Chapter 5 #2
“Well, I got the skinny,” Abigail said. “Keep me updated? But be warned, when I get these photos edited and this job is done, I will probably crash for about eighteen hours straight.”
“Noted. I won’t take it personally if I get voice mail.”
“Cool. Tell Uncle Howie I’m praying for him, okay?”
“Will do. Night.”
He ended the call, then sat on the porch for a while longer, kept company by the stars and his own churning thoughts.
Malcolm woke Friday morning to the obnoxious combination of his phone both ringing and vibrating close to his head.
It wasn’t his alarm, because that wasn’t the Lone Ranger theme song.
This was the ranch number, and sure enough, that’s what his phone screen said when he rustled it out from under the pillow.
“Yeah, ‘lo?” he said.
“Malcolm, sorry to call so early,” Jesse Knox replied. “We have a minor emergency here at the ranch, and I’m hoping you can come up this morning and take a look at it.”
“Um.” He had a job fixing some bathroom grout at the Baker place, but the stress in Jesse’s voice suggested to Malcolm that he was about to reschedule. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Colt stepped in a big puddle over by the main barn fence. Might be a leak in the water line to the watering tanks. No one reported it last night, so we’re losing a lot of water, and we can’t keep pressure to the rest of the tanks along that line.”
“Got it.” Those water tanks kept the cattle hydrated, and considering how much water it took to feed even a single bull, the ranch couldn’t afford to water the pasture and not the herd. “Listen, I can be up there in about forty minutes. Probably need to dig down to the line.”
“We’ll have a shovel waiting.”
“All right, see you in a bit.”
Malcolm groaned as he climbed out of the camper’s bed and into the tiny bathroom to wash his face.
His phone said it was six-oh-nine, and the Baker job wasn’t until nine-thirty.
There was a tiny chance he could fix the water leak at the ranch and still make the Baker job.
No way to know until he got up there and dug down to the pipe.
After getting dressed, he grabbed an energy drink and a protein bar, and he headed out to his truck.
A light was on upstairs in Melissa’s room, probably rousing herself before waking the rest of her herd.
He sent a quick text about heading out for the emergency, and that he’d try to see everyone at dinner.
Jesse was waiting for him when he parked by the main barn, and he waited patiently while Malcolm gathered a few tools from his pickup, including a pair of rain boots.
If he was gonna be tromping around in a mud puddle, he wasn’t going home with soaked shoes.
Even with the barn casting some shadows, Malcolm spotted the puddle as soon as they turned the corner.
About the size of a bathtub, it spread out from the fence near one of the watering tanks.
It wasn’t bubbling, though, which meant a smaller, slower leak.
“Already hit the shut-off valve to this line,” Jesse said.
“Good man.” That would have been Malcolm’s first ask. “I’m gonna expose the pipe and get the mud out of the way. Then we can turn the water back on and see if I can spot where the leak is.”
“So, you think this will be a quick repair?”
“Should be. The system isn’t that old, so I can’t see it breaking down already.”
“Great.”
Malcolm got to work digging through the mud to the pipe, which was shallow buried and easy to find. He waved hello to the other ranch hands who passed on their way to daily chores, friendly with everyone who worked here so far. He was wiping his dirty hands on a rag when Jake trotted over.
“Hey, man,” Jake said. “I didn’t expect to see you up here today.”
“Didn’t expect to be here today.”
“How’s Howie doing? Any updates?”
“Not really. Holding on and grumpy about it, but I think he’s happy to have Iggy back in town.”
“That’s right, you picked up his nephew at the airport. What’s he like?”
Malcolm didn’t have the time, and this wasn’t the place to say everything he could say about Iggy Donohue.
And Jake didn’t know anything about the full history of Malcolm and Iggy’s high school relationship.
“He’s a professional bartender, if you can believe that, and he helped out at the saloon last night. ”
“Really?” Jake crossed his arms. “He going to stick around?”
“Dunno.” He had the pipe clear and needed to turn the water back on. Jesse had wandered off to speak to another ranch hand at the far end of the fence, but Malcolm didn’t want to get Jake in trouble if he had other chores to get to. “You got some free time?”
“A little time, yeah.”
“Cool. The main water valve is in the barn. Turn the water on for me, and then I’ll tell you what Iggy can do with a bottle of Malibu.”
Jake tossed him an intrigued look over his shoulder as he turned toward the barn. “Are we talking drink mixers or something kinky?”
“Go hit the valve and you’ll find out.” Malcolm smirked as Jake scooted off, grateful for his friend, but uncertain what he was ready to tell him.
Now was not the time or place, especially when he had so much to sort out with Iggy.
But he could definitely tell Jake about Iggy’s bottle flipping tricks, which would be making the gossip rounds by noon today anyway.
The rest about Iggy…those were secrets for another day.