Page 12 of Roots of Redemption (Hicks Creek #4)

Chapter Eight

Wade

T he kitchen is already alive with the sounds of breakfast when I step inside, the smell of coffee and bacon hitting me like it always does.

Mom is bustling around, her apron tied neatly around her waist, moving between the stove and the counter with the efficiency of someone who’s done this a thousand times.

She’s humming under her breath some old country tune that’s been stuck in her head for days.

I’ve been up all night again, doing as much research as I can and watching the cattle through the night.

I started doing herd checks throughout the night; every few hours, I’ll walk through the barn and check the quarantined ones.

I need to do something, because sleep isn’t going to come to me until I’m able to figure this out.

“Three more dead in the middle of the night,” I say.

Dad is at the head of the table, his usual spot, with a newspaper folded neatly in front of him.

He’s not reading it, though—just sipping his coffee and surveying the room like a general overseeing his troops.

Caleb and a few of the ranch hands are already seated, plates piled high with eggs, bacon, and biscuits.

The clink of forks against plates and the low murmur of conversation fills the air.

“We don’t talk about ranch work until we’ve properly greeted each other,” Mom scolds me. “You weren’t born in a barn, Wade. Show your manners.”

I smile. “Morning,” I say, grabbing a mug from the cabinet and pouring myself some coffee.

“Morning, son,” Dad replies, nodding at me. His voice carries that gravelly tone that makes everything he says sound like it’s carved in stone.

“Morning, Wade,” Mom chimes in, glancing over her shoulder with a smile. “There’s plenty of food. Sit yourself down.”

“I don’t have time to eat, Mama. There’s too much to do. I need to get back out…”

“I said, sit yourself down,” she says as she cocks an eyebrow at me.

I let out a long sigh and nod as she puts a plate of food in front of me.

Mama takes a lot of pride in cooking for those that she loves, and unless you’re sick with a stomach virus or something, you don’t skip a meal that she made.

One of the rules that’s always been enforced on this ranch is that you will sit down at the table for three meals a day regardless of what’s going on.

I take a seat next to Caleb, who’s already halfway through his second biscuit.

He’s got that perpetual grin on his face, the one that makes you wonder if he’s always up to something.

It’s taking everything in me not to shovel all this food down as quickly as possible, but I know Mama will get onto me if I do that.

“What’s on the agenda today?” I ask, grabbing a biscuit and slathering it with butter and honey.

“For you, it’s figuring out what’s making the cattle sick. You need to do whatever Doc Lucy tells you to do,” Dad says, setting his coffee down. “The rest of us will go back through our outbreak protocols to see if we missed something.”

“We checked all of it already,” Jared interjects.

“Well, we still got sick cattle, so we’re going to figure this out, ya hear?” Dad snaps back.

“Benny and Tommy will be checking the herds, fixing fences, making sure this place doesn’t fall apart. Jared, Caleb, and me will be going through the protocols with a fine-toothed comb.”

“Speaking of the herds,” Tommy pipes up, “What are your thoughts on the fancy doctor?”

Dad raises an eyebrow. “Fancy doctor?”

“Yeah,” Caleb says, leaning back in his chair. “Sutton Bishop. She’s staying in the guest house.”

My kid has the same set of brass balls I did as a teenager. He knows how Dad feels about the Bishop name, and he says it loud and proudly like it wasn’t anything. He’s testing the old man .

“You let a Bishop on this property?” He growls.

It hangs in the air like a thundercloud. I glance at Dad, watching his eyes narrow and his jaw tighten. But before he can say anything, Mom steps in, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder.

“Sutton’s here?” she says, her voice soft and full of something I can’t quite place. “Oh, that sweet girl. I’ll have to bring her some food.”

“You won’t bring her nothing. That damn Frank—”

“You will not curse in my kitchen,” Mama says quickly.

Daddy’s eyes go wide before they narrow and he sits down.

“That Frank Bishop is trying to steal from us again, no doubt. Sending his daughter over here to spy.”

“That girl is one of the best bovine research veterinarians in the world, and she has the awards to prove it,” Mama says back to him.

“Doc Lucy asked her to help the other ranches,” Caleb added quickly. “And she and Mr. Frank haven’t spoken in five years or more.”

I cock my head and glance back at my son. How does he know that? Seems like Sutton is more like us than I realized. Daddy and Frank haven’t spoken in fifteen years; he and Sutton could at least agree on that.

“Sweet girl?” Jared says, grinning. “You mean the one who used to outshoot all of us at target practice?”

Mom chuckles, brushing off his comment. “She’d run circles around everyone when it came to bailing hay, too.

Feisty one, she is. I hope everyone’s being welcoming to her.

And if anyone can figure out what’s going on with the cattle, it’s her.

That child has always had a sixth sense when it came to animals.

Could diagnose a cattle or a horse before the vet even made it out to the farm.

Ol’ Doc Henry used to say she was gifted. ”

Before Doc Lucy took over the veterinary care of Hicks Creek, her dad was the trusted vet in town.

Dad doesn’t say anything; he just grunts and takes another sip of his coffee. The tension in his shoulders is obvious, but Mom keeps her hand there reassuringly.

The conversation shifts to other topics—talk about the weather and if it could be the culprit for the outbreak, and whatever crazy conspiracy theory Jared comes up with as to why the cattle are sick, and soon, everyone’s finishing up their plates and getting ready to head out.

Too stressed to actually eat anything, I barely touched the food on my plate.

Chairs scrape against the floor as we all stand, the clatter of dishes being cleared away adding to the morning symphony.

Outside, the sun is just starting to climb higher, casting long shadows across the yard. I’m heading toward the barn when I hear Dad’s voice behind me.

“Wade.”

I turn to see him walking toward me, his hat pulled low over his eyes.

“Yeah?” I ask, slowing my pace.

He falls into step beside me, his hands tucked into his pockets. “Do you trust her?”

I know what he means without asking. I shrug, keeping my eyes on the path ahead.

“If you’d have asked me this yesterday when she first got here, I’d have told ya no.

Trusting someone who could turn their back on their family and their duty…

that’s a tough sell. I don’t know, Pops.

Did you know that old coot turned his back on her?

Disowned her? I have to believe that’s why she left and stayed away this long. ”

He chuffs, a sound that’s half laugh, half scoff. “I didn’t know, but I ain’t surprised. That man ain’t nothing but a cantankerous asshole.”

Dad shakes his head as he walks away. If Bishop disowned his own daughter, the fact that she came back here to help him and Hicks Creek speaks volumes about her and her character.

She was focused and worked really hard to get answers for us.

And most people, especially one that’s supposed to have a rivalry with my family, wouldn’t have done that.

She could have told Doc Lucy she wouldn’t come to our ranch, but she didn’t.

Maybe I’ve been looking at Sutton Bishop all wrong.

I’m still distracted by thoughts of her when I reach the barn. The familiar smell of hay and leather greets me, grounding me for a moment. But then I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.

It’s Sutton. She’s jogging down the trail that runs along the edge of the property, her ponytail swinging with each step. She’s wearing a fitted tank top and running shorts, her skin glistening with sweat in the morning sun.

I chuckle to myself. This girl used to despise running, but it seems she’s enjoying it now. Her strides are so smooth, so purposeful. The determination in her expression is like she’s running toward something, or maybe away from it. There’s something different about her.

I lean against the barn door, watching her without meaning to. There’s a grace to her movements, a confidence that’s hard to ignore. My chest tightens, and I tell myself it’s just the sight of someone so familiar in a place that’s been full of nothing but problems lately.

But deep down, I know that’s not it. Not entirely.

She slows as she nears the barn, her breathing heavy but even. When she glances up and sees me, her steps falter for just a second before she recovers.

“Morning,” she says, her voice a little breathless.

“Morning,” I reply, pushing off the doorframe. “Someone chasing you?”

She shakes her head and brushes a stray strand of hair from her face. “Needed to clear my head.”

I nod, not sure what to say. The air is charged with something I can’t quite name. Finally, she gives me a small smile and continues on her way, her pace picking up as she disappears down the trail.

I watch her until she’s out of sight, the image of her burned into my mind. With a sigh, I turn back to the barn, trying to shake the image out of my head. Momentary distraction of something good, but I need to go back into the quarantine area to check if we’ve lost any more cattle.

I can only afford a few minutes off from the bigger problem here. I let out a sigh as I turn around to head into the barn.

Benny throws a handkerchief at me. “Maybe you should clean that drool up there, boss,” he roars with laughter.

I roll my eyes and keep moving. Caleb is saddling up a horse.

“Caleb, what are you doing? The bus will be here in twenty minutes.”

“I told Jared I’d saddle up Johnny. For whatever reason, he does better for me.”

“That’s because Jared doesn’t know how to saddle them up right and won’t listen to anyone about it,” Tommy interjects as he shakes his head. “He gets thrown off one too many times, maybe he’ll listen.”

“Maybe,” I chuckle. “Don’t be late for that bus, Caleb.”

“I still think I could be homeschooled.”

“We’ve been through this. I don’t have the time.”

“It’s all online, pops. I could be done with classes before noon and then be helping on the farm.”

With the cattle dying off, we can’t afford another ranch hand.

We’re struggling to pay the ones we got as it is.

We’ve had to cut into our savings a lot with all the medical expenses we’ve incurred.

Fifteen dead cows mean we lost at least fifteen thousand dollars in sales.

We’re a diversified farm, which means we have dairy and beef cattle, and our milk production and sales have also taken a hit.

Unless Sutton can figure this out, we’ll probably lose way more than we could ever make this year.

I had stayed home to work the ranch, but I also took classes in order to help the ranch move into the next century. I’d been able to use that to do some consulting and bring in a little extra cash for expenses. But even that isn’t paying the bills in the ways I would like.

Without cattle to sell, it’s going to be a rough winter.

I can only keep the bank at bay for so long, but I also know that we’re not the only ranch having the same issues.

“Did you check on your guest and make sure she had everything she needed?”

“Yes, sir, she’s all taken care of. She has my phone number to text me, too. Grandma said she’d check on her throughout the day. Doc Sutton told me that I can do some checks with her today after school if you’re okay with it.”

“Checks?”

“House calls, herd checks. I woke up early to finish my chores, and I’ll have my homework done, too. Can I go with her?”

I stare back at him in shock. Caleb is a friendly kid, but he’s never really gone out of his way to be friendly to women.

He’s kind of shy around them, honestly. I was shocked when he introduced himself to Sutton, but his wanting to go with her to do vet work is also surprising.

I hesitate for a moment, eyeing him carefully.

Did she only ask him to go with her to be nice?

“I’ll talk to her and make sure it’s okay.”

“She said it was.” He shrugs. “I want to learn as much as I can from her, Dad. I did some research on her, and she’s the real deal.

She’s saved two ranching communities by pinpointing a bacterium that was growing in the soil and then some chemicals in the cattle’s drinking water.

Someone from Hicks Creek did that, can you believe it? ”

I nod slowly.

Part of the reason I couldn’t sleep last night was because I also researched her for most of the night. Her accomplishments are nothing short of incredible. I remember she got in a lot of trouble growing up for not getting good grades, but she’s way smarter than she ever let on.

“We’ll talk about it when you get home. Don’t miss that bus!”

“Yes, sir!” he calls over his shoulder as he runs toward the house.

Caleb seems to have the utmost faith in her, and he’s usually pretty good about reading people. I used to think he got that trait from me, but maybe I’m not as good as I thought because I seemed to have pegged Sutton Bishop completely wrong.