Page 17 of The Cowboy's Redemption
“Good to see you’ve got your priorities in order,” he said. “I’ll be gone for a few hours, and I’ll pick up the meds Dallas prescribed, but you should let him give you something for pain to tide you over until I get back. There’s no need for you to suffer like this.”
“I’ll take it after I talk to George. I’ve got a few relatives left on my mother’s side I want to take care of. Pitiful bunch. I won’t have them trying to claim I’m not of sound mind. Dallas Tucker might be friends with that bastard O’Connell, but he’s a decent man. He says he’ll swear I’m not senile, but if I take painkillers, they’d have a legal reason to squabble over my will.”
“I’d swear you aren’t senile, too,” Levi said.
“I know. But it’ll carry more weight coming from a doctor. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“I’ve also asked Dr. Tucker to send over that bastard O’Connell so he can witness the changes,” Otto said.
“You’ve askedRyanto witness them for you?” The world had come to an end. “Now I am offended. You hate him.”
“Sure, I do. But would you take an argument into court over a will he says is valid?”
“You’ve got me there. But since we’re on the topic of you getting things down on paper… I wish you’d let me record some of what you know about breeding.” What a loss this was going to be to the horse breeding world. What a loss for himself. He’d miss their talks and Otto’s insights.
“Quit nagging me. Can’t you see I’m dying?” Otto opened both eyes for a second and mustered a grin. “Besides, I’ve given you lots of information over the years. Set the book learning aside and rely on common sense now and then. Trust your instincts.”
Lots of older ranchers thought the same way—that experience trumped education. While Levi didn’t disagree, he believed equally strongly that science and hands-on experience were symbiotic. One built off the other.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, even though he’d rather not leave, but Dallas was waiting, and the longer he lingered, the longer Otto had to go without medication. “Dana says she’ll stay with you until I get back. Think you can be nice to her for that long?”
Otto peeled one eyelid back. “Pretty girl like that? Easier than being nice to you, that’s for sure.”
Outside the sun shone, unobstructed by a light skiff of cloud that couldn’t make up its mind as to where it should settle, unperturbed by the morning’s events. Dallas and Dana leaned on the fence, lost in conversation.
They’d turned Lady loose in the pasture with the main herd. She hung close to the humans. Horses were social animals but tended to be as cliquey as people as far as newcomers were concerned. She grazed quietly, occasionally lifting her head to check out Otto’s chestnut stallion as it attempted to cover a mare in a nearby pen.
Otto’s stud was one of the reasons Levi was so interested in his breeding methods. The placid stallion had very little aggression in him, while the mares were a great deal fierier, personality-wise. He’d be good with older mares. One like Lady. Which made Levi wonder if Otto’d had plans to include Lady in the deal for Tanoa. The old man was smart.
Unlike himself. He could have spent last night with Dana. Instead, he’d lain awake until just before dawn, listening to men’s snores rather than the contented sighs of a satisfied woman.
At least he could live with himself this morning. He’d far rather he was the one experiencing morning-after regret.
Dallas saw him approach and pushed away from the fence. “I hate to rush you, but I have patients waiting.”
Levi didn’t want to leave Dana here, but someone had to keep Otto company and she made a much better distraction for him.
“You sure you’re going to be okay out here alone?” he said to her.
“I’m not the one you should be worrying about right now,” she pointed out.
Fair enough.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said.
Chapter Six
Dana
The tail endof Levi and Dallas’s truck buried itself inside the scattered thickets of larch, blackjack, and lodgepole fringing the road, leaving Dana alone with the horses, the wind, and a dying man.
She’d grown up in Billings, the largest city in the state of Montana. Other than rodeo towns, her experience with the more rural areas tended to consist ofjust passing through. Otto’s homestead was about as rural as it was possible to be.
As for her experience with death… Her brain shied away from that. She cradled her chest with her arms and tried to think about how to make herself useful until Levi returned instead.
She started with the barn, which had to date back to the late-nineteenth century, at least. It was an older-style red two story with a hip roof. Hinged double doors under the roof opened into a mow that likely hadn’t seen bales of hay since the mid-twentieth century.
