Page 1 of The First Day of Breeding Season (Wildfire Ranch #4)
brYNN
The way my heart leaps when I see respected cattle breeder Drew Lowry’s name in my email inbox is so silly. And actually dangerous, because in a few days, I’m going to meet him. When I do, I will have to be completely professional.
From: Drew Lowry [email protected]
To: B. Hughes [email protected]
Subject: Breeding Soundness Exam results attached
Note the youngest bull, Ten Gallon, has a larger than expected scrotal circumference. Good news for his first breeding season.
That’s it. Two sentences and an attachment, which I immediately open and scan.
I wanted to arrive at Wildfire Ranch in time to be there for the veterinarian’s visit, but it conflicted with my school schedule. And I’ve observed these wellness checks before, so I know what happened.
The four bulls that we’ll be turning out into the summer pastures are all healthy. Very…healthy. Good scrotal sac size, excellent samples. No infections.
I tamp down the little rush of awkwardness I feel at reading the report. Over the last four years of school, I’ve heard again and again that it’s normal to have a reaction to words that in other contexts, more human contexts, are deeply private.
But in ranching, they’re not private at all. Breeding is big business in Wyoming, and I want to make my career in it.
So I have to be professional about this report, and I have to be very professional about my soon-to-be summer mentor.
I should never have looked him up. Maybe if I’d stuck to the email correspondence…but even there, he has a certain charisma that seems uniquely Brynn-coded, even though crushing on a much older man does not fit into the Five Year Brynn Plan at all.
My roommate doesn’t get it.
“Oh my God, are you searching that guy on YouTube again?”
Three weeks ago, I only had a vague idea of who Drew Lowry was. A rancher, an icon, a recluse… Way out of my league on every level. I wouldn’t be worthy of his attention.
But then his brother, Dr. Noah Lowry, suggested again that I apply what I’ve learned on their family ranch. It was a suggestion he first made three years ago when I was a freshman and I aced his horticulture class but he knew I was really more interested in large animals.
I wasn’t ready then.
This spring, though…I felt ready to take on a mentorship of that magnitude. I accepted the introduction, and looked more into Drew Lowry, so I could separate legend from reality.
Now I’m an expert on my professor’s older brother, a man of few words who exists in the background of a lot of local content.
The rodeo comes to town? His younger brother Zane is riding, and in the background, Drew Lowry is making a deal.
A local vet is making a PSA about animal vaccinations? Drew Lowry’s herd is featured, with the big, gruff cowboy nodding along sternly.
The national parks rangers highlight the importance of closing gates when back country camping, because local ranchers lease the public lands for summer grazing? There he is again, astride his horse.
I watched that particular clip over and over again.
That’s where we’re going in a few days.
Cheeks flaming, I force my attention away from the memory of his powerful denim-clad thighs as another email pops up, this one a reply to an older chain of messages.
And unlike most of his emails, it contains more than a word or two.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Mentorship
Friday is the first day of breeding season.
If you arrive mid-day Thursday, we’ll be done with most of the chores and Raul can find you a good horse to ride up into the hills.
You excited to camp under the stars? We have a good group of wranglers this year.
Theo and Benji will be the ones you work the closest with.
I’m so excited, I think my heart might bound out of my chest. It’s the longest email he’s ever sent me.
The door to my dorm room swings open, and I look up long enough to see my roommate’s just come back from the shower.
“We’re heading to the food hall,” she says after she gets dressed.
“Okay.” But I sound distracted. I am distracted. “I’ll meet you there.”
I re-read the message. Just a few more days, and then my summer on Wildfire Ranch can begin. I can’t believe it’s come together. When my professor suggested his brother might be willing to mentor me, I had my doubts. But I think I’ve proven to him how seriously I am taking this opportunity.
From: B. Hughes
To: Drew Lowry
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Mentorship
Very excited and grateful for this opportunity. I’ll see you on Thursday.
I have a final exam tomorrow, and I need to finish packing up my entire life. My time at Climax Springs Community College has come to an end, pending the submission of my final cumulative project that I’m doing this summer with the best cattle breeder in all of Wyoming.
Smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, I scroll back in the history of our emails back and forth to the first one.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Mentorship
Noah gave me your email address. Tell me more about your project.
No small talk. He didn’t even sign it. Just all business, right into it.
So I matched his tone and replied with my proposal.
From: B. Hughes
To: Drew Lowry
Subject: Re: Mentorship
My research documentation is attached. My proposal is to shadow you for the summer, creating a comprehensive resource that your ranch will benefit from, the kind of in-depth notetaking that you might not have time for with the rigorous demands of the ranch.
In exchange for that breeding season record, I’ll have an invaluable up-close exposure to the natural cover program you are known for.
Thank you so much for considering this and giving me an opportunity to put my learning into action.
Re-reading my email now that I’ve corresponded with him for a few weeks, I’m embarrassed by how wordy it is. His reply, when he sent it back four days later, was a single word.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Re: Re: Mentorship
Sure
I’m not a dummy. I matched his tone going forward. We had a few off-shoot emails next.
From: B. Hughes
To: Drew Lowry
Subject: Preparations?
Thanks! Anything I need to organize in advance?
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Re: Preparations?
Bring a sleeping bag. We’ll camp in the hills some nights.
From: Drew Lowry
To: B. Hughes
Subject: Important Q
You ride, right?
From: B. Hughes
To: Drew Lowry
Subject: Re: Important Q
I do
He didn’t reply to that one, but another few days went by, and then he replied to my first email again. This time, he had actually read my research document, and he thought I might want to know how about his herd before I arrived.
He was right. I had so many questions, and he answered all of them. Not in many words, but comprehensive enough to let me think I could ask more.
One more exam, and I’ll be able to pepper him with questions in person.
One more exam, and then I’ll be saddling up a horse and riding into the hills, right behind those powerful thighs.
I mean, that professional man who I absolutely do not have an unbearable crush on.
Get it together, Brynn.
I flip over to YouTube. One more re-watch of the summer pasture video. Maybe.
Maybe I’ll make a tab in my Five Year Brynn Plan binder and label it Silly Crush Era . Just something I need to get out of my system before I take the next steps toward the life I’ve always imagined.