Page 71 of Beat around the Bush
Always looking on the bright side.
I led my horse, Winston, through the snow drift, the cows parting to move away from him. Once on the other side, I pivoted, getting behind the ass of one of them and whistling through my teeth, the sound piercing the air.
The cows got moving, but instead of going back through the narrow passageway in the drift, they just shifted around like they were blocked in.
Callan joined me as our dad stayed watching for traffic, waving his hands to keep the runaways with the group. As we hooted and hollered, ushering them closer and closer to the passageway, one finally got the brains to stick her head through the opening.
“C’mon, Mama. That’s it,” I urged her.
As if she understood my words, she made the jump, landing on the other side. The others began following suit, the passageway getting wider as packs of snow fell on their backs.
“Always gotta be a show-off, don’t you?” Callan said.
I shrugged. “Don’t be jealous.”
Thankfully, the whole herd of them didn’t escape and it was just a small bunch, otherwise we’d need every helping hand we could get. Once the last one ambled its way through, the three of us followed suit. Cal and our dad dismounted, getting to work on the fence that had somehow collapsed in one spot.
I stayed on Winston in case any of the cows got the bright idea to try to escape again, but I had a good feeling they wouldn’t be wanting to cross that snow drift anytime soon.
“Baby, give me a hand,” Callan mocked.
I narrowed my eyes at his back where he was bent over. “Got something to say, Cal?”
Dad moved his gaze to Cal. “Did you just call your brotherbaby?”
“I need the wire cutters from my bag,” Cal said over his shoulder, ignoring our dad.
I swung my leg over, dismounting from Winston. Keeping the reins in my hand, I trudged through the snow to the saddle bag attached to Ace’s saddle, fishing around for the wire cutters.
With a gloved hand, I grabbed them, bringing them over to Callan with Winston ambling along behind me. “Here you go,baby.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Dad demanded.
Cal chuckled under his breath as he moved his focus back to the barbed wire. “Len’s got a lady.”
“Is that lady you? Because why the hell else would you be callin’ your brother pet names?”
A snort escaped me.
With the moon lighting up the snow covered ground, I could see Cal shake his head. “No, Dad.”
Our dad stood, bending his back to stretch it from being bent over. “Is it that employee you brought to the house?”
“Sure is.” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
“I knew you were full of shit,” he muttered, coming around to the side of his horse and grabbing the horn of the saddle to pull himself up. He swung a leg over, situating himself in the saddle.
I shrugged. “Couldn’t keep my hands to myself.”
“I’d say you never could, but that’d be a lie. She must be special.” He leaned an arm on the horn while Callan finished up the last bit of the fence.
I threw the split rein back over Winston’s neck, then hefted myself back up on him. “She sure is.”
“That doesn’t explain this wholebabything, though,” he pointed out.
Cal stood, grabbing the few supplies with him as he stomped through the snow to Ace. “Lennon went all alpha mode on the phone when I called him to come help.”
“Alpha mode?” Dad and I questioned in unison.
