The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) (41 page)

Drake’s suggestion was the easiest thing. But Pic couldn’t bear to do it and Dad would never agree to it. He swallowed again. “I’ll go down there. I’m the tallest.”

“Son—”

“Dad. I know. I’ll still have to go under the water. It can’t be that big a deal to get that calf out of four feet of water. You and Andy go back to the ranch. You drive one of the trucks with a wench back out here. Get Troy to bring out a trailer and a couple of horses because we’re gonna have to catch that cow before we leave here. We might as well haul her back to the holding pens and try to match her up with one of those dogies we’ve been feeding.”

He turned to Andy. “Andy, you stay at the picnic and take the rest of the day off.”

“I don’t mind helping out, Pic.”

“This is supposed to be a holiday for you. You stay there with your family. Ea
t a steak and enjoy the music.”

With Dad on his heels, Pic walked back to his truck and pulled on the work gloves he kept in the jockey box. With Andy’s help, he dragged his small box of tools, several coils of rope and links of chain from the toolbox behind the cab. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do with all of that, but he wanted it handy.

“You’re sure you want to do this,” Dad said.

What
Pic was sure of was that he
didn’t
want to do it. “I’m sure.”

Without another word, Dad climbed into the truck and drove away with Andy.

Pic hooked a couple of coils of rope over his shoulder and returned to where Drake was still staring at the cistern as if he could will the calf to rise out of it.

“You’re determined to do this,” Drake said.

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to, dammit. This place means a lot to Dad. He and Mom have worked hard to preserve it like Grandpa thought it originally was. And it originally had a cistern. If that number written in the concrete can be believed, it’s been here more than a hundred years. And you know as well as I do that for all of our lives, it always had good drinking water.”

Standing there, his fists jammed against his hips, Drake’s squint-eyed gaze came at him. “There’s no sense in being so damn hardheaded about this, Pic. Why take the risk?”

“It’s not a risky thing, Drake. For most people, that is. It’s just a scary thing for me and you. So are you gonna help me or are you gonna stand there and bitch?” He turned away and started looking over the ground for a rock.

“What’re you doing?”

“Looking for a rock,” Pic said. “I want to see how deep the water really is.”

Drake, continuing to grouse and complain, helped him search and soon found a football-sized rock. “I still don’t see the big deal about a fuckin’ cistern. It’s a hole in the ground.”

Pic tied one end of a rope around the rock. “This particular hole had to have been dug by hand. Think about all that hard work.”

He let the rock down into the cistern until it reached bottom, then pulled it back up, carried it around the corner to the breezeway and stretched it out straight on the breezeway’s floor. He stepped off the length of the wet section. “Four feet. Maybe a little more. Just like Dad said.”

He stared at the rope, knowing he would have to go under the four or five feet of water to tie on to the calf. Just like Dad said.
Shit.

“When was the last time you had your head underwater?” Drake asked.

Big brother had always been able to read minds. Jaw tightly clamped, Pic drew a breath through his nose. “Earlier today, when I took a shower.”

“You know what I mean,” Drake said.

“Will you just cool it? Has married life turned you into a pussy? Soon as Dad and Troy get back here with the wench truck, I’m gonna ride that cable down there and get that calf. End of story.”

Drake reset his hat and walked around the corner of the house. He was worried, more scared than he would ever admit. Pic was scared himself. Until his dying day, the image of Johnny Mize being carried away by racing muddy water would never leave him. Still, he had never imagined Drake being afraid of anything.

He shoved those thoughts aside. Today was no time to be calling back that long ago nightmare. He checked his watch. Dad should be back any minute. He walked around the corner of the house, following Drake’s path, saw him staring at the front of the house. “When were you here last?” he asked him.

“It’s been years,” Drake answered. “I was planning on bringing Shannon down some weekend after the weather cools off. I had this idea we might even spend the night here.”

“Mandy and I spent a lot of time here. She’d be sick if she saw this.”

“You and Mandy spent time here?”

“Not lately. But we came here lots of times when we first got back together.”

“She wasn’t all that friendly back at the ranch house. She pissed off a
t something?”

Her words came to him again
….
.I got a job offer from a bigger school. And I’m taking it. I’m leaving you and I’m leaving this town….I told you I’m done with all this and I meant it….
“Me. But I haven’t figured it out yet.”

Drake nodded knowingly. “I wonder if Dad will want to refurnish this place,” he said.

“What’s the point?” Pic said. “Mom was the one who wanted it furnished. Don’t you remember? When she first decided to do it, Dad thought it was a dumb idea. We oughtta empty it out and just continue to work at keeping it from falling down. That’s enough preservation for the sake of history.”

Drake looked around. “I’d forgotten how many birds are out here.”

Pic noticed the cacophony of bird sounds for the first time. “They’re noisy all right. Wish they could talk.”

Just then, they heard the grind of engines and waited for Dad and Troy to arrive. Who arrived instead were Dad, pulling a cattle trailer behind the wench truck, and Kate, pulling a horse trailer
holding two saddled ranch horses.

Dad stepped down from the truck.
“We’ll need this trailer to haul that cow.”

“Where’s Troy?” Drake asked him.

“Dunno. He wasn’t around where I could spot him, so I didn’t try to find him.”

Pic’s memory spun backward
to his question to Johnnie Sue.
…As for Troy, he and that Zoshi came out of the guesthouse and they left in her car.….

A dark ugly
question mark formed inside Pic’s head. Did Troy know something about what had happened here? Was that why he had taken off with Zochi? Leaving the scene, so-to-speak? A shiver passed over Pic’s shoulders as he recognized for the first time that in the far reaches of his mind, Troy’s name being added to the persons-of-interest list had been the seed from which a distrust of his little brother had been growing.

“I sent your mother and her guests home,” Dad said. “Told them to take their daughter with them. We sure as hell don’t need company right now.”

Dad to the rescue.
He usually came through when something was important. Pic deliberately didn’t mention or ask about Troy leaving the picnic with Zochi.

Accompanying
Kate was her protector, wearing mirrored sunglasses, a polo shirt showing his company’s log and a sidearm. “Who’s watching your horses?” Pic asked.

“Will.”

“Naturally,” Pic replied. “He’s the one you oughtta take up with. He’s the one you should go to the mountains with.”

She gasped. “Do I try to tell you who you should take up with?”

“You two shut up,” Drake growled. Pic hadn’t seen him in such a bad mood in years.

Kate had come to work. She wore chinks, old boots and spurs and her huge retro cowgirl hat. And gloves. A bright red scarf was tied loosely around her neck. Always the fashion queen. But her appearance belied her capabilities. Not only could she sit a horse, she could handle a rope and knew what cowboying meant.

“Where’s that cow?” she asked, hooking a lariat over her saddle horn. She stuck her boot in a stirrup.

“In that cedar brakes a little ways up the hill,” Pic said
, watching her swing her agile body into the saddle. “We spooked her a little. I’m sure the scent of fresh blood kept her back from the house. That’s pretty dense growth. I don’t think you can get her out by yourself.”

“Dad’s going to help me. And we might even put Ryan here to work.” She laughed and gave her bodyguard a wink. “He’s never been around cowboying. The closest he’s ever been to a cow is when a big T-bone covers his plate.”

Pic rolled his eyes. This was no time for her smart mouth. He was about to face the devil in four feet of water.

Chapter 25

The next sound Amanda heard was, “Hi.”

The spoken word startled her awake. She opened her eyes to see Shannon’s head poking through a wide crack in the wall of folding doors.

“Oh, hi.” Amanda laid her book on the side table and creaked to her feet. “Some babysitter I am.” She laughed, attempting to straighten her hair. She still hadn’t gotten used to the lack of it.

“Babysitting?”

“I’m staying with you while the guys go down to the old homeplace.
One of the hands said someone vandalized it.”

Shannon’s brow furrowed. “Oh, no.”

“It’s a shame if someone has seriously damaged it.”

“What would a person have to do to get a drink of water?” Shannon asked, stepping into the sitting room. “I looked for a glass in the bathroom, but—”

“Oh. Coming up. Just follow me.” Amanda led her through the house toward the kitchen. “Are you feeling better now?”

“I think so. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I thought I was going to pass out, so Drake rushed me over here.”

They reached the cavernous kitchen and Amanda walked straight to the cupboard where she knew she would find glasses and dragged two down. “Maybe it’s hormones or something.”

“Battling hormones. Apparently that’s a normal part of pregnancy.” Shannon looked around at the huge space. “Wow. What a big kitchen. What do they do with so much room?”

Amanda carried the glasses to the refrigerator and filled them with ice and water. “In the old days, apparently the ranch hands ate here in the house. This was both a kitchen and an eating area. But by the time Bill Junior and Betty remodeled, a bunkhouse had been built with its own kitchen. So they made just a kitchen and breakfast room out of this room.” She handed the glass of ice water to Shannon. “Here ya go.”

Shannon took the glass and sipped. “That hits the spot.” She walked around the kitchen, taking in the oversized refrigerator, the long bank of cabinets on two walls, the double ovens and double microwave ovens. Even a warming oven was tucked in the wall of cabinets alongside the double ovens.

“Pic says they used to have a lot of company,” Amanda added, picking up her own glass and walking along beside Shannon. “But not so much anymore.”

Shannon strolled over to the breakfast room that looked over the canyon. “I always notice kitchens and bathrooms in people’s homes. It’s a habit. Both are important to making houses saleable.” She returned to the kitchen and ran her hand along the island counter. “Stainless steel. You don’t see that very often. It’s expensive.”

“Well, Betty has expensive taste.” Amanda frowned at her own bitchiness. “I shouldn’t be so mean. She’s actually quite a good decorator.”

“So I’ve heard. Drake said she’s contributed advice on his various projects.”

“She even re-did that old Lockhart homestead where the guys have gone now. Has Drake told you about it?”

“Yes. He’s promised to show it to me.”

“You should hold him to that promise. It’s an interesting place. They don’t know exactly how old it is, but they think it was built in the late nineteenth century. Keeping it up to where it was useable was a project of Betty’s when she lived here.”

Shannon smiled. “
You mentioned keeping up an old house. Now that’s something I know about.”

“Oh, that’s right. Your grandmother’s house. I can’t wait until it’s open for visitors. I’m dying to see it.”

“Grammy and I, even Drake, have spent a lot of time and money on it, trying to make sure it’s authentic. We hope people find it’s worth the price of admission.”

“I’ll bet they will.
Listen, I don’t know when the gang will get back. Would you like to sit in the living room? It’s a beautiful room.”

“That would be fine,” Shannon said.

Amanda welcomed the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Shannon. She led the way toward the living room. “That old Lockhart house and your grandmother’s house must be close to the same age. When I think about it, part of this ranch house is probably about the same age as your grandmother’ house, but it’s been remodeled and updated so many times.”

They strolled through the formal dining room, past the hallway leading to the den. “That’s the den down that hall,” Amanda prattled on nervously. “I’ve rarely been in it.”

If Pic were here, she wouldn’t feel so nervous, but as it was, she felt intimidated by Shannon. Not because Shannon had done or said something to cause that, but because she was beautiful and successful and she had landed and married a man who many thought un-catchable. Those facts gave her an elevated position in Amanda’s mind.