Page 73 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

It raised its head and looked at me.

Some people saw the beautiful dark eyes and wanted to pet the creatures.

I just wanted it out of my field.

Christopher had called our neighbor, but he was in town and wouldn’t be back until this afternoon, so it was up to us to contain this mess. Hopefully I had enough supplies in our packs to patch the fence.

The cow in front of me went back to grazing.

Maybe I should call for the dogs.

That thought had just barely crossed my mind when a shrill noise came from William’s direction.

I whipped my head around, wondering what he’d done to Betsy, and found that the bull our neighbor had put into the pen to impregnate the cows had decided that poor Betsy was the love of his life.

I opened my mouth to tell William to just punch the thing in the nose, which only sometimes worked, but then I saw the terrified look on his face.

I’d experienced that kind of horror before, and I knew he was frozen.

“Dang it.” I yanked Jake toward Betsy. “Let’s go rescue him.”

Instead of heading for William, Jake spun all the way around.

“Whoa, boy.” He usually didn’t get excitable.

Jake let out an angry grunt and sidestepped.

“What’s the problem?” I clamped my legs around him, and he went hesitantly forward.

William had his eyes closed and was leaning away from the beast doing his business.

“Stupid cows,” I muttered. Then I spoke loudly. “William?”

His eyes shot open, although I could barely see them through his glasses, which reflected light from the sun.

“Turn around and hit him.” I pantomimed a punch.

“Are you insane?” he asked.

“Possibly,” I said under my breath. Louder I said, “He should finish in a minute.”

William shook his head. The stricken look on his face told me he was going to need some downtime this afternoon.

I was used to things like this, but he obviously wasn’t. Jake and I pulled up next to William and Betsy.

Betsy’s eyes were rolling around in her head, and her nostrils flared. She was going to do something about this if I didn’t.

An involuntary instinct took over, and I reached out to touch William’s leg. “I’ve got this.”

“I thought animals only bred within their own species,” William said in a tight voice.

“I told you, cows are idiots.”

“Is Betsy in heat?” he asked.

“Nope.” I inched Jake forward and grabbed one of the bull’s horns. “Come on, dumb, dumb.” I tugged it, pulling the great beast to the side. It started to back off, more likely because he needed a moment for his nethers to regroup than because of what I’d done, but then several things happened at once.

Frank, who I’d lost track of, came running between William’s horse and mine. For whatever reason, he didn’t start barking until he got to us.

---