Page 73 of Relentless

Turning her attention to Harper, Oakleigh sighed.

“Thanks for the advice, Mom.”

Harper shrugged. “You know managing staff has always been my strength.”

“Is there something going on at the shop that I should know about?” Maeve inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Oakleigh hesitated.

Much to her visible relief, she was interrupted by a loud bark from the porch.

Dozer dog hurdled down the steps, and disappeared into a deep snow drift. He exploded out the other side, entirely unphased by the slinging powder.

Maeve knelt to greet him with an irrepressible smile. “Not this time, boy,” she admonished. “It’s too cold for you.”

She stood to her feet and pointed at the porch.

“Get on home now.”

The golden retriever whimpered as he pawed at the cold earth, already beginning to shiver.

“Get on now.”

Dozer reluctantly obeyed, retreating to the warmth of the porch.

“And why doesn’t he listen to me like that,” Oakleigh challenged.

“He’s not your dog,” Maeve remarked fondly. “Go ahead and saddle up another horse,” she instructed. “We’ve got some more weather coming in, and I don’t want to get caught out there.”

While she went to the barn, Maeve and Harper sipped their coffees in a lengthy, awkward silence.

Oakleigh finally returned with a brown mare in tow and handed off the reins. Maeve held the horse steady while Harper put her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over the saddle.

“Do you know how to ride?” Maeve asked with genuine concern.

Harper glanced down at Maeve from high on her horse.

“Yes, Maeve,” she articulated, clearly put off by the question. “Does it look like I know how to ride?”

“She’s asking,” Oakleigh loudly interrupted, diffusing what was evidently going to end in another heated exchange, “because it took me months to be comfortable on horseback.”

“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Harper scoffed with a condescending tilt of her head. “Oakleighalways wanted to hang out with the cute boys at the beach, rather than have riding lessons like the rest of her siblings.”

“She might be right about that,” Oakleigh admitted with a smirk as she mounted her horse.

Maeve was thankful for the much-needed levity amid the exhausting onslaught of hostility.

Settling into her saddle, Maeve led the way across the snow-covered pastures. Despite the nearly subzero temperatures, the property was undeniably beautiful that time of year. The mountains surrounding the ranch were capped with snow, and the crisp air had the rich scent of pines. The ride across the expansive acres of property was over much too soon as the roaming herd of cattle came into view.

“Oakleigh, take the right flank, and I’ll head left,” Maeve directed, pointing as she went. “Harper, stay back and watch for any that wander off.”

She wasn’t sure how effective Harper would be at the job, but her goal was to keep her sister busy. The least she could do was catch any bulls that meandered from the herd. Considering all of Maeve’s years of expertise on the job — there wouldn’t be any stray cattle.

“Let’s go!” Maeve hollered. They moved toward the herd in a sweeping pattern. The stubbornly slow animals began shuffling in the direction of the ranch house, lowing and bellowing as they went. Maeve was relieved that Oakleigh seemedto be holding her own as she prompted the herd along. There was a time when she would have had to keep a close eye on the young woman who had been known to fall off her horse on more than one occasion.

Oakleigh had become more than competent at the job, and Maeve couldn’t help but beam with pride at how far she had come.

The cattle meandered along, swishing their tails as they made their way through the long pasture marked with large trees and sharp inclines. It was no surprise that the bears were coming in undetected and picking off the animals that strayed too far from the safety of the herd. Any loss was a blow, but Maeve was thankful that none of their bucking bulls had become a winter snack for the grizzlies.

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