Page 130 of My Cowboy Freedom
Chapter 31
Sky
Rain drenched everything, making it hard to tell the hands from the beasts. I listened for shouts and whistles to keep from losing track of them but it was hard to hear anything over the constant rumble of thunder.
“H’yah. Here. Come on.” As the hands and I drove the cattle to higher ground, rivers of rain cascaded off the brim of my hat and ran down the oilskin duster Tad loaned me.
Lightning arced across the sky, still far enough to the south that I didn’t piss myself with fear but Christ, that was some scary weather.
Scary and exciting.
We were unprotected out there.
Shit gets real when you see a storm like that one coming your way. On horseback, with little or no shelter. The strain of controlling the uneasy beast made all my muscles ache.
I was soalive.
More unnerved by that storm than I’d ever been, and not just because of the job. Concern for the animals drove me past exhaustion. But the last look I’d had of Rock—lying in his nest of blankets, naked and sated—that’s what kept my pilot light burning no matter how hard the work was.
I carried his warmth. I ached where he’d taken me.
Memories of him, of sex and sweetness hummed in my belly, confusing my body, keeping me half-aroused and deliriously, stupidly happy, even when soggy tree branches whipped my face and thorns scraped my legs.
A whistle from Tad caught my attention. I wheeled Ogre toward the sound.
“Get those guys,” he pointed to a cow and her bull calf, which had fled into the waist-high chaparral on the right side of the sodden path.
I turned Ogre and we went after them, slipping perilously. I prayed and cursed and kept my seat by the power of will alone, but I got ’em going in the right direction again. When we rejoined the rest of the herd I caught up with Robbie and Foz.
Foz jerked his chin in greeting. “You look positively disreputable, Skyler.”
He was right. I was mud-spattered. Crusty with sweat. One big ache.
I winced. “Sorry.”
Foz paused to take in the view from the hillock we’d crested. Even though the sky was black with clouds, you could see water building up in the deeply gouged grooves of the earth. Fast-moving, churning, dangerous runoff.
My folks had warned me about flash floods. Now I saw them with new eyes. They were far more treacherous than I’d imagined.
“We’ll have to check the culverts by the ranch house.” Foz turned and let out a piercing whistle. Tad waved his hat to signal Foz he understood.
“Normally, Rock takes care of that. We need to head over and make sure they stay clear.”
The rest of the hands had to assess the stock, noting individual numbers, checking the animals over to make sure they didn’t have any obvious signs of distress or disease.
Foz turned his horse for home, waving for me to go with him.
Ogre followed Foz’s mount along the trail, avoiding slippery mud where he could.
Things were agonizing between me and Foz. I couldn’t look him in the eye, not when he knew I’d been with Rock the night before.
Worse than that, Rock had pulled some strings to get me the morning off work, which probably cost me points with the other hands.
No one said anything, but it wasn’t hard to guess how they’d feel if they knew I was getting special treatment.
“I, uh—” Foz glanced over. “For what it’s worth, Elena did everything she could. I mean, she and Chandler tried to—”
“Sure.” I nodded like I knew exactly what he was going to say. “How long have I got before I have to leave?” I asked.
