Page 89 of Giddy Up, Daddy

She cut him off. “No. You’ll get what we agreed on. But first I need you to move the truck around to the other side of the house.” She’d thought about this, and decided there was a good chance Sam would never see it, if it was parked in her dad’s old garage.

It was his ‘tinkerer’ garage. A small, one-bay building that he’d used mostly for storage, but occasionally for vehicle repairs. Jimmy had helped keep their cars, and some of the smaller ranch vehicles, going. Just the basic stuff: brakes, fan belts, filters— that kind of thing, but he’d enjoyed the simple maintenance and liked to have a place out of the weather to do it.

Sam had probably learned a love of mechanics from her father. They’d bonded over it and spent hours out there messing around. She remembered being jealous of that, despite having no interest in getting greasy herself.

Since his death, it had sat unused. The truck would fit inside, barely, and there was no reason for Sam to look in there.

Micky grumbled and muttered under his breath. Charlie ignored it, smug in the fact that Sam would have punched him right in the nose for calling his wife things like that. She didn’t care, it only mattered that he followed her to the garage and slowly pulled it in, safely out of sight.

After that she was happy to sign the paperwork and see him off.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, without offering to shake his hand. Her tone made it clear she knew full well there had been no pleasure for him.

“Yeah, well…” He sputtered to a stop, looking disgruntled about the whole thing. “I just hope you know you got the deal of a lifetime, lady.”

“I do, yes, and I appreciate it.” She flashed a thousand-watt smile, and enjoyed watching him wilt a little as he climbed into his friend’s car.

The whole thing had taken less than an hour. The truck had been visible from the ranch for only a few minutes of that, and she highly doubted anyone had noticed it in such a short time. Best of all, she’d managed to snag Sam’s dream truck for a good five thousand under its listed value. Even Sam couldn’t get too mad with that kind of bargain.

Probably.

But with all of that out of the way, she was starting to feel a little guilty about sending him out into the cold in a bad mood. She’d been trying to figure out how to get him out of the house and the opportunity had presented itself, so she’d taken it.

As she often did when she was having feelings about things, she decided to bake. Baking eased her mind and gave her fidgety hands something to do, so it was especially good for channelingguilt. Her Daddy had a specific love for her chocolate chip banana bread, so she dug out the ingredients and got to work.

Maybe that would make up for the argument, until he got his real reward.

Chapter Three

Nick had been right and was smug about it. Sam did feel better after a couple hours of making a circuit around the pastures to check on the water. Part of it was the hard, physical work. Each large pasture had a stock pond, deep enough that they wouldn’t freeze through, but sometimes there was a buildup of surface ice that needed to be broken up.

Then, the smaller pastures had watering stations to be checked. They weren’t supposed to freeze. But… “Damn it all, every time.” Nick let out a long string of curses.

Sam laughed as he swung out of the saddle to go and help. “Not sure how they manage it, but I’ve yet to find a float that they can’t somehow mess up.”

The water in the round stock tank wasn’t entirely frozen, but cattle were playful creatures, and they’d managed to trap the float, so it stopped moving across the surface of the water. A crust had begun to form at the edges and was slowly working its way toward the center. Once that happened, the ice would thicken and pretty soon the dumb beasts wouldn’t have anything to drink.

One of the major winter jobs on the ranch was just circling around to make sure the cattle weren’t sabotaging themselves.It had to be done every few days, because dehydration could set in fast. Cows that were dehydrated couldn’t eat enough to keep their body temps up. If they didn’t check, they could lose the whole field in no time.

Between freezing his ass off, getting his hands dirty, and bantering with Nick… he lost the sharp edge of his bad mood. Hard work was a form of meditation sometimes, and he let go of his frustrations, so he could focus on getting the job done.

He was calmer on the long ride back to the barn. He sat in the saddle more easily without the tension. Neither of them was big on small talk, so long silences stretched out as they huddled in their coats to avoid the wind.

But now and then one of them would say something, and the other would reply. They joked a little; laughed a lot. Having Nick and Katie on the ranch had been good for everyone, and Sam was once again grateful that they’d been willing to uproot and move.

When they pulled up at the barn, he swung down easily and led the horse into the warmth. The mare went straight to her stall, after shooting Sam a reproachful look. “Sorry girl, work had to be done, but I’ll make sure you get something extra in your feed bucket,” he promised.

She snorted, saying in her own horsey way that he’d better.

He laughed, as he briskly rubbed his hands together to get the feeling back, so he could undo the straps and buckles. “Want me to send someone over to unsaddle her for you? I know you owner types don’t like to get bogged down in all that low work,” Nick said.

Sam didn’t have to turn around to know his foreman was grinning. “Smart ass.”

“Yep. But seriously… if you need to go and work things out with Charlie, I can handle getting her settled.”

It was a kind offer, but one Sam wasn’t going to take. Owner, foreman, or simple ranch hand— it didn’t matter. The lesson was too deeply ingrained. When you rode a horse, you better make sure you took care of her after.

“Naw, I got it. ‘Sides, you know how important aftercare is. Can’t be passing that on to someone else.”

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