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“Oh, is that how it works?”
“Yep. I can tell you it might have something to do with you.” I giggled as he tightened his grip on me.
“Well, I hope whatever it was comes true.”
“Me too,” I whispered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
KIPP
Calls like the one I just ended were the bane of my existence and they’d been happening far too often for my liking. “Nora, I have to go move some cows,” I called from the porch. She had every window in the house open, so hearing me wouldn’t be an issue.
“Do you need help?” She came out to the porch with a glass of sweet tea and handed it to me. It was hotter than normal for early July, and working alone today had made me irritated. Having to move the cattle so soon after branding wasn’t helping the situation but it needed to be done. When the guys showed back up tomorrow, we were going to have to get started on that fence. “Kipp, it would be easier with two people, I know what to do, let me help you.” She sat down on the swing beside me.
“I’d like the help.” I nodded and put my arm around her shoulder.
“There, was that so hard? I’m going to change.” She grinned and patted my leg before she stood. She’d been wearing dresses every day and I loved seeing her in them. Sipping the cold tea, I waited and my agitation seemed to disappear. It didn’t make sense for those cows to be out, they had more than enough to eat, there was no reason they’d crowded the fence. Cattle don’t care where they are, a blade of grass might look better across the road, they will go for it. My father’s words always seemed to come to mind when I least expected them to. And this time he was right, like usual. I wish he'd had advice for a woman like Nora. I smiled thinking of them meeting, and I knew exactly what he would tell me to do. He would say for me to put a ring on that woman’s finger before someone else realized how amazing she was.
“Okay, let’s get going,” Nora said, walking right past me and heading for the barn. Setting my glass down, I quickly ran to catch up to her.
“What’s lit a fire under your fine ass?” I asked as I snuck my hand into her pocket.
“Have you looked at the sky recently?” She pointed up and I followed. “Storm’s coming, sooner than later.” She was right, there was thunder heads building in the south, and I could hear the wind coming down the mountain. It would be here in a few hours, if everything was normal. Nora quickly saddled Pepper and we headed out. We needed to get this done fast.
“Are you ever going to tell me how you know how to do all this? I still don’t believe it was only summers on a ranch.”
“Probably not.” She glanced over her shoulder and winked.
“I’ll figure out your secrets yet. I have ways of making you talk.”
“Talking isn’t what you make me do.” She kicked Pepper in the sides and took off. I followed her and caught up quickly. We rode together in comfortable silence and found the cows and calves spread out from here to kingdom come.
“Your fence has been annihilated, for lack of a better term.” I turned to see where she was looking. About a hundred feet of fence posts were laying on the ground. “Cut, with a chainsaw looks like.” She got off Pepper and walked some of the fence line. She looked across the road. “Is that yours too?” I turned my horse in her direction.
“Yeah, it is.” I nodded, leaning over resting on the saddle horn. What the hell happened here and why?
“For how far?” She focused on the pasture across the road and I could almost see the wheels turning behind her brown eyes.
“What do you mean how far?” I got off my horse and walked over to where she was standing.
“How far does your property go?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. My mind was preoccupied and I wasn’t exactly listening to everything she was asking.
“To the top of the mountains.” She looked away and then back to me.
“Are you serious?” she asked, her eyes bugging out. I nodded and smiled.
“Well, you’re going to have to push them further in. Whoever’s targeting you isn’t going to stop, so you need to push them in, get them off the road until you and the guys can move them.” She got back up into the saddle and I went to drop the gate on the opposite side of the road.
“Nora, go cover that gap over there, I’ll push this bunch through,” I called and she wheeled Pepper around and blocked the hole I’d pointed to. She was as good of a ranch hand as I’d ever worked with. She was calm, knew her job, and did it with expert precision, which made me even more curious about her. With the last animal off the road she rode through the open gate and made sure none of the cows got out while I closed the gate.
“How far do you think we can get them before we have to turn back?” She looked up at the sky again as the clouds rolled overhead.
We pushed the cattle as fast as we could get them to go. The gate was open and the old girls knew just what they were doing and the younger ones followed along. Lightning flashed through the sky as I closed the gate. “Let’s go!” I yelled over the wind that had come out of nowhere. We rode as hard as we could but the rain started before we were even half way back to the house. Nora didn’t falter once, she rode right beside me, head bowed slightly, letting her hat brim keep the rain from her eyes.
Just as we reached the road, the guys were returning. They spotted us and Nash hopped out of the truck and waved us through the gate, closing it behind us. We kept riding, the storm raging, thunder and lightning all around but neither of us flinched. There was only one way to get through this storm and that was to get home.
I’d left the barn door open, so we barely slowed up and rode in. The horses were panting and we were soaked clean through. Another rumble of thunder roared across the sky, and Nora jumped. “I haven’t been out in a storm like that for ages,” she said as she got down from Pepper.
