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“Caroline,” she corrected with a smile.
“Your real name?” I asked.
“Yeah, you can keep calling me Cricket if you want though, but if we’re going to be partners, as you said, you should know my real name is Caroline.”
“Caroline’s a beautiful name.”
“Thank you.” She smiled that heart-stopping smile. “My dead mama picked it out.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I saw her picture in the main house. You seem to carry an awful lot of her likeness. Seems to me she lives on just fine.”
She smiled at me. This time it reached glassy eyes. “Thank you.”
Chapter Nineteen
We reached the two grazing cattle, both fat with calf, and began to lead them toward the five on the east side of the lake. Cricket and I tried to continue our conversation, but the heifers made it impossible—one or both of them getting skittish and trying to flee into the woods. It was hard to guide our horses, let alone the cows through the trees.
It took almost an hour just to reach the five on the east bank. We sat there with all seven for a moment to catch our breath.
“We’ve got to keep them out of the woods,” she said. “I want you to keep the rear here and prevent them from turning around. I’ll flank their left and prevent them from scaring off. We’ll use the lake to our advantage. They’ll avoid the deeper water.”
I nodded.
My job was fairly easy, pulling left or right to prevent them from turning but Cricket? Cricket was like flipping Houdini. One second she was casually setting a single heifer back into line, the next she was corralling all seven with what seemed like a single surge of her horse. Every single movement was calculated with not a single waste of energy, and she did it all flawlessly. She made it look effortless, when I know for a fact it was an orchestrated and anticipated dance. She was incredible. She was impressive. She was undeniably the most fascinating creature I’d ever known.
When we drew close to the herd, Cricket ran the strays toward the mass, and they seemed happy to be back. She turned around and met me.
“Is that Emmett on a horse?” I asked.
“Yeah, he always helps with the drives. No one save for Jonah has his instincts, and Jonah’s are premature. He can practically draw out the herd’s reactions on a piece of paper before we even set out.”
As if he knew we were talking about him, Emmett came riding up, whistling at a stubborn cow. “How’d you do, greenhorn?”
“Ask your granddaughter,” I answered with a smile.
The herd mooed, spooked and were altogether ridiculously noisy. That, coupled with the “ha’s” and whistles from the ranch hands, and we had to raise our voices to hear one another.
“He didn’t do too badly,” Cricket told him, winking at me. I almost fell off my horse. “Is everyone in?”
“Ethan’s still wrangling up five head pretty far from here. Somehow they got around that fence on the north side of the property.”
“How many in all?” she asked.
“About ninety-three. We’ve got most of them though. Should be on our way soon.”
Cricket nodded as Emmett headed back into the herd, then pulled her scarf over her mouth, making her look like an old-fashioned bandit. I did the same. The warmth from my breath was a nice reprieve.
“Bonnie,” I called to her.
“Yeah, Clyde,” she deftly responded, making me laugh.
“How long will it take to drive the herd?” I yelled.
“It takes about four hours. There’s a bit of road we have to cross to get to the main ranch. That’s always a pain in the ass as the cattle spook easily by passing cars. They get confused.”
“Why is there a public road running through the middle of your property?”
“It’s thousands of acres, Spencer, and when the city comes knocking on your door with a paper stating ‘eminent domain,’ you don’t really have a choice but to comply.”
