“Helluva job, guys. Meet me back at the house by six. I have cash for you.” He clicked off. “Thanks for recommending them. They’re good workers.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty quick for a couple of old dudes.”
“Shut up,” Mike said, laughing. “They’re in their forties.”
“Yeah, I know.” Chip grinned. “What are they...about seven years older than you?”
“And here I was going to ask if you’d like to work here full-time.”
Chip’s brows shot up. “Are you serious?”
“Not anymore.”
“Come on. You know I was just joking.”
“I was thinking you could start in about a month?”
“Sounds good to me, but isn’t that sucky timing? Will you have enough work for me all winter?”
“Yep. I got a lot to do, so you’ll be taking over some of my daily chores.” Mike stepped back after they treated the last calf. He’d asked his dad last night about making Chip full-time, and just as Mike knew he would, his dad told him to make the call. “Look, I know you do other odd jobs here and there and if you want to continue, we can work your schedule around them.”
“Thanks, Mike.” Chip carefully stowed the meds in the metal box. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind letting most of those jobs go. Let a high-school kid take ’em. Some of the older folks around here are just plain cheap.”
Mike smiled. Most of them were on fixed incomes. He’d never minded doing work for any of the old-timers. They hadn’t tried to take advantage. “As for which days you work, I’m flexible. Although I need you to do the morning feeding at least three days a week.”
“Hell, I live close. I can do it every morning if you want.”
“After a night of pool and beer?”
Frowning, Chip scratched the side of his head. “Okay, I might’ve jumped the gun...”
Mike laughed. “We’ll work it out.”
“Hey, you want to go to the Full Moon again?”
Mike knew he should say no. Savannah could have left already. But he had no way of knowing, so there was only one answer.
Chip blotted his sweaty forehead with his sleeve. “Maybe that cute blonde is still around and you’ll get lucky.”
“What blonde?”
Snorting a laugh, Chip said, “What blonde? The one you were eyeing every chance you got.”
“I thought she looked familiar, that’s all.”
“Right. Uh-huh.”
Mike shook his head. “If you’d been paying more attention to the game instead of me, maybe I wouldn’t have beaten the pants off you.”
That wiped the smirk off Chip’s face. “Okay, okay.”
“Twice.”
“Hey, I almost had you the second time.”
“And yet...” Mike’s attention was drawn to the silver sedan traveling south on the county road.
Chip turned just as the car passed. “Who’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Probably tourists. They’re always getting lost looking for old movie sets. Last month I found a carload of them stuck near the creek.”
The ill-kept gravel road was almost a quarter of a mile away, but Mike thought Savannah might have been behind the wheel. The sedan looked a lot like the one she’d been trying to avoid yesterday.
He headed for the cottonwood where he’d tethered Dude. “Nobody has any business down here,” Mike said, grabbing the reins. “I’m going to go check.”
“Want me to go?”
“I’ve got it. Probably just a tourist, like you said. You might as well head back.”
Mike rode straight toward the Rileys’ old cabin. Though she could be headed for the creek, he’d start with the cabin first.
Without a clear trail, the area thick with lodgepole pines and overgrown brush, it took him twenty minutes when it should’ve taken ten, and for all he knew, she was already gone, but once he’d made it to a small clearing, he thought he heard a faint bleat. Slowing Dude to a walk, Mike listened. It was a stray calf, all right. As he dismounted he heard another bleat.
After pushing his way through a thicket of gnarly sage and scaring a grouse, he saw the little fellow, exhausted and wobbling under a small cottonwood. The calf was clearly a late arrival and a runt, probably only a week old. Odd that he’d gotten separated from his mother. He didn’t belong to Mike, but it wasn’t uncommon for The Rocking J cattle that grazed on public land to stray in with his herd.
Damn, he wished he’d brought the ATV.
Mike doubted the mother was around, since she hadn’t responded to the bleating. But he remained perfectly still, trying to listen for her. After a few minutes, he phoned Chip, who hadn’t seen any men from The Rocking J. But he agreed to look for their number on Mike’s desk and give them a call.
Mike disconnected and inched closer. The calf barely made a sound. And when Mike scooped him up, he didn’t struggle.
“I bet you’re scared, aren’t you, buddy? Let’s see what we can do about that.” Dude wouldn’t be happy about giving the calf a ride, but too bad. It wasn’t going to be easy for Mike either.
All legs, weak and panting, the calf allowed himself to be laid on his belly over the saddle. Dude shifted nervously and his ears went back, but Mike soothed him until the gelding finally settled. Mounting was tricky, but he managed to plant himself in the saddle and then wrap the calf’s legs around his middle so he could hold on to the little guy.
A low bellow sounded from the direction of the creek, a popular spot for stragglers. He headed toward it. That bellow was from a bull, and not one of his, but the calf’s mother might be somewhere close to the bull.
Luckily, the creek wasn’t far, but he kept Dude at a slow pace, making sure the little one didn’t get jostled too much. The calf hadn’t moved much since his first two kicks, which wasn’t a good sign. Probably dehydrated. And Mike still hadn’t heard the high-pitched call of a momma who couldn’t find her calf.
As it turned out, the silver sedan was parked on the side of the trail that led to the creek, but Mike couldn’t spare it any attention. His focus was on the calf, and he’d given Dude his head knowing he’d follow the scent of the water.
Then something occurred to Mike. “Hey, no swimming today,” he said, leaning down to stroke the gelding’s neck. “You got that?” The horse ignored him and picked up speed. “I mean it, Dude.”
Mike heard a laugh and looked up, not at all surprised to see Savannah. This had been a favorite spot of hers.
She rose from the rock she’d been sitting on. “Does he ever answer you?”
“No, but sometimes I get the feeling he’d like to.” He reined the gelding to a halt.
Savannah saw his passenger and gasped. “That’s a... What is that?”
“A calf. Would you do me a favor?”
“Sure,” she said, dusting off the seat of her jeans as she warily approached. “Maybe I should’ve said ‘that depends.’”
Mike passed her the reins. “Hold on to these while I get down,” he said, lifting the calf in his arms.
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to let me hold him?”
“It would if