Page 1 of Wounded Cowboy
Chapter 1
The Treehouse of Doom
Snowberry Springs Ranch
“Watch out, Abby! Killer T-Rex is coming for you!” April exclaimed, making her dinosaur toy stomp across the lawn.
“Rawr! Alien dinosaur!” Abby giggled, joining in with her own Astronaut Barbie.
The early evening sun cast a warm golden glow across the lawn. Zachary“Spring” Snowberry leaned against the porch railing, watching his two young daughters playing after dinner. He couldn’t help but smile as eight-year-old April excitedly showed her six-year-old sister her latest dinosaur toy.
As the girls’ laughter filled the air, Spring felt a familiar pang of sadness. How he wished Laura could be here to witness how quickly their daughters were growing up.
That thought triggered a rush of memories centering around the horrifying car accident that had claimed his wife’s life right after Thanksgiving four years ago.
His chest tightened, and he struggled to breathe as a familiar wave of bitter guilt washed over him like a tsunami.
Using the techniques he’d learned at the Veteran’s Administration hospital, he closed his eyes, focusing on the sound of birdsong and the distant lowing of cattle, letting the soothing rhythm of nature calm his racing heart.
When he finally opened his eyes, he found April and Abby watching him closely, their play momentarily forgotten.
“Daddy, are you okay?” April asked.
Spring forced a smile to reassure them.“Hey, girls, I just needed a minute. Why don’t you show me how your astronaut can team up with that T-Rex?”
April’s eyes lit up.“Yeah! They can fight aliens together!”
“Aliens? Count me in!” Spring replied, pushing away lingering aftereffects of his panic attack. He didn’t want his daughters to worry about the only parent they had left.“So, these aliens, what do they want?”
“Umm… ice cream!” Abby declared, her eyes wide with excitement.
“Perfect! Let’s save the world’s ice cream supply!” Spring exclaimed.
He picked up a toy spaceship from the porch railing.“I’ll command the USS Enterprise and support your ground combat efforts.”
Just then, Rory, one of the ranch hands, came sprinting around the house, his straw cowboy hat nearly flying off his head as he ran.“Spring! Hey, boss, we got a problem!”
Spring’s heart sank.“What’s going on, Rory?”
“Uh, well, you see,” Rory panted, trying to catch his breath,“it’s Daisy. She’s at it again.”
Spring groaned.“That damned goat! What’s she donethistime?”
“She’s escaped from the goat pen again, and now she’s making trouble at the guest cottages,” Rory replied with a slight drawl.“So, I came to get you.”
“I’ll get my lasso.” Spring sighed, mentally preparing himself for yet another of his escape artist goat’s shenanigans.
Daisy was a Nigora goat doe, one of a small herd that Spring’s dad kept on the family ranch.
Not only were the goats friendly and popular with the ranch’s guests, they also offered an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of wildfire risk management by clearing out brush, especially on steep slopes.
Daisy had been a bottle-fed kid, and as a result, she was more of a pet than the other goats, though she still did her fair share of work.
And thanks to Spring’s sister, Autumn, Daisy was also a social media star whose viral videos brought a lot of visitors to the ranch’s website.
Spring ducked inside his house to grab a heavy coil of rope and a couple of carrots from his fridge. Daisy loved carrots, and he could usually lure her down from a rooftop by waving one at her. For some reason, she adored traipsing on the guest cabins’ cedar-shingled roofs.
When he emerged from the house a moment later, he hesitated at the sight of his girls. The thought of leaving April and Abby unattended, even for a short time, made him uneasy.
