Page 1 of Bred By the Cowboy

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ANGUS

I wasn’t expectinga huge welcoming party when I came home. We ain’t the type of people who do that sort of thing, my birthdays mostly being a quiet cookout with some friends and all that.

But I was expecting something. What I get instead is just about nothing.

The Rowdy Ranch is empty and devoid of life, outside the sounds of the horses and cattle making their usual clatter.

Dad must have finished up his work for the day and headed straight to the Burly Bar. That hasn’t changed in the years I’ve been gone, and I’m not surprised.

I set my suitcase down. Everything is pretty much how I left it, just a bit more of a mess. My sister Anise has never been the neat freak Mom was, and I don’t expect her to be. She has her own life and things she wants to do, after all, like we all do.

Me? I want to save the Rowdy Ranch. Shit has been going poorly these past few years, especially after Mom passed. She was the brains behind this outfit, and we need that nowadays. It’s 1990, and these big corporate ranches have been buying everything up and forcing everyone out for decades already. Mom knew this. Mom was the reason we succeeded for so long. Dad? He just knows how to be a rancher. You’d think that’d be enough, but shit is always more complicated than it seems.

My mom had one last wish for me before she passed, one that I obeyed. She wanted me to be the first Rowdy to go to college. A degree in agriculture and business management, of all things, from Washington State University. Dad thinks it was useless, he knows everything there is to know. But Mom knew better. It’s more than just being good at raising horses and feeding cattle.

I went, and now I’m back, ready to help Dad to turn the ranch around and do what needs to be done to keep our family’s legacy intact.

The ranch hadn’t changed. Everything is just a bit dustier than I’m used to. Burly hasn’t changed either, from what little I’ve seen of it. It’s a nice little town and it feels like home.

I went to college to study, and I busted my ass there, ignoring most of the rest of the experience. Most of the other folks there treated me as some sort of country bumpkin, and I was never in the mood to change that. The football coaches were on my ass endlessly to recruit me to the team since I had the body for it, but nothing was going to take away from my drive to make my mother proud.

I collapse onto the sofa, a beer in hand. Nothing too strong, but I’d been finding a single beer helps me think. It’s just when two or three beers happen that it turns me from wiseman to idiot. The doorknob fumbles about after a bit, catching my attention. It opens up and three people come on in the front door.

The first two are pretty much what I expect. My father, already drunk, just not stumbling over himself yet. Then there’s Anise, my sweetheart of a little sister, fresh out of high school and surely facing her own anxieties and choices about her future. Then, in a shimmering gown, a sash, and a tiara is Dolly Dean.

My God, a few more years have turned her from some cute little thing to just a curvy goddess. Those golden curls of hers captivate me, as does her smile. She isn’t like the college girls I spent my last four years around – she is singular. A country girl, through and through, with a smile that can light up any damn room. Dolly is the prettiest thing on the planet according to me, and mine’s the only opinion I care about.

A few problems, though. She’s a few years younger than me so she was always off-limits because of that, and she’s also my sister’s best friend. Anise never outright forbade me from dating her friends, but as a courtesy I never bothered pursuing such things. If we had a thing and it went south, it’d be awfully awkward for all of us.

Seeing Dolly now though? It’s going to be really hard to keep to those principles.

“Angus? Angus, you’re back,” my little sister says, running in, giving me a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming home today.”

Did I tell anyone? Crap. I keep to myself so much that I didn’t tell anyone when I was due back. There’s another explanation on why there was no welcoming party.

“You’re home for good now, right?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’ve graduated. Fully accredited degree and all that fun stuff.”

My father shakes his head. “Still seems useless, but glad you got it done all the same, son.”

Dolly saunters her way in. “Kinda takes the wind out of my accomplishment.”

The sash across her chest, separating her two hefty tits, reads ‘Miss Burly County.’

I cock an eyebrow. “You win the beauty pageant at the county fair?”

She nods. “Real proud of myself too. They don’t often let girls like me win that sort of thing, it’s always some stick figure wannabe-model type, but I guess they couldn’t deny my natural charm and charisma this time around.” She laughs, running her hand through her blonde locks, letting them drop to further emphasize how fucking hot she is.

Of course, it also points to the other reason I’ve never pursued Dolly Dean. She’s confident in ways that could intimidate a man, always had that curvy figure and never once had a chip on her shoulder about it, and never hesitated to let people know it. The difference now is I’m seeing why she’s earned that sort of confidence, and a woman that knows exactly what she’s worth is definitely sexy.

“Got me a scholarship,” she says.

I raise an eyebrow. “What for?”

“Beauty school. Cosmetology or something like that. Wasn’t what I saw for myself, but I ain’t hating the idea either.”

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