. He had to send some to Beth. The landscape around them was amazing, like something he’d see on the Discovery Channel. “They have unique coloring.”

  “The majority of them are duns. A lot of them have the striping you see on that one right there.” Lexi leaned across him and pointed to a nearby horse. Ty slid his arm around her and pulled her closer so they both could look out the window. “The ancestry of the herd goes back to Spanish horses brought to the Americas in the seventeenth century.”

  Ty had never seen anything quite like the Kiger Mustangs, so free and wild. A deep appreciation settled over him for the wonders he had the opportunity to see because of this job.

  Lexi knew Ty would see sights on the drive to her uncle’s ranch he probably hadn’t seen before. That was one reason she wanted him to ride with her. They could take their time and stop if he saw something that interested him.

  Swede and the other boys would have laughed if he’d asked to pull over to watch the horses and look at wildflowers, which was next on her list to show Ty.

  After several more minutes of observing the herd, Lexi slid back across the truck seat and buckled her seat belt. “I’ve got a few other things I want to show you before we get to Uncle Rob’s.”

  “Like what?” Ty continued watching the horses as she pulled back on the road.

  “You’ll have to wait and see.” She tossed him a flirty smile that made him want to wrap her in his arms.

  On the way to her uncle’s ranch, she showed him the Steens Mountain and took a side trip to see Peter French’s Round Barn. She parked the truck so they both could get out and stand at the edge of a meadow filled with wildflowers that looked like a master artist had dropped bright blooms of color against a brilliant blue background of sky. Near the turn-off to her uncle’s ranch, Ty spied several big horn sheep.

  “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Ty said, as Lexi stopped so he could get a better look at the animals he had previously only seen in the Portland Zoo. There were adult males and females as well as the spring batch of babies. “This is so cool.”

  “I’m glad you�
��re enjoying the drive.” Lexi smiled indulgently. “And here you thought you were going to be bored to death.”

  Ty looked at her with heat in his eyes. “I could never be bored with you, Lexi Jo.”

  Sparks roared into a burning flame in her middle. Lexi attempted to ignore it and return her attention to the road. Every time Ty called her Lexi Jo it made her absolutely melt. She loved hearing him say her name in that deep, husky voice.

  “I’m glad,” she said, giving one last glance at the sheep before heading down the road. “I kind of like having you around.”

  Lexi’s uncle Rob was nothing like her aunt Bertie. Bertie was boisterous and fun while Rob was serious and all business.

  After arriving at the ranch, Ty joined the rest of the hands bunking down in spare beds in the bunkhouse while Lexi stayed at the ranch house with her family.

  The next morning as they rounded up cattle, he rode Delilah beside Lexi and asked about her mother’s family.

  “There were five kids. My mama was second oldest,” Lexi said, keeping an eye on the terrain as they followed the group out to bring in the herd. Her uncle had about six hundred head of cattle and the plan was to work them all the following day.

  “How many boys and girls?” Ty asked, interested in Lexi’s family tree. With no aunts or uncles of his own, her large family fascinated him.

  “Slade was the oldest. He died when he was in high school. He got bucked off a horse he thought he could break and died of head trauma two days later. My mama, Rose, was next in the pecking order followed by Uncle Rob, Uncle Dean, and Aunt Bertie. Her name is really Roberta, but everyone calls her Bertie.”

  “I’m sorry about your uncle.” Ty thought about how hard it would be for parents to lose a child or siblings to lose a brother.

  “Mama always spoke of him fondly. He was just a year older than she was and I think they were close. Uncle Dean and his family live in Arizona, so we don’t see them very often.” Lexi shook off her maudlin thoughts and noticed bunches of desert phlox blooming. She reined in Rowdy and stepped out of the saddle to look at it.

  “What’s that?” Ty swung out of the saddle and moved beside her.

  “Phlox. Isn’t it pretty?” The pale pink blooms drew her admiration.

  “Sure, if weeds can be pretty.” Uncertain why they studied the scraggly blossoms, he obviously didn’t share Lexi’s enthusiasm for the plant.

  “It isn’t a weed,” Lexi huffed, mounting Rowdy. “It’s a desert wildflower. I used to pick them for my mama, but they wilt faster than you can blink. One time, I decided to dig them up and plant them at the house, but they won’t grow in a flower bed. They are meant to bloom wild and free.”

  “Rather like another sassy little blossom I know.” Ty offered Lexi a teasing wink. “She seems to bloom when she can be wild and free. She likes to shake things up, especially her luscious little hiney in the kitchen while she’s baking cookies.”

  Lexi blushed and slapped at Ty with her hat, making him laugh.

  “Are the two of ya gonna quit messin’ around and help us round up these doggies?” Swede asked with a fatherly scowl as he rode up next to them.

  “Yes, sir.” Ty urged Delilah forward. When he flashed his white-toothed grin at Lexi, her heart picked up tempo. How was she going to keep that good-looking man at a distance?

  Not giving her a chance to worry, the crew rounding up the cattle split into groups and went to work. She ended up riding with some of her cousins and a couple of Rob’s neighbors. A few of the single females asked her about Ty, which left her uptight and irritated.

  She and Ty didn’t have an understanding. Something undeniable sizzled between them, but they’d largely avoided discussing the possibilities of a relationship. However, she hoped his plans to take things slow and easy didn’t mean he’d move at a snail’s pace.

  With all the interested females looking his direction, she started to wish she’d taken Bertie’s advice and burned her brand on him. Thoughts of just where she’d place it made her cheeks burn with heat. Unable to glance at Ty without embarrassment blossoming in her face, she avoided looking his way.

  Ty stuck close to Swede, knowing the foreman would give him direction as needed. Other than riding on the Rockin’ R, Ty had never ridden anywhere else and hoped he’d do fine on Delilah.

  “I ought to warn ya right now, dude, if ya hear somethin’ rattlin’, back off real slow like and git as far from it as you can. Rob’s got more than his share of rattlers in the brush, so be careful. As warm as it’s been, he said he’s already killed a few,” Swede said, looking Ty’s direction.

  “Rattlers?” Ty didn’t understand to what Swede referred.

  “Rattlesnakes.” Swede raised a bushy eyebrow. “Ever seen one?”

  “Nope. Just on TV.” Ty sent up a silent plea that would remain the only place he saw them.

  “Well, shoot, dude. Jes be real careful today. If ya hear somethin’ that sounds like a rattle, stay away from it. They like to be warm and sun themselves on rocks and such, so never stick yer hand somewhere ya can’t see. Try to stay on yer horse and if Delilah shies away from somethin’, don’t fight her,” Swede instructed, hoping he covered all the basics.

  Ty was not encouraged by this information. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he had no plans to get off the horse.

  That necessity came sooner than Ty expected when he tried to herd a cow and calf out of the brush. The cow went ahead, but the calf’s hoof was caught between the branches of an overgrown sagebrush.

  Reluctantly, he stepped off the horse and walked up to the calf. He couldn’t believe how pretty the high desert, as everyone referred to this part of Oregon, could be. Several different types of flowers bloomed in profusion. With the spring rains, everything looked fresh and green. In the calf’s attempts to get free, it had broken off pieces of sagebrush and the pungent scent filled the air.

  The rugged landscape stood in sharp contrast to the manicured lawns and rows of rhododendrons Ty was accustomed to seeing in Portland.

  If not for his fear of coming across a rattlesnake, he would have enjoyed walking around to study his surroundings. He never had the time or desire to learn about plants and flowers, but since moving to the Rockin’ R, he had a growing interest in the world around him. It all looked so wild and rough, yet uniquely beautiful.

  Although a city boy born and raised, Ty had come to think of this untamed country as his own paradise.

  Softly talking to the calf like Swede had taught him, he ran a gentle hand across its back while it struggled to get free. Unhurried, he grasped its leg and tugged it loose from the brush at the same time he heard a buzzing noise.

  The calf lunged forward, startling a snake that had been sunning itself nearby. The snake struck before he had a chance to react. Fangs sank into the leather chaps covering his shin and he yelled in surprise.

  Ty wondered how long it would take to die of snakebite. People rarely did these days because immediate medical care upped the odds of living. Except he was hours away from the nearest hospital and he seriously doubted anyone had any antivenom in their saddlebags.

  The snake writhed, twisting and turning as it struggled to free itself from where its fangs were caught in his chaps. Ty unfastened the buckles holding on his chaps, removed them, and made sure the snake was still caught. Without a thought to his actions, he stomped it to death.

  A glance down revealed two fang holes in his jeans, but they didn’t make it through the leather of his boots.

  Gratitude for the clothes Swede and Lexi insisted he have for riding filled him. If he hadn’t been wearing his chaps, he would have been full of snake venom instead of relief.

  Between his yell of surprise and killing the snake, Delilah spooked and ran toward the herd.

  Swede caught her and looked around, noticing Ty at the edge of the brush by the pasture.

  “Dude, ya get bucked off?” Swede asked as he rode over leading Delilah.

  “No sir.” Ty worked
to snatch together his composure. Adrenalin pumped through him and his knees wobbled.

  “Where’s yer chaps? You don’t want to git caught without ‘em on out here,” Swede admonished. Clearly, Ty needed a few more lessons about what he needed to wear and why.

  “Over there.” Ty pointed to where his chaps covered the snake.

  “Well, why in tarnation did ya take 'em off?”

  Ty shuddered. “To kill the snake.”

  “Snake? What snake?” Swede swung off Kitty and handed Ty the reins to both horses.

  Carefully lifting the chaps, the older cowboy whistled at the sight of the dead snake, fangs still embedded in Ty’s chaps.

  “Whooee! Yer one lucky son of a gun, my friend!” Swede took a good look at the snake, carrying it in the chaps back to Ty. “I’ll get out my knife and cut the buttons off for ya.”

  “No, thanks.” Ty didn’t want any sort of reminder of the experience. His legs were just now starting to feel like a substance other than melted rubber.

  “Mind if I keep it?” Swede found a stout piece of brush and pried the snake’s fangs out of the chaps before handing them back to Ty.

  “Knock yourself out.” Ty buckled on his chaps. If he never encountered another rattler, it would be too soon.

  Jimmy noticed Swede and Ty on the ground and rode over to see what had happened. Swede showed him the snake and the two of them admired its size.

  “Well, son, ya win the award for good luck today,” Swede said with a cackle, slapping Ty on the back as he took Kitty’s reins. “At least ya know what a rattler sounds and looks like now.”

  “That I do.” Still unsettled by the encounter with the snake, Ty just wanted to forget he’d ever seen it. “Stupidly, I was thinking this desert of yours looked a little like paradise but not anymore.”

  “Even the Garden of Eden had a serpent,” Swede said with a wink as Ty mounted Delilah and they returned to gathering the herd.

  After they finished rounding up the cattle, Lexi heard about Ty’s encounter with the snake. When her cousin repeated the story, she’d been helping her aunt and cousins prepare food for a big barbecue dinner. She dropped the head of lettuce she’d been rinsing in the sink and ran outside, hurrying over to where the men lounged in the backyard.