Page 24 of His Country
It wasn’t that Ethanwasn’tbusy, the man still ran himself ragged with all his patients and then his extra curriculars. Days would sometimes go by without a trace of the willowy vet. But then he’d show up again, smile in in place and the faint smell of cigarettes clinging to his clothes.
Winter was coming quick, and the days shortened. The daily chores changed, small things they didn’t have time to get to in the summer were moving to the top of the list. Aiden steadfastly refused to help Isaac fix the goat pens, making them bigger to prepare for a larger herd next year. He flipped the young man off when he asked. Ethan had laughed, offering himself up in Aiden’s stead.
Things like fixing the barn roof, checking fields, and fencing, reinforcing storage silos, and making repairs took precedence. Aiden’s hands ached from the force of a hammer vibrating up his palms, and he missed his long days out in the back country.The quiet lowing of cows, bugs buzzing around their legs as they stomped in the long grass. Even the snakes and spiders skittering out of his way into the brush. Winter was beautiful, but it couldn’t compare to the freedom of the gentler months.
Aiden was in the chicken coop, swearing up a storm. The rats had managed to chew through the wire, again, and they were losing chicks and feed to the skittery assholes.
“And where were you?” he asked Sugar accusingly.
She stared back at him balefully.Rats are the barn cat’s department.
“Always with the excuses,” he mumbled, wondering just where in the hell the barn cats were anyway. The fluffy things always managed to be underfoot when he was trying to get things done.
“One job. They have one job.” He pulled some wire over the opening and debated on shoving the cats into one of the rat’s little hidey holes.
Isaac came by with a tool belt low on his hips. He was covered in grease. Allegedly, the PTO on the tractor popped a belt but Aiden suspected the man was napping under the mower. Again.
“This is because you feed those fuckers!” he yelled.
“Aw c’mon,” Isaac sung out, arms crossing over his chest. “Can you say no to their little mews?”
“Yes!”
“Dog person.” He threw it like an insult, laughing at Aiden spluttering behind him as he walked away.
“I like cats that do their job,” he seethed.
Once he got the chicken coop up to snuff, he ducked out from under the low structure ignoring the flapping of wings. The old rooster watched him, his waddle wobbling under his chin. Beady little eyes took Aiden in, ready to step in and defend his harem from a fully grown man but unable to fight off some rodents.
“Just watch it old man,” he warned. “Come at me and I’ll turn you into nuggets.”
“You won’t,” Ethan challenged him as he walked up, hands full of a travel thermos of coffee. Aiden reached for it gratefully, popping the lid and sipping the bitter drink. It was garbage. Carol made some good food, and better hooch, but she couldn’t brew coffee to save her life. Still, it was hot and caffeinated.
“He’s just lucky the Patron Saint of Assholes came by.”
Ethan raised a brow, laughing into his coffee. “Is that what I am?”
“Apparently.”
They sipped their coffee as Aiden went over the rest of his to do list for the day. Sugar trotted up, nudging her head against Ethan until he caved to her begging and scratched her ears. She had taken to the vet, excitedly jumping up when she heard his truck rumbling up the drive. Sugar, and by extension Aiden, knew he was coming before anyone else.
“How was that mare?”
Ethan had been out all night with a bad birth. He’d returned hollow eyed and chewing his lip like he wanted to smoke.
Ethan grimaced. “Breach. Ripped her up.”
“Foal?”
“Big as a tank.” Ethan shook his head. “Mare might be ok. She’s a fighter.”
Aiden liked breeding horses, but he hated the birth. Maybe it was a lousy male trait, but it scared the hell out of him. He had almost lost his dinner when Eagle was born, and he slipped out of his dam as easy as hot butter.
Ethan was a good vet. When you worked as a ranch vet you didn’t get a lot of the fancy equipment the bigger vets did in the city. There was a lot of guess work, a lot of holding things together with ductape and prayers. Ethan was young, but his reputation was only growing. It was a dirty job with shit pay andworse hours, but Ethan seemed to like it. And he was obviously good at it.
“The owner’s kid had a tortoise,” Ethan said out of nowhere, nails tapping on his mug. “It was sick. I haven’t touched a reptile since school, but I told him I’d try. Saved his life.” His big brown eyes were sparkling. Ethan had gone from being elbow deep in a ripped open, hemorrhaging horse to delicately treating a kid’s pet tortoise in the span of thirty minutes.
“Well shit,” Aiden drawled out the ‘i’ smiling into the heat coming off his coffee. “I didn’t know I was in the presence of a bonafide hero.”