Page 12 of Falling For Her Cowboy
“We’re good?—”
“Seriously, Buck. Don’t bullshit me. You need another set of hands. I’m home for the day.” Ridge set his phone down and slid on his boxer briefs. He pulled out another drawer and snagged a fresh t-shirt to throw on. It was quite warm outside today.
“Well, if you insist, then you can come and meet me out here in the eastern pasture. I want you to check out a couple of the cows,” Buck said.
“I’ll be there shortly.” Ridge cut the call before Buck tried to talk him out of it. He finished getting dressed and headed back downstairs. He went into the kitchen and opened the fridge door to eye thecontents. He grinned at the sight of a sandwich waiting for him.
Ms. Bee must have stopped by. He glanced around his kitchen. It sparkled. He shook his head and lifted the plate out of the fridge. He set it on the island and went back for a bottle of water and snagged a bag of chips out of his pantry.
What would they all do without Ms. Bee? He sure as hell didn’t want to think about it. His father better stop farting around and claim his woman. They could hide it all they wanted, but it didn’t take much to see what was between them. Ridge’s gaze landed on the plate of cookies sitting on the counter, and he released a groan. They were his favorite. Chocolate chip. The woman must be an angel from Heaven. That was the only place a woman like her could be from.
“Hell, if Pops don’t marry her, I just might.” He sat and dragged the plate over to him. He downed the sandwich before finishing off the bag of chips. This was a much better lunch than what he’d have thrown together. He probably would have just eaten the bag of chips then headed out.
He figured he’d better enjoy sitting for a few more minutes before he left. He was still on call until the morning. There was no telling how the rest of theday would go. He reached for a cookie and took a bite.
Oh, yeah. He was going to sit here and enjoy these before he went out on the ranch.
“What’s going on?” Ridge got out of the four-wheeler and headed over to where Buck stood near a gate. There was a herd of cows being moved inside the gates. He glanced around and nodded to the hands he knew. But there was one on a horse who caught his attention.
Melah.
She wasn’t on Daisy. She was riding a different horse. He hadn’t asked her if Daisy was a working horse. He hadn’t even thought about it. His gaze remained on her and the graceful way she guided the horse and chased down a cow who was trying to be defiant. She and the horse moved as one. Melah hollered out and guided the horse in front of the cow and pushed it in the direction of the other cattle.
“We’ve been noticing some diarrhea from quite a few of the cows in this herd. I want you to check them out. Not sure if anything is goingaround that you may have heard of, but I figured it would be best to have you look them over to make sure,” Buck said.
Ridge leaned against the gate and quickly assessed the cattle. Some looked a little thinner than they should be, but otherwise he didn’t see anything alarming.
“Oh, no you don’t. Get your ass in there with the rest,” a feminine voice growled.
Ridge glanced back over and caught sight of Melah chasing down another cow who tried to make their escape from going inside with the rest. Her maneuverability on the horse was impressive. The cow didn’t stand a chance against her. It was forced to get in line with the others and trotted inside the gated-off area.
“That’s Melah. She recently joined us. Hard worker. Haven’t seen anyone dive right into work like her in a while,” Buck said. She and the others quickly got the rest of the herd inside the holding area. “Have you met her yet?”
“Actually, I have. She called about her horse last night,” Ridge said.
“Oh?” Buck’s eyebrows shot up high. “Is everything all right? I was wondering why she’d asked to borrow one of the ranch’s.”
“Yeah, she was limping, and Melah was worriedabout her.” He left out how worried and scared she’d been. She’d made the right call. He couldn’t count all of the horse owners who waited until it was damn near too late to call about a lame horse. “Horse will be fine. She’s letting her rest a bit.”
Buck gave a nod.
The hands gathered on the other side of the gate and fell into a conversation. Ridge took in her t-shirt, jeans, and boots. Her wide-brimmed hat sat low and hid her face from him. He already had her beauty ingrained in his mind. He exhaled and remembered why Buck had said he’d brought him out here.
“When did you notice the first bout of diarrhea?” He tried to remember if he’d heard anything from the other farms. There were certain viral diseases that could be contagious, and the community of ranchers would alert each other to something like this. It was a good thing Buck was quarantining this herd. Until they knew what this was, they wouldn’t want them to be around other cows. The last thing they’d need was for this to be something extremely contagious and deadly.
“A few days ago. I didn’t think nothing of it, thinking maybe it was something the cows had eaten. I believe it was two at first before we noticed more having it. Trent alerted me whichones.”
Buck pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ridge. There were numbers listed that would line up to the cows. This was perfect. It would allow Ridge to know which cows to test first.
“I’ll grab some samples and send them out to be tested. Let’s see what comes back. In the meanwhile, keep them quarantined until I get the results back,” Ridge announced.
“That’s what I figured you’d say.” Buck chuckled.
“What the hell you call me for then?” Ridge slapped Buck on the shoulder.
The lead hand came with years of experience. There wasn’t a better man for this job. His father was lucky to have Buck on at the ranch.
“You know what to do.”
