Page 17 of Take a Chance (Blue Creek Ranch #1)

I grunted. She wasn’t wrong. Crew wasn’t wrong. I just fucking hated being coddled. I could’ve found a way to start Jaina on my day off. Her being here shouldn’t have meant that something else didn’t get done.

I opened the door and greeted my girl who nickered softly. Then I stepped out of her way and she walked out of the stall, stopping once she was fully in the aisle.

“Oh, right. You don’t know where to go yet. Sorry, girl.” I patted her and led the way to the closest cross-ties.

She snorted, and Wy let out a small giggle.

I didn’t clip her in. There was no need. In the extremely unlikely case of Jaina freaking out and tearing herself off the crossties, she’d cause more damage to herself and the stable than she would if she had the freedom to just move away.

There was no need to tell her to stay, so I went to grab some brushes and tossed one to Wy when I got back. She looked at me with one sarcastic eyebrow up, but started to groom the other side.

“She really is a gorgeous horse, Mal. How long have you had her?”

I smiled as I kept checking every inch of the mare for things I needed to know or treat. “She’s nine this year, so seven years, give or take.”

Wy let out a sound of understanding. “Oh, so you really trained her from the ground up?”

“Yeah. I got her from an auction in Iowa. Dirt cheap, too, because she was a late bloomer.”

“I can’t believe she wasn’t this gorgeous from the start. You’re a pretty girl, aren’t you? Yes you are.” She used her fingers to untangle Jaina’s forelock.

It took me ten more minutes to have her tacked up. I could tell she had lost muscle mass, but that was expected. At least the rescue had plenty of space for the horses to stay active, so there was only so much I had to rebuild.

I brushed back my hair and put my ballcap on, then climbed onto my horse for the first time in… I didn’t even want to think about it.

She seemed just as excited as I was, her ears on a swivel, and snorting softly when Juanpablo brayed loud enough to wake the dead.

“That’s a donkey. You remember, right?” We’d had one on the farm for a while when Jaina was younger. We’d sold him off to a friend whose kid wanted it for 4H. No, that donkey had been nothing like Juanpablo.

As I was about to guide Jaina away from the yard, Wy called out to me. “Hey, take this with you.” She held out a water bottle I could clip onto Jaina’s saddle.

“Shit, I totally forgot. Thanks.”

“No problem. Remember to use your radio if needed.”

I nodded and clicked my tongue. Jaina began to walk, and her familiar gait made me a bit choked up.

As I’d known, the fence was pretty much in a pristine connection. I could only find one spot that needed a bit of fiddling, but that was done easily enough.

I could see the herd in the distance. There weren’t that many of them, and the variety was kind of hilarious.They were all near a little hill, and something about that caught my eye. I climbed back in the saddle and nudged Jaina toward the cows.

I didn’t even need to go up to them when I saw that there was an issue.

Unclipping my radio, I tried to assess the situation. “Malachi to whoever’s listening.”

“Base for Mal, over.” Mike’s voice.

“CH here, what’s going on, Mal?” Crew.

“I’m… shit. In the back paddock. Where there’s the little hill and some rocks?”

“I know the place,” Crew replied.

“The herd is here and the Holstein is stuck lying down. I don’t have rope with me, and I don’t think she likes me near.”

“That’s Queenie. She doesn’t like strangers. I’ll be right there,” Crew replied.

“Okay. Mal out.”

All I could really do was wait, so I stayed on Jaina and moved us away just enough for the cow to relax. Her friends seemed more at ease immediately.

The Highlander looked at me cautiously. Or I think she did. She had too much forelock for me to be sure.

I took the time to assess every cow as I sipped my water, hoping that we weren’t too late.

If a cow got stuck on its side like this, they could fuck up their insides and the muscles on their legs. I could hear her breathing being labored, and that didn’t mean good things.

I took my radio out.

“Mal to Base, over.”

“Base here. How’s she looking?” I could hear the worry in Jenn’s tone.

“Not great. Will know once Crew gets here. There’s a cut on the Hereford’s foreleg that’s a bit close to the knee. Looks swollen.”

“I’ll let our vet know and get him to come in for both of them.”

“Okay. Mal out.”

After maybe ten more agonizing minutes, Jaina looked up from her grazing and soon after I spotted the dust billowing around Crew and Shooter.

I got off the saddle but didn’t approach the cows. Jaina wasn’t interested in the proceedings, so she turned slightly to graze in a better spot.

As soon as Crew got there, he was off the saddle and grabbing a rope.

“Well, shit. That’s not good,” he grunted at the sight.

“Nope.”

“Let me see if I can get her to calm down and roped. Then we can pull her over.” He didn’t like that idea any more than I did—so much could go wrong on top of what was already going to be messy.

I let him go in first and watched as he ever so gently got the cow to relax a little. He hooked a loop around her bottom legs and shook his head.

Going closer, I tried to see what he’d spotted. “What?”

“I don’t think she’s been here for that long, but she’s drooling a lot.”

“Let’s get her turned so she can get up if she’s able,” I stated the obvious.

He nodded solemnly and backed away a couple of steps. Then he waited for me to grab the rope and on a count of three, we ever so gently pulled the cow.

I’d seen several horses that got stuck like this in a stall when they rolled and got their legs too close to the wall to stand up. This cow had laid down on the bottom of the hill with her legs uphill, and had a boulder nearby that gave her absolutely no room to do anything by herself.

As we rolled her, she made these horrible sounds that told me she needed supervision at least.

“Should we get a trailer?” I asked, then nodded toward the Hereford. “She has a cut and a swollen knee. I already called base.”

“Good. And yeah, let me radio Russ.”

The cow got to her shaky as fuck feet and the amount of mucus that was coming out of her nose and mouth was alarming. She did move a bit though, which was better than nothing.

We waited as Crew introduced me to the herd. There was still no talking about Jaina, and it was clear he wanted to open that discussion by the way his gaze flicked to her and then to me when he wasn’t keeping an eye on the herd.

Eventually, I sighed. “Did you pay for her?”

He shook his head. “No. She refused the money, so I paid for Rowdy and made a donation.”

As I’d guessed, then. “Okay. Well I’m giving you gas money. Enough for a full tank on your truck.”

He opened his mouth, then read my expression, and nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

Jaina wandered over to us to see what was going on. I patted her neck and straightened her bridle a little.

“I just realized you ride bitless,” Crew commented, walking closer to check on her.

“Yeah. She had some dental issues about five years ago, so I decided to switch her to bitless. It’s much better for her. Not that I need any tack on her to do our job, you know. It’s just easier to get on top if there’s a saddle.” I chuckled as I fiddled with her mane.

Crew let out an amused sound, then walked back closer to the cow to keep an eye on her.

Eventually, Russ drove to us in a ranch truck with a trailer in tow. When he stopped the truck, a man around forty-five stepped out of the passenger’s side with a telltale bag in his hand.

“Hey, Dr. Matigan. You were close?”

“Yeah, I was at the Triple Cross, just about to leave. What’s happened here?” he asked, and I launched into an explanation.

I also filled him in about the other cow, and we ended up cajoling those two into the trailer. Someone had clearly done a good job with training them a little. I was a bit shocked by how easy it was in the end to get them to move.

Russ and the vet started toward the ranch, which left Crew and I alone together.

“Okay, well I’ll continue to check the rest of the fence,” I said awkwardly, gesturing vaguely at the fence line.

“Okay,” Crew echoed me. He turned away to go to Shooter, but then stopped and turned around again. He chewed on his bottom lip for a second, then said, “Mal, can you give us some credit here?”

I frowned at him. “What?”

“I get that it might not feel real yet, but you and Pay are here now. Jaina is here, too. You can relax a little. You’re not going anywhere.” He didn’t say we were home, but I felt it was implied.

I watched as he got on his horse and started toward wherever Russ and the vet would take the cows for treatment and observation.

Sighing, I turned to Jaina. “You think we’re home?”

She threw her head up and down a couple of times, as if nodding vigorously, and I burst out laughing. Well, then.