Chapter 5
T oday would normally be a fun day. Even through the dirt and the manure and the hard work, and the aching toe that had gotten ground down by a hoof, Caleb liked working cattle.
Brigit made it hell.
Her voice echoing behind him. Her laughs as she joked around with Farah’s dad. And how did she smell that good when they’d been in the barn half the day running calves? Justin had left an hour ago. His friend’s absence only made Caleb more aware of her.
He adjusted his hat and concentrated on his task. Jesse was manning the hydraulic gate he’d already had to repair twice today. Caleb was recording and giving vaccinations.
He let the last calf go and took his hat off to wipe the dust off his brow.
Farah herded the steer to the proper pasture.
It’d get loaded in the next few weeks and hauled to the sales barn.
He glanced out the open barn doors. The sun was sinking in the horizon, but they’d finished before dark. That was always welcome.
“You earned your money today.” Caleb grinned at Jesse. They’d worked past dark yesterday. Farah’s operation was a little larger, since it was her and her dad running it. With Jesse, they planned to grow it even more.
Caleb experienced a pinch of envy. He’d like to expand his ranch, maybe even pair with a genetics company to raise breeders, but when it was just him, he couldn’t advance in his profession and take on more duties on his ranch. Right now if it failed, it was just him that suffered.
“This shit is unreal.” Jesse stared at Farah as she entered the barn and crossed to where her dad and Brigit were unhooking gates. “I expected more chaos, but it wasn’t bad.”
“Some years, things get exciting, but Grandpa taught me quick to weed out the problem cows. The older cows have enough experience they don’t get worked up. Then the calves don’t get too worried. I’ve had some of these for seven years.”
“What are you going to do with the four in the pen?”
One cow had broken her leg, two hadn’t calved in two years, and one had hoof rot from steeping herself in the spring-fed pond too long. There was always one in the bunch who liked to marinate in the pond until she got sick.
“The hoof rot we can treat. The others…”
Jesse flashed a grin. “From feed to fork?”
“That’s why we don’t name them.” Respect the animal, care for it, but don’t get attached.
He needed to make as much as he could off each head to keep the ranch running.
Grandpa had been savvy about squeezing every penny out of the stock he had, but he hadn’t been as good at growing the ranch.
Caleb tried to keep improving, but he always seemed behind the curve.
“Give me a call when you round ’em up to sell.” Jesse sauntered away.
“Thanks, man.”
Derrick called across the barn. “I’m gonna get grilling. You kids go get cleaned up and come over in forty-five. I know we worked up an appetite.”
Jesse and Farah went with him, leaving Caleb alone with Brigit. Her cheeks were rosy, and her breath puffed out. Once the cows had cleared out, the temperature in the barn had plummeted.
She’d ridden here with Justin and since he was gone, Caleb didn’t look forward to sharing the small cab of his pickup with her. Justin’s house was too small when they were both in it together.
“I can give you a ride to the house to clean up,” he offered. “You’re coming back to eat, right?”
She took off her work gloves. “I don’t know. I hate to keep feeling like I’m intruding.”
She’d gotten along with Farah and Jesse.
Not super friendly, but a step above business relations.
Farah’s dad liked to take everyone under his wing and hadn’t missed the chance to shoot rapid-fire questions at Brigit about their farm and ranch operation.
Even Caleb had been stunned by her knowledge of the operation’s history, its growth, and her family’s plans for expansion.
She didn’t run it, but she’d paid attention her entire life.
She didn’t just do the work and collect an easy paycheck from her kin.
“It’s a tradition to get together after the cattle are done.
” It was like a goodbye to summer. The cows were in their winter pastures closer to home, any fields were hopefully in—though Caleb didn’t have time to grow his own silage to supplement the cattle—and a payday from cattle sales was hopefully soon to come.
“You helped all weekend. Come eat. Unless you have plans.”
Come to think of it, the two weeks she’d been at Justin’s, she hadn’t gone out once. Not with friends, not with her family, not at all. She worked and applied for work.
She grimaced. “My friends have never been to Moore. And I think Oliver got them in the breakup.”
“Ah, it’s like that.” He wanted to ask about her friends from Moore. Didn’t she have people she’d kept in contact with over the years? He lived here, but there were still guys who came back to visit that would hit him up to go out.
Thinking back to when they were kids, he couldn’t come up with a group of girls she’d hung out with. She was friendly with everyone, sometimes painfully so. But many times, she’d formed a trio with him and Justin.
As if answering the questions he didn’t ask, she said, “Pathetic, I know. But I was always nose-deep in a textbook. Socializing wasn’t on my mind.”
Yet she’d managed to have a couple of long-term boyfriends and even get engaged.
He couldn’t be surprised. A tall stunner like her would attract men like flies.
A good analogy, since from what he’d heard about Oliver, the men she’d dated had treated her like shit.
There wasn’t one Justin had approved of.
On top of that, she thought she was pathetic for no longer being around people who made relationships one-sided.
“Being focused isn’t pathetic. And I’m guessing that if the friends prefer Oliver, then you’re better off without them.”
Her smile was slow, and she shook her head. “I never thought about it like that, but…”
He waited for her to finish, but she didn’t. The gravity in her expression prompted him to ask, “But what?”
She shrugged. “They’re nice people, but there was always this subtle undercurrent of competition.
Like when we moved back here, Oliver made me promise not to say anything until he’d landed a job.
When he told people why we’d moved back, he made it sound like he was doing his family friend a solid by working for him in Normandy.
‘Closer to the parents and all that. They’re not getting any younger. ’”
The sarcastic note in her voice reminded him of the old Brigit.
The one who pretended to be the good girl around her mother but cussed at the cattle when they acted stupid and bluntly stated what was on her mind.
Had her cousins ever seen that side of her, or was it just him and Justin? Hell, had Travis?
“I’m sure he thought he was the expert in a lot of things,” he said.
“Well, he can try to impress what’s her name.”
The divorced insurance adjuster he’d been having the affair with. “Better her wasting her time with him than you.”
“Logically I know that, but it still hurts.”
He crossed to her. The dim lights in the barn cast shadows across her face that matched her expression. “I know it does. You trusted someone, and he let you down.”
She didn’t move away. “I moved back to Moore for him.” She screwed her face up.
“Mom didn’t even pester me about it because it seemed like he helped me a lot with school.
” She lowered her voice to mimic Oliver.
“‘We have to save money. Your school costs too much and Dad can use his connections to get me a job. You do your part and get a job in the Twin Cities and I’ll worry about the rest.’” She snorted and looked away, but her eyes shimmered with extra moisture.
“It was his idea to move back but he blamed you?” He didn’t bother mentioning the fact that coming home didn’t equate with failure.
“I kept going to school, so…”
“Bridge.” She lifted her gaze to his. The rim of gold in her blue irises glittered with a sheen of tears. “It’s not who did or didn’t do what, it’s how he made you feel. It was wrong.”
She cocked her head. Her forehead wrinkled like she was fighting to keep the tears from spilling. A sniffle echoed through the barn, but a small smile graced her full lips. “When’d you get so wise?”
She was trying to lighten the mood, but her question only grated on him. His job wasn’t just fighting fires. He was there when bad shit happened to people, regardless of whether they were good or bad. “Hazards of the job, I guess.”
Compassion filled her eyes. “Oh, Caleb. I never think about what you must go through.”
She drifted closer and feathered her fingers down his cheek.
He hadn’t meant to get so deep into the tragedies of his job.
This discussion wasn’t about him, but he’d gone from dealing with his own childhood to bearing witness to life going to hell for others, and except for some counseling through work when a particularly bad incident happened, he had no one to talk to.
“I didn’t, uh…” he said gruffly. “I didn’t mean to get all serious.”
“But what you do is serious. It’s a lot more serious than a cheating ex.” She hadn’t removed her hand, settling her warm palm on his shoulder instead. The brims of their hats nearly touched.
“I deal with those too.” He grinned. This time he was the one trying to lighten the mood.
Because if Brigit didn’t back away, he was going to tilt his head a few inches to the right and try to kiss her.
No matter whether she let him or shunned him, it would ruin him.
“Their fights are Farah’s territory, but one time, a couple crashed while fighting about his affairs and they were still arguing when my crew showed up. ”
Brigit giggled. “Sorry. I know it’s not funny.”
“They were both okay, but her door wouldn’t open and his was pinned against a telephone pole. And they were still screaming at each other.”