Page 7 of Wrangling Hearts
The screen door slammed open, the sudden sound making me almost slosh coffee on my tablet. Only one person would make that much noise this early in the morning. “Could youtrynot to bang shit around?”
Weston shoved his shirt tail into his worn Wranglers, grinning like the smug little shit he was. My little brother’s best friend was essentially a McLeod in his own right, having lived with us since he was thirteen when his parents cut and ran.
Seventeen years later, he still acted like a kid. Thankfully, he was only here for a few weeks at a time between rodeoing gigs. He was getting more and more popular, and I hated to admit it, but he was pretty damn good.
“Had to make sure you weren’t dead out here, sprawled out in that chair.” Typical Weston Tate response.
I shook my head, pulling up my drone’s live feed while fighting a smile. “Get outta here before I give you somethin’ to do.”
He just laughed and sauntered off the porch, raking his dirty blonde waves back into a cowboy hat.
Coffee long gone, I was reviewing our new rotational grazing plan with an app a buddy of mine from school recommended.With the drone footage, it tracked which pastures needed rest and which had enough clover to feed the cattle.
Naturally, Mount hated it, and that made me love it even more.
The door opened again, and he hobbled out onto the porch with his walker. “Mornin’,” I said, hoping today could be a semi-decent day for us.
“You gonna ride out there and do your job or sit on your ass and play games?” Mount’s voice grated on me like nails on a chalkboard, but his judgment was nothing new. I actually would’ve been concerned about his well-being if he hadn’t said something along those lines.
I let out a heavy sigh, setting the tablet down. “I’ve told you a hundred times, Dad, this is work. I’m checking the grazing flow. The northern pasture needs another day before we send the herd out.”
He scoffed. “You woulda known that if you’d just gotten on a damn horse and rode out there. This ain’t NASA, Beaumont, this is Circle M.”
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. All I wanted was to prove to him that I wasn’t playing rancher, that I had what it took to run this place so he could have the retirement he deserved. “I know where I am,” I replied lowly, my gaze sliding up to his.
Looking at my father felt like seeing myself thirty years in the future. I had grown up hearing how I was his spitting image, and I hated it every damn time. But it was undeniable. Same short, dark brown hair—his now salt and pepper, same blue eyes, same scowl, same build.
It was some sick joke the universe had played on me to give me a man as formidable as Mount as a father and make me look like him, too.
“We lost nearly a quarter of our grass to overgrazing last year because nobody did checks like this.” I waved the tablet at him. “I told you I’d show you how to use it.”
“I don’t want to learn that nonsense. I got eyes for a reason.” He looked out at the pastures, a twinkle of pride in his eyes that humanized him. “Your granddaddy ran this ranch without all those gadgets. So did I. And we made it the best ranch in the county. Just look at Golden Bridle”—he scoffed in its direction—“damn place looks like it’s about to go under.”
I peered over at the fence line that divided our land from the Hayes’s, and he wasn’t wrong. But knowing how that family planned to go against mine after our ranches were supposed to merge in the seventies made me care a lot less. Didn’t matter how much time I spent with Claire and her siblings as a kid, an enemy was an enemy.
That was probably the one thing my father and I could agree on—we hated the Hayeses.
Although it hadn’t always been that way.
“I need to go do some admin,” I announced and went back inside, not waiting for a response.
Once in my office away from Mount, I breathed a little easier. I opened my email, and the first one hit me like a blow to the gut.
Cavendish Equestrian Academyinvites you to apply to be the home of our newest expansion! We’re looking to partner with an already established ranch that can support our elite training and breeding program. If you are interested, please complete and return the application below.
I skimmed the fine details,my mind already churning. If I could pull off an expansion like that, there was no way Mount would disapprove. He’d have to finally see me as the man I was,and not a clueless boy. That was the whole point of the merger in the seventies with Golden Bridle, anyway, to move into horse training and breeding.
Slumped back in my chair, I ran a hand over my stubbled chin at the realization that there was no way Claire Hayes wasn’t all over this. If I had any hesitation about applying before, I didn’t now.
I just needed to get my smoking gun locked in, and I’d be set. I picked up my phone and dialed my brother-in-law.
“The baby isn’t coming, is she?” Joseph asked in place of a proper greeting. His new-father anxiety never failed to make me laugh. It didn’t matter that he and my sister had gone through this once before; he acted like it was the first time since they were having a girl this go around.
“No,” I chuckled, spinning my pen around. “Pretty sure there’s still a few months left.”
He let out an audible sigh of relief. “I think Anna would castrate me herself if I missed it.”
“I’ve seen her do it to a three-hundred-pound bull, gruesome business.” It was hard to get out of castrations when you grew up on a cattle farm. Dad had us out there helping and learning the ropes as soon as we could walk.
