Page 1 of The First Day of Breeding Season
CHAPTER 1
BRYNN
The way my heart leaps when I see respected cattle breeder Drew Lowry’s name in my email inbox is so silly. And actually dangerous, because in a few days, I’m going tomeethim. When I do, I will have to be completely professional.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Breeding Soundness Exam results attached
Note the youngest bull, Ten Gallon, has a larger than expected scrotal circumference. Good news for his first breeding season.
That’s it. Two sentences and an attachment, which I immediately open and scan.
I wanted to arrive at Wildfire Ranch in time to be there for the veterinarian’s visit, but it conflicted with my school schedule. And I’ve observed these wellness checks before, so I know what happened.
The four bulls that we’ll be turning out into the summer pastures are all healthy. Very…healthy. Good scrotal sac size, excellent samples. No infections.
I tamp down the little rush of awkwardness I feel at reading the report. Over the last four years of school, I’ve heard again and again that it’s normal to have a reaction to words that in other contexts, more human contexts, are deeply private.
But in ranching, they’re not private at all. Breeding is big business in Wyoming, and I want to make my career in it.
So I have to be professional about this report, and I have to beveryprofessional about my soon-to-be summer mentor.
I should never have looked him up. Maybe if I’d stuck to the email correspondence…but even there, he has a certain charisma that seems uniquely Brynn-coded, even though crushing on a much older man doesnotfit into the Five Year Brynn Plan at all.
My roommate doesn’t get it.
“Oh my God, are you searching that guy on YouTube again?”
Three weeks ago, I only had a vague idea of who Drew Lowry was. A rancher, an icon, a recluse… Way out of my league on every level. I wouldn’t be worthy of his attention.
But then his brother, Dr. Noah Lowry, suggested again that I apply what I’ve learned on their family ranch. It was a suggestion he first made three years ago when I was a freshman and I aced his horticulture class but he knew I was really more interested in large animals.
I wasn’t ready then.
This spring, though…I felt ready to take on a mentorship of that magnitude. I accepted the introduction, and looked more into Drew Lowry, so I could separate legend from reality.
Now I’m an expert on my professor’s older brother, a man of few words who exists in the background of alotoflocal content.
The rodeo comes to town? His younger brother Zane is riding, and in the background, Drew Lowry is making a deal.
A local vet is making a PSA about animal vaccinations? Drew Lowry’s herd is featured, with the big, gruff cowboy nodding along sternly.
The national parks rangers highlight the importance of closing gates when back country camping, because local ranchers lease the public lands for summer grazing? There he is again, astride his horse.
I watched that particular clip over and over again.
That’s where we’re going in a few days.
Cheeks flaming, I force my attention away from the memory of his powerful denim-clad thighs as another email pops up, this one a reply to an older chain of messages.
And unlike most of his emails, it contains more than a word or two.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
