Page 20 of Merry & Wild

CHAPTER 12

JOY

“Idon’t even know how you can tell where the road is, the drifts are so bad.” I glance over at John and feel my stomach tighten with worry. I sincerely don’t want to get stuck out here.

“Like I said, I know this property inside out. Don’t worry, it’s not too deep right here.” He reaches over and takes my hand, lifts it to his lips, and kisses my knuckles, all without taking his eyes away from where he’s sure the road is. “So, my great-grandparents bought this land close to a hundred years ago.”

“How many acres do you have?”

“About fifty thousand,” he replies, and my mouth drops.

“That’s alotof property.”

He nods and releases my hand so he can maneuver the truck around a fallen tree. “I’ll come back later and saw that up. It’ll be good firewood for next year.”

“Why not this year?”

“It has to dry out,” he says with a smile. “Anyway, yeah, it’s a lot of land. That’s why I need ranch hands because it’s pretty much impossible to keep tabs on everything on a piece of property this big. Look over there.”

He points to what looks like abandoned buildings in the distance.

“We can’t get over there today, but that’s the original barn fromwayback.”

“Why did they build it so far from the cabin?”

“I’m not sure. The walls gave out on it about twenty years ago, and it collapsed, but I’ve been thinking about salvaging the wood from it and using it for something else.”

“That would be cool.”

There are black cattle in the center of a field, all together in a big huddle.

“They must be keeping warm,” I say, pointing to them.

“Yep, and keeping their babies warm. The calves are in the middle.”

“It’s a wonder they don’t freeze to death.”

“Some do,” he says, and I glance over to see a sadness in his eyes. “I can’t control the weather, and I can’t keep them all in the barn. We usually get one or two fatalities each winter.”

“That would make me so sad.”

He nods and then shifts the truck into four-wheel drive and proceeds to drive up the side of a hill.

“Oh, God, we’re going to die.”

John laughs at that and shakes his head as we level out at the top of the hill.

“No, ma’am. It’s perfectly safe. Open your eyes.”

“No way.”

I feel him take the truck out of gear, and then he reaches for my hand. “Joy. Open your pretty eyes for me.”

I comply, but I turn to look at him, not down the hill.

“Are you afraid of heights, sweetheart?”

“Maybe a little.”

---