5. Katie
5
KATIE
“Let’s go,” Dallas says, barely giving me a glance as I grin down at him from atop Scout.
I want to roll my eyes and tell him to lighten up, but I know I was showing off purely to aggravate him.
I mean, how dare he insinuate I can’t do this job? Sure, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve done this kind of work, but I’m sure it’ll come back to me. I spent ninety-five percent of my time outside of school here when I was a teenager. I learned everything there was to learn.
Dallas strides to his bike and swings a leg over it, putting a little more aggression into the kick-start than strictly necessary. He speeds off down the farm track, leaving me in his dust.
I grin. Clearly I’ve got under his skin.
Good, because he got under mine.
I should be nice and act civil, but he’s irritating. He was irritating last night, even when we were destroying my carefully made bed .
He’s a cocky cowboy—he said so himself—and I have no desire for one of them in my life.
I give Scout a nudge with my heels and she trots along the track. I soak in the sunshine as it burns away the morning’s chill. I take in the view and feel like I’m taking my first deep breath in years.
This place feels like home.
Wildflower Ridge always has. It’s the rest of the town I have an issue with.
I catch up with Dallas when he stops to open the first gate. It’s way easier opening and closing gates from horseback than with a motorbike because you don’t have to get on and off all the time.
“Let me get that for you,” I say, guiding Scout into position. Dallas grumbles something too quiet for me to hear. I’m having entirely too much fun pissing him off. “What’s first on the agenda today? Checking the sheep?” I keep my voice bright and cheery. It probably sounds super fake—which it is—but I figure that’ll just annoy Dallas some more.
“Yes,” he says, then exhales a long sigh. “We’ve had a couple lamb already so it’s daily lambing beats from now. Then, we’ll check the Herefords, make sure they have water and everything’s good with them. Those will be your jobs first thing every day. If there’s anything wrong: sheep having trouble, water leaks, whatever, you’ll need to call me.”
“Or, I can fix the issue,” I say.
He eyes me sceptically. He opens his mouth as though he’s going to respond but I cut him off before he gets the chance.
“Look, I know you don’t think much of me, for whatever reason, but you have to trust me. Liv does, otherwise she wouldn’t have given me the job. I know what I’m capable of doing, and I know my limitations. I know when to call for help if I need it. You just need to accept that I’m actually a competent human. If you’re hovering over me every second it’s hardly making your job easier, is it?”
“You’re right,” he says, his voice low and heavy. He crosses his arms over the handlebars of the bike and stares out over the next paddock.
I blink at him, stunned. “Excuse me, could you repeat that?”
He glances sidelong at me, then returns to staring straight ahead. “Seeing you here … it kind of threw me for a loop,” he says and I snort.
“Yeah, wasn’t exactly on my bingo card.”
“I’ve got a lot riding on this job. I can’t screw it up.”
I turn Scout, so I can look directly at Dallas. “How long have you been working here?”
“Six months,” he answers, but doesn’t look my way.
“So long enough to know that Violet and Liv are reasonable, understanding bosses. If you’re a solid worker, with the right attitude, they aren’t going to kick you out on your ass. Especially not with Sadie.”
He sighs and finally turns his head to look at me. “She’s why I need this job so badly. It’s the only place that acknowledges I have a child. There’s no way I can work anywhere else and still be a parent.”
“Is her mum around?” For the first time interacting with him, my voice is tentative. It’s always a weird thing to ask, but the way he’s talking … it makes me think it’s just him and Sadie. I should have waited and asked Olivia later.
He shakes his head. “Long story, but no. It’s just the two of us.”
“You’re lucky to have each other,” I say. He doesn’t respond. “Now, come on. We’ve got a tonne of work to do today.” I kick Scout forward and she follows the track along the side of the paddock, heading for the next gate just over the brow of the hill.
“Hey, Katie,” Dallas calls and I twist in the saddle to face him.
“Yeah?”
“The sheep are that way.” He points in the opposite direction to where I’m heading, a huge grin on his face, then he spins the bike and takes off in that direction.
“Ugh,” I say to no one in particular. “Come on Scout, why’d you set me up?” The horse doesn’t respond, but she willingly turns around and follows Dallas down the track, heading in the right direction.
The sheep are two paddocks over. Little white dots that turn into woolly clouds as we get closer. Dallas takes the left side of the paddock, while I head down the right hand side, sweeping through a gully and up over a ridge, keeping an eye out for any sheep struggling in labour, or any lambs who aren’t being cared for by their mothers. It’s still early in the lambing season, so there aren’t too many. In another month this hillside will be dotted with tiny lambs, bouncing their way around the paddock.
I startle a recent arrival and it races for its mother, immediately going in for a feed, its tiny tail wriggling as it latches on. I grin. Lambs will always be adorable.
I crest the ridge and bring Scout to a stop. A fresh spring breeze is blowing straight into my face, winding its way through my hair. I take a deep breath of the clean air and survey the swaying grass sprawling out before me. This place smells like sunshine and I can’t believe I managed to stay away for so long. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lambs and fresh air, astride Scout, I wonder how I ever made that vow to never come back.
A small movement in the grass catches my eye and I head towards it. A tiny newborn lamb is sprawled in the grass, trying to get up but failing. I glance around, but there’s no mama sheep in the area.
“Hey, it’s okay. I got you,” I murmur, then scoop it into my arms. Its tiny body trembles as I pull it close. It hasn’t even been cleaned properly. Clearly mis-mothered. I wipe the worst of the gunk off, then tuck the tiny lamb into the front of my jacket. Remounting Scout with my new passenger is a little tricky, but I manage without causing harm to any of us.
“Katie?” Dallas calls.
“Over here,” I shout back, turning Scout to head in the direction I can hear the motorbike.
“You all good?” He asks as he zooms up the hill, coming to a stop beside me .
“Yep, just found this little one.” I pull the front of my jacket aside so he can see the little bundle tucked against my chest.
“Its mother?”
I shake my head. “No idea, nothing nearby.”
He looks exceptionally sad for a guy who deals with this kind of thing on a daily basis. “We’d better get her back then,” he says. “Everything else is all good.”
“The Herefords?” I ask, referencing the herd of red and white cattle.
“We’ll get to them later.” He seems really determined to get this lamb safely home.
We ride side by side back across the paddock, Scout walking on a loose rein and Dallas continually trying to avoid driving the motorbike into holes.
“You know,” I say, “if you rode a horse you wouldn’t have to be so careful where you ride it. It’s much more relaxing.”
“We’re supposed to be working. It’s not supposed to be relaxing,” he says, irritation back in his voice.
“It doesn’t have to be misery though,” I say and roll my eyes. “On a horse, you can just let it get on with its thing and not worry about going over a cliff because it has a mind of its own.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly the problem,” he mutters.
“Not a horse guy, huh?” I say. I can feel a smile spreading across my face.
“No,” he says with a scowl.
I’ve annoyed him again with my teasing. It makes me grin wider. I think I’ve found my new favourite hobby.