Page 2 of Cowboy Needed
Tom tilted his head. “Me?”
“No, dipshit. The other guy that I’m talking to.”
Tom shook his head. “Same old, same old.”
Excellent. “So, you can put that off for a little while. You want to go to the movies with me?”
Tom sat up straighter and gave him a curious little look. “Seriously, you want to go to the movies with me?”
Not at all, but Tom loved to go to the movies at the theater, and he loved Tom. “I totally want to go to the movies with you. Let’s go watch something with explosions. I’ll buy the popcorn.”
“Can I hold your hand in the dark?”
“If you’re nice to me, we can sit in the back row and make out like teenagers.”
Tom gave him a wicked little grin. “I guess that’s going to depend on how good the movie is.”
Chapter Two
Ellis McIntyre coasted into the Roaring Fork at, like, two in the afternoon, heading for Snowmass and arguing with his half-brother on the phone. As usual.
“No, Rick. This is a real job. I mean, I’m doing this because you asked me to, but I ain’t a fucker. I’m not going to do the guy dirty. I’ll let you know what I find, and that’s all.”
“God save me from cowboys,” Rick said, laughing.
“Rick…”
“No, that’s cool. I mean, I’ve already heard stuff. My stepfather was a hard man to get along with, and God knows I want you to have a job. Just not with him.”
“Well, if you want the place, I reckon you’ll have to buy it now. That will was airtight.” He was no damn lawyer, but he’d seen copies of the will. Old man Johns had left it to his grandkids in trust. The son-in-law was the trustee until they were of age.
If that was him? He wouldn’t sell for all the gold left in Colorado. He’d fight tooth and nail.
“Yeah, and that’s complicated.” His brother sighed. “Just tell me how it’s going now and again.”
“Sure. Okay, I got to go. I’m fixing to get to the ranch, and I want to be ready.” What he hadn’t told Rick was what the Cowboy Wanted feller had told him. This was an interview. So he still had to actually get the job.
“Okay. Call me next week. Bye.”
“Same time, same channel,” he agreed, chuckling when Rick hung up on him. “Love you too, you asshole.”
He pulled into the Johns ranch, noting the sad state of the fence, signs of water erosion around the cattle guard. Lord have mercy. He started making mental notes about what would need to be fixed first.
The house, when it came into view, had real good bones. It sat in bowl valley, and the place itself was red timber with a metal roof and a wraparound porch. Not huge, but big enough for the family that had moved in.
The outbuildings needed some work, but there looked to be a bunkhouse and a couple of barns. Maybe one for horses, one for tack and equipment…
A corral sat between barn and house, meant for working horses, he thought. If there was a cattle loading and sorting area, it wasn’t here.
He glanced at Mavis, his yellow Lab bloodhound mix lady dog, sighing. “It ain’t much, is it?”
She cracked one eye open, tail thudding on the door. She’d been pretty happy since they’d stopped for a cheeseburger at the McDonald’s in Twin Lakes…
“You got to be good, lady. I need him to see us as a viable pair.”
She half snorted, half snored. Yeah, she was a hell of a search and rescue dog when he volunteered for that, but otherwise, she was lazy as hell. It was a nice day. He would leave her in the truck with the windows down.
He pulled off and parked, making sure his trailer wasn’t blocking nothin’. His gelding, Rio, went everywhere withhim. He didn’t trust a boarding place to take care of the evil beast until he could go back for his best boy.