I look at him, shocked. This is something I’ve studied about, but not actually done. Technically, you’re not supposed to even try this until you have your DVM. “You want me to do it?”
Doc nods, no humor at all in his voice. “Clock’s ticking. Can you do this?”
There’s no judgment in his question, he just genuinely wants to know if I can or not. If I say no, he’ll take care of it. But he’s giving me a chance to excel, to show that I’m ready. I take a big breath and calm myself.
“Let’s do this.” I lean down, bringing the sharp edge of the scissor to the sac, releasing a gush of amniotic fluid that covers the hay of the stall, the dirt, and a good amount getting onto my jeans. No time to worry about that right now.
Behind me, I can hear James talking to Luke. “What the hell? Why isn’t Doc doing that? Is she even qualified?”
Luke seems to be shushing James, but it’s not enough and it distracts me. Looking over my shoulder, I glare at James, my voice steely without raising the volume and startling Briarbelle. “Shut up or get out. Your choice.”
James sputters, obviously not used to being talked to like that and I decide that my earlier thoughts of him were off-base. Screw him and his doubt that I can handle this. Still, I see Luke grin a little, glad to see his brother get scolded.
Fuck it, I’ve got this.
I reach deep inside myself, seizing hold of my guts and my knowledge, and with an ease I’m surprised to demonstrate, I deliver the foal successfully.
She lies in the hay, breathing and alive, and Briarbelle lets out an exhausted whinny, calling to her baby. The foal whinnies back, and I finally feel like I can breathe again. Doc takes care of injections for both of them while I put the tools away.
After a moment, Briarbelle moves, nosing and nudging her foal, and we step back and out to let them bond without interruption.
Doc smiles at me, nodding his pleasure at the good job I did. It makes me feel warm inside, but really all the reward I need is lying in the hay in the stall.
My buzz is thwarted when James interrupts the moment, his voice near outrage. “Doc, what was that? Why’d you let her do the delivery? That could’ve cost us a good foal.”
Doc clears his throat, but before he can answer, I jump in, pointing a finger towards the middle of James’ muscular chest. “He let me do it because he knew I could. Briarbelle is fine, the foal is fine and I’m fine. The only person not fine is… you. You were the one out of control, raising your voice and scaring her while I was trying to save the foal’s life.”
His eyes flash fire, and I wonder what’s about to come out of his mouth. I’m sure it’ll be a doozy. But I’m almost disappointed with what he comes up with. “You’ve got a real bitch streak in you, you know that?”
I laugh, dismissing him from my mind even as he stands in front of me. “As if I haven’t been called that before. Try for some originality next time, why don’t ya?”
Doc tries to break the tension, yanking back on an invisible halter. “Okay, let’s rein it in. Get it… rein? It’s a horse joke.”
Not getting the laughs he was hoping for, he gives up and focuses his attention on Luke. “I was keeping watch the whole time. Briarbelle and her babe are fine. I want them to have antibiotics for a little bit just in case. They’ll both need daily checks for the next week, and maybe even some follow up after that. You don’t mind, do you?”
Luke nods like a bobblehead, seemingly on board. I feel Doc’s eyes on me and glance back at him, as he looks over to James.
Doc nods and continues. “I think checking in will be part of your daily duties, Sophie. You can leave the office early and head out here to check on them as your last duty of the day before heading home.”
My stomach churns and my heart stops. Is he serious, come back out here every day for the next week?
Shit.
Well, I guess if I have to deal with Luke, it’ll be fine. I’ll just cross my fingers and toes that I don’t have another run-in with James. Besides, I think Doc’s teaching me a lesson here too. You don’t have to like your customers, you just have to treat your patients with care and your customers with a bit of respect.
“Sure thing, Doc. Guess I’ll be here tomorrow afternoon then.”
I nod at Luke, pointedly ignoring James and turn to blow a kiss to Briarbelle, before heading to the sink to wash up as best I can, glad that I wore old jeans.
James
Luke’s quietly laughing his ass off at me as Sophie struts out to Doc’s truck. I still can’t help but watch her go, her dark hair swishing back and forth right above the heart shape of her ass in tight jeans. Total bitch… but she’s hotter than the noontime sun, there’s no doubt about that.
I’m for sure gonna hate seeing her every day for the next week, but I can handle it as long as I get to watch her leave like that.
Luke leans against one of the barn support beams as Doc and Sophie pull away, giving them a wave while he talks to me out of the side of his mouth. “Damn James, you show off those skills with all the ladies when you’re on the circuit? Why, I bet you must take home a woman once a year with game like that.”
I jab him on his shoulder, laughing. “Fuck you, my game is just fine. I could take a different woman back to my hotel in every city if I wanted. I wasn’t trying to put the moves on that one, just trying to save the foal. Which is supposed to be your job, I might add.”
He doesn’t take the admonishment like I intended, laughing instead of getting pissed off. “Oh, I was doing my job just fine. Doc wouldn’t have allowed her to do that if he wasn’t confident. You’ve been away from the farm too long, James. Besides, Doc’s getting old. This ain’t the pro tour, where organizers have nothing but top-flight docs on call all the time. That pretty girl needed to learn. Also, I was rather enjoying watching my famous little brother go down in flames of his own making.”
My face screws up, slightly pissed. I’ve been hearing it from Mark for years now, I don’t need this shit from Luke, too. “Goddammit Luke, I ain’t famous. What the hell are you talking about? I just ride bulls, not like I’m a movie star or some shit.”
Luke brushes off his hands on his jeans and heads back into the barn to fetch his hat. Jamming it on his head, he turns and points towards the house. “You keep saying that. We’ve watched every ride you make that’s televised. I saw the signs in the audience in Vegas, what those women were holding up. ‘Ride me, James’ … ‘Bennett’s Bitch’. Oh, and just a little FYI… Mom was pissed as a hornet about that one especially. You wanna say you’re not famous, that’s fine. You can lie to yourself, you can lie to me about it. Next time you really start thinking it though, I’ll make sure to bring up those signs and remind Mom. You can see what she has to say about the matter. Spoiler alert; it ain’t gonna be pleasant.”
He flashes a wide toothy grin at me, and I know he’ll damn well do it just to rile Mama up and aim her my direction.
“Kiss my ass, Luke,” I growl, knowing I can’t win this argument. “I guess I’ll head out to the back pasture and see how many more sections of fence I can get done before dinner again. I’ll leave you here with your horses.”
I give him a middle finger salute after surreptitiously making sure Mama isn’t on the porch, and head out, his laughter ringing behind me.
While I drive the ATV with its cart of supplies out, I fume about Luke and his bullshit. Yeah, I make more money than most farmboys and a few people might know of me. But it’s only for a few years. Bull riding isn’t an old man’s game and I’m by no means getting rich.
So fuck them. I’m riding bulls because of me. Getting out to the fence, I work my ass off all day again, my thoughts mainly focused on the fence, the ranch, and how we’re gonna keep it running. I’m not totally selfish, I’ll do what I can even if it means missing some of the smaller events on the circuit. But I have to be my own man too, not third fiddle in some fucked up version of King Lear or something.
Unbidden, Sophie keeps slashing into the pictur
es moving across my brain, feisty and sassy, self-assured and not taking any shit, especially from me. I thought she was going to slap me when she got in my face, her eyes fiery and her lips wet and juicy… yeah, she’s got a face as pretty as the rest of her.
In the moment, it pissed me off. But in hindsight, it makes me smile a bit. That touch of wild fire is intriguing, and so similar to the one in my core. That spark is what ignites inside me every time I climb on the back of a bull. I’ve been riding bulls since I was a boy, growing up in the ranks of small-time amateur rodeos, even when travel was difficult. Pops had always gone to bat for me, telling Mama that I just had a little more of a wild side to me than most folks and riding bulls was a damn fine way to let it out. “Better than a lot of kids, Louise,” Pops said the one time Mama protested really hard. “Too many of them going out, gettin’ drunk and starting fights in bars. At least James has a chance to buy a big house instead of go to the big house.”
I smile at the memory, still hearing his voice in my mind as he would call me his “Wild Child” and tell Mama that’s why I was last. Because if they’d had me first, I’d have been an only child.
But I haven’t been on a bull in months, not since Pops passed, and I told Mark I’d spend the whole summer on the ranch instead of blowing in and out like usual. Nope, I’ve been too busy busting my ass getting things straightened out before finals in November.
Of course, busting my ass means a lot of doing the same thing, day in and day out… fence, cattle check, eat, sleep, repeat. I hate to sound bitter, even to my own ears, because I know Pops worked so hard to buy and keep this land. And he raised us right on this ranch too. But Mark was always Pops’ right-hand man, the firstborn golden child to carry on the family legacy. I don’t fault Pops for that, or even Mark for being a bit bossy.
I’d have never been right for running this whole place anyway. There’s a piece of me already on the lookout for an escape, back to the rodeo, a new town every weekend, the adrenaline rush of strapping myself to a bucking bull and hanging on for dear life and eight seconds.
Riding a bull is like nothing else. You can prep, you can rosin up your glove and cinch that rope in tight, but when the bull just decides to say fuck you and do something you never could have prepared for, nothing matters.
The argument with Sophie this morning was kinda like that, an unexpected ride of excitement in what I thought would be the same old day. My mind swept back to her sneering at my “unoriginality” as though she was disappointed I didn’t insult her better.
After watching how she handled the situation with Briarbelle, and honestly, the situation with me, I realize I don’t really want to insult her again.
Hell, maybe I owe her an apology when she comes out here tomorrow.
Maybe.
The dinner bell rings across the pasture and I finish the last tie on this section, realizing that my fingers have been damn productive while my mind wandered. One more solid day of work and I think we’ll be able to move the cattle over.
That thought makes me feel good as I bring in the ATV, putting it away before topping off the tank with the gas can just like Pops taught us. Mark and Luke come in around the same time, and after washing up, we all stumble in and sit down around the table, passing around a casserole dish of noodles and veggies.
Before I can eat a single bite, Mama can’t wait any longer. “So how’s Briarbelle doing?”
Luke grins around a big spoonful of casserole, nodding. “She’s doing just fine, her foal too. Little mare with paint spots like her momma. Doc came out with his new assistant, Sophie. She did the delivery, even with the complications.”
“Oh, I didn’t know he had someone working with him now,” Mama says, very interested. “It’s about time. That man runs all over the county and he’s not much older than I am.”
Mark interrupts, gruffly correcting her while I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to step anywhere near this conversation. “He’s near seventy years old and should be retired, Mama. You’re in your fifties and still move like a woman ten years younger. That’s nowhere near the same thing.”
Mama just nods, patting Mark’s hand comfortingly like his grumpy ass is normal, although I guess it mostly is, especially these days.
“You’re too sweet, honey. I think I’ll have to go out to the barn and see her tonight after dinner. By the way Luke, what kind of complications? Anything we need to be worried about?”
Luke shakes his head, sipping at his glass of iced tea. “Nope. Just needed some help delivering, but all is well now. Doc said that Sophie would come by and make daily checks for about a week just to make sure though. Isn’t that right, James?”
I look up, feigning ignorance. “Huh? Oh yeah, right… she’s coming out tomorrow to check on them and bring the antibiotic dose.”
Mama eyeballs me, and I can feel her piercing gaze delving into the deepest parts of my brain like the lie detector she’s always been. “What are you not telling me?”
I shrug, seriously wishing we could move on. I smell lemon pie, and while it’s not my favorite, it’s a damn sight better than talking about this. “Nothing really. I might not have been gracious about her doing the delivery instead of Doc.”
Luke’s mouth drops open, and I know what he’s going to say even before he says it. “That’s what you call it? Not gracious? She had to tell you to shut up or get out so she could do the delivery and then you called her a bitch.”
Mama screeches, slamming her fork down on the table. “You did what?!”
“Mama I—”
That’s all I’m able to get out before she continues her scolding. “I didn’t raise a son of mine to call a lady a name like that, especially when she was just helping. What were you thinking?”
I’m silent, knowing that I not only crossed a line, but hopped way over into no-man’s land when I said that as far as Mama is concerned.
Luke helps me out, and I consider just yelling at him later instead of taking a pitchfork to his ass. “The best part was after he called her… that… ” he waffles. “She tells him to try for some originality next time! She swatted him away like a mosquito in the spring.”
He laughs, unable to control it until Mark gives him an evil eye. Never mind, the pitchfork’s too good for Luke… I think the chainsaw sounds about right.
Mark sees nothing humorous in any of it, though for him, that’s just normal. “That’s enough. Guys… really? She’s gonna be out here again tomorrow? Sounds like you owe her an apology, James.”
I know he’s right, hell I’d already come to the same conclusion myself, but it chafes to have your bossy big brother tell you what to do, even if that’s what he’s always done. Maybe moreso because that’s what he’s always done. Bossy Big Brother. “Yeah, thanks genius. Like I didn’t come up with that before lunch.”
Mama heads off the argument at the pass, sounding pleased for some reason. I guess she has been pretty devoid of female company recently. “She’s coming in the afternoon? Sounds like you should apologize and invite her to dinner too. If she’s new in town, she probably needs some friends, not some grumpy old boys too stupid to do the right thing when it smacks them in the face.”
I grimace, but say nothing. I’ll apologize, but I’m not asking her to dinner.
It must show on my face, because Mama turns hard eyes on me, picking up her fork again in that way that says she’s about to lay down the law, and the Lord above won’t change what she’s about to say. “Apology and dinner. You won’t eat at my table until she gets both.”
I sigh, knowing her threat is real. One time she even made Pops eat outside when he was being stubborn about something the Pastor said, and Pops went off on him. Pops ate outside on the porch steps for a week until he became the better man and apologized. “Yes ma’am.”
“That’s my boy,” Mama says sweetly. “Now, who’d like some lemon pie?”
Read the full book here!
About the Author
Bennett Boys
Ranch:
Buck Wild || Riding Hard || Racing Hearts
Dirty Fairy Tales:
Beauty and the Billionaire || Not So Prince Charming || Happily Never After
Get Dirty:
Dirty Talk || Dirty Laundry || Dirty Deeds || Dirty Secrets
Irresistible Bachelors:
Anaconda || Mr. Fiance || Heartstopper
Stud Muffin || Mr. Fixit || Matchmaker
Motorhead || Baby Daddy || Untamed
Connect with Lauren Landish
www.laurenlandish.com
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Rough Love Page 35