Page 26 of Cowboy Falling Hard

He still felt like an outsider. Like he didn’t really belong in Sweet Water. Or maybe he didn’t really belong in the farming community.

That might be true, for now. But he could learn.

He actually found there was a certain amount of satisfaction and enjoyment from his work, even though he was dusty and hot and tired.

Hot despite the below freezing chill in the air outside.

He’d been based in Houston too long, and he was a little spoiled weatherwise. Below freezing was an almost unheard-of temperature for that part of the country.

Still, his work had kept him active and busy, and he wouldn’t be cold until this evening when he quit.

“Is this the last cow?” Coleman asked, his words clipped and businesslike.

Dwight already figured out that it was Coleman’s job to keep things moving. He didn’t want people to get bored and leave, so the goal of running the auction was to keep something in the arena as much as they could and cut down on the amount of time that it was empty, ever.

But that did not mean that they wanted the animals to be rushed or scared. Coleman had explained to him before they started that moving animals too fast just led to someone getting hurt.

“She is. There are a couple of herds of goats and a man-eating pig.”

Coleman had already turned away, but he paused, turning back with a small grin on his face. “You got bit.”

“She took a small chunk.” He returned Coleman’s grin.

“A little initiation.” Coleman’s grin widened, then he grew serious. “You want to make sure you put some antibiotic ointment on that. I know, we don’t like to do a whole lot of babying, but pigs’ bites are notorious for getting infected. You don’t want to lose your leg because of it.”

“No. I’m partial to both of them.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Coleman didn’t say any more but turned around, following the cow off the scale and into the arena.

Dwight waited for Coleman to shut the scale door on the arena side before he opened it on the holding pen side. The next animal that they brought out would be able to get on the scale but not able to get off of it.

The whole setup was kind of cool, and when he wasn’t moving animals, he had a good time watching to see how things worked.

He hadn’t been watching things so closely that he’d missed Orchid, though.

She always had a smile on her face, and a lot of the time, she was walking beside Powell either talking or listening. They did a lot of laughing, and she seemed to really enjoy what she did.

He would have thought this was a man’s world, but Orchid was grace and light and, kind of like her name, brought a bit of beauty into what was otherwise a dusty, dirty, and stinky job.

They went through the goats, taking several herds out, and when Dwight brought the pig out, he made sure he kept a wide berth from the teeth at the front.

Far be it for anyone to call him a slow learner.

Another hour had gone by, and there were just some old milk cows waiting to be moved down. The stands had cleared until there were only a dozen or so people left, and there was a crowd at the side of the building where the loading docks were.

Coleman had directed him over there, and he was waiting for a farmer to close up his trailer and pull away when Orchid’s voice startled him.

“Coleman said you needed some ointment on a pig bite.”

“Yeah.” Coleman had said that. And while Dwight respected Coleman, he hadn’t been in a big hurry to get it done. In fact, he’d kind of forgotten about it. He’d been busy.

“Had you done that yet?”

“No.”

“You want to follow me?”

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