If you are just joining us, you can find Chapter 1 HERE
Chapter Two
Kaleb
The momma cows
bellowed for their calves to stay close. The cowboys shouted as they moved the
herd around and separated the calves from the cows. Levi, my best friend and
fiancé to my little sister Katie, ran the hydraulic chute at the end of the
lane. He worked the levers, testing it and warming it up. The chute opened and
closed with a hum and a clang.
I eased my horse closer to him.
“We all set?” I leaned on the
saddle horn to hear him over the noise in the working pens.
He pushed his hat back on his
head and wiped at the sweat already accumulating. “I think so. Doc is just
pulling into the drive.” He motioned toward the gravel road leading up to the
working pens.
Doc’s vet truck rumbled along,
leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. He pulled to a stop next to the pens and
climbed out.
“Howdy, fellas. How’s things
going this morning?” He stretched and walked stiffly around the front of the
truck.
Louisa jumped out from the
passenger seat, waved to us, and ran around to the back. She opened and closed
drawers on the vet box, gathering syringes, needles, vaccinations, and
medications.
“Everything is set. They’re
almost done separating the cows and calves.” I swung down from my horse to
shake his hand. “How are things in town?”
“Good. Couldn’t be better. The
new vet starts today.”
“Hopefully, this one works out.”
“I hope so too.” He took some
supplies from Louisa. “I can’t wait to retire. The wife is collecting rescue
horses like they are going out of style.”
I brought over the folding table
next to the chute. Doc laid out the syringes, needles, vaccines, medications,
and his notebook on the table.
“Patty always did have a big
heart.” Last month, she came home with five miniature horses from a place that
couldn’t feed them. Now, they were part of the local 4-H program.
“Well, it’s turned into a
full-time job just keeping up with her.” He flipped to a clean sheet of paper
and drew columns on it.
“Hey Doc,” Levi grabbed a
syringe and started filling it. “When is the new doc going to be doing ranch
calls?” His lips twitched up in the corners.
I frowned at him, and he shrugged.
Why did he care when the new vet would be doing farm calls?
“It depends. Connie and Patty
are showing Dr. Murphy the clinic today. It would be best to get that down
first and then they can start out in the country.”
“Yo, boss!” Zack, one of the
cowboys, called. “The calves are down the lane.” He waved his hat above his
head and steered his horse closer to the alleyway. The calves slowed down as
the horse and rider grew closer to them.
The back chute doors stood open,
and Levi jumped to man the levers. The doors closed with a clang. The calves
halted their forward motion.
“The calves are ready. Let’s get
to work.”
#####
The day passed as smoothly as working cattle could go.
All the calves were vaccinated, dewormed, identified with ear tags, and the
bulls were castrated. The cows were vaccinated, dewormed, and retagged if their
ear tags were lost over the past few months. Once the cattle were released,
Levi paired up each cow and calf. Then, the cowboys herded them out to the
spring pasture.
“They look good this year.” Doc
washed his hands at the back of his truck.
“It was an easy winter and we
had good hay.” I shook out a rope that someone had left on the ground. “We have
one more group to work, but they are in the back pasture. It’ll take us some
time to get them all up.”
“Call the office when you get
them corralled. We can work something out.” He closed the tailgate on his
truck. “Now that there are two of us, we can get more work done.”
Levi rode back toward us. He
tossed me his notebook. “All paired up and ready to go.” His choppy handwriting
covered the page matching cow ear tags to calf tags. “I better head back across
the road. Katie’s cooking supper tonight and I’m starved.” He wiped the sweat
from his brow and turned his horse.
Doc chuckled. “I thought I’d
never see the day that Levi would be happy to stop working.”
“He’s smitten with my little
sister. They seem happy together.”
“What about you, Kaleb?”
I crossed my arms. “What about
me?”
“Are you happy?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I have the ranch,
a house, and a herd of cattle to keep me busy.”
“Busy and satisfied aren’t the
same thing.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’ve know you Kisments for a long
time. Katie is happy and so are your other two brothers. Are you missing it?”
“What are you getting at, Doc?”
“Nothing. Just I hate to see you
spend your life taking care of cows and missing the good things in life.”
“Like a wife that rescues
horses?” I teased.
“Yes, like a wife.” He tapped
the top of the veterinary box in the bed of his truck. “Louisa, time to go
clock out.”
Louisa separated herself from
the group of cowboys she was talking to and hopped into the passenger side of
the truck.
“Call the office when you want
to work the next group of cows,” he called out the window.
The vet truck pulled away in a cloud of dust, leaving
me to my thoughts. I was happy here, wasn’t I? I shook my head. I didn’t need a
woman to make me happy. They brought headache and heartache. Afterall, they
were only after one thing. A man’s money. All of mine was tied up in my ranch.
No woman would want to be burdened with it. And that's a fact.
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading! What do you think so far?
