Chapter Seventeen #2
The moment he got Captain Barbossa into the pasture with the cattle, the dog started barking like crazy, then ran around in circles as if he’d been wound up like a toy.
The cows stared at the Shepherd, chewing placidly, tails flicking back and forth.
The bull, who usually didn’t do anything interesting, stuck his head down and butted the ground near the dog, which might possibly be considered an act of aggression.
Or his ear itched. It wasn’t like Zero had a lot of experience with this himself.
“That doesn’t seem like a money-winning display of skill,” Zero commented as Tag ducked between the rungs of the fence to join him inside the pasture.
“Give it a minute,” Tag said with a shrug. “This is all new to everyone.”
“When did you get so optimistic?” And philosophical to boot.
“The woman I have my eye on might have given me some encouragement earlier,” he mumbled. “I guess I’m riding a little high. Sue me.”
“As long as you invite me to the wedding,” Zero said with a grin. “It’s all good.”
There was a very long pause that had Zero doing a double take as Tag shifted uncomfortably in the sunlight.
“Well, considering who it is, you might not think so.”
“Sheridan,” Zero guessed as it dawned on him why his friend was acting so weird about it. “It’s barely been a year, Tag. She couldn’t have possibly given you encouragement.”
“I didn’t say she jumped me behind the barn,” Tag countered hotly.
“Encouragement in this case is me seeing that she’s smiling more lately.
That tells me that she’s getting through it.
Maybe there’s hope eventually. That’s all.
And besides, all I care about is if she’s happy.
I hate seeing her so broken like this all the time. ”
You and me both.
This was a situation for another place, another time, when Zero had the mental capacity to sort out how he felt about Tag sniffing around his little sister. Especially with Hunter to consider and the fact Sheridan shouldn’t even be single.
Tag’s announcement had distracted them both from the show going on in the south pasture.
Zero clued in something was happening when one of the cattle let out a rib-shaking moo.
That’s when he realized Captain Barbossa had been dashing in a large circle—around the cows.
Gradually moving them toward the corner of the pasture. Like a genuine herd dog.
“Will you look at that?” Tag breathed, elbowing Zero as if there might be the slightest possibility he hadn’t been paying attention. “He’s doing it. Maybe not exactly like you see on TV, but we can work with this, right?”
“Yeah,” Zero murmured, scared to speak too loudly in case it messed something up.
Particularly his heart. Which seemed to be beating pretty erratically for a number of reasons.
If this actually worked…he hadn’t dared dream he’d eventually be on the other side of this thing called get the ranch in order.
He’d planned for it, sure. But lately that looked like putting one foot in front of the other, never glancing up to see how far he’d gotten because he just… couldn’t.
“We should see how the others do,” Tag suggested, and Zero nodded.
Captain Jack Sparrow joined the party, equally as enthusiastic about being out of his stall.
He was just as messy in his approach as the other Captain, but the dogs worked the cattle pretty well together and didn’t seem overly unhappy about the fact Zero only remembered to give them treats occasionally, as opposed to every time they moved the way Delilah had seemed inclined to do.
It was a start, and Zero had a new respect for Tag’s point earlier about riding high on encouragement that might seem faint to others.
“Should we go for third time’s a charm?” Tag asked after the dogs had successfully moved all three bovines to the east pasture with no help from the humans. Sure, it had taken forty five minutes, but as Tag had suggested, they could work with this.
“Might as well know what we’re dealing with.”
But Will Turner sauntered out of his stall with an attitude Zero recognized a mile away, and it had Not Even stamped all over it.
Elizabeth Swann was a little more grateful to be let loose, but she immediately flopped down on her back in the sawdust, exposing her belly.
For a human to scratch if he recalled Delilah correctly.
Zero rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable.”
“She likes me the best,” Hunter called out from behind him.
He turned to see not only Hunter, but Sheridan gliding quietly behind him as they both entered the barn, Tag bringing up the rear. Zero met his sister’s gaze, a wealth of things passing between them. This was the first time he could remember her coming to the barn since…since.
It was time to stop framing everything as before and after. They could all do with sticking a stake in the ground and saying no more. This could be the first day of moving forward instead of living in the past. That was the kind of thing Sheridan needed him to take the lead on.
“Tag came and got us,” she explained quietly. “Said that today was a big day and we didn’t want to miss it.”
Oh, man. His throat went hot and slick as he registered they’d actually come here for him.
To support him as he took his own steps forward.
He reached out and snagged her hand, squeezing it briefly, unable to find the words.
She squeezed back, and somehow, words didn’t seem all that important at the moment.
Hunter dashed past the adults and slid to the ground to indulge the spoiled Labrador in her shameless tummy scratch-begging. The kid laughed as Elizabeth Swann licked him, staring up at Hunter with soulful dog eyes. Yeah, he got it. He’d lost that one to Hunter.
It didn’t seem so bad, though, as Sheridan gave her son a misty smile, then tilted her head toward Zero to murmur, “Do you believe this?”
“Delilah had been working with them both,” he told her grudgingly as he recalled the many times he’d stumbled over the pair of them together in the barn. And what she’d told him at dinner. “She’s been training Elizabeth Swann to be Hunter’s emotional support dog.”
Whatever that meant.
“What?” Sheridan’s hand flew to her cheek. “Why would she do something like that? Did you ask her to do that?”
“No.” But he should have, judging by the light that had clicked on in both Hunter and Sheridan’s gazes, simply by being in the same space as the dog. “She made that call on her own.”
And he might have made a mistake in forcing her to stop, an admission that came with a renewed spike through the heart. This was all Delilah. She’d been quietly giving him and his family what they actually needed, not what he’d told her they needed.
Will Turner chose that moment to stick his nose in Sheridan’s hand.
She stifled a yelp and then laughed, dragging her hand across the dog’s head, which the German Shepherd leaned into until Sheridan committed to full-on attention.
Within moments, Sheridan crouched down to murmur at the dog, stroking his head as the dog lapped it up.
“I think you’re supposed to give him treats,” Zero commented wryly and held the bag out to Sheridan.
She grinned up at him as she took the bag and his heart nearly burst out of his chest to see her looking so much like herself.
“When did he turn into such a sweet boy?” she asked as the dog wolfed down the treat and then flopped at her feet to gaze at her adoringly, clearly not interested in anyone else in the room.
“I think he prefers women,” Zero said as it clicked why Delilah had always seemed to have such a way with him. “He’s nothing but a big flirt.”
Or he’d been abused by a man at one point, but he kept that to himself. It was enough to know Will Turner’s animosity toward him might have different roots than basic incivility. But that meant he’d probably lost Will Turner to the emotional support bandwagon, too.
Sheridan kept stroking the dog, her smile still intact, and he couldn’t find anything wrong with that. It was a huge shift in his mindset about…well, everything. A good one, though.
Delilah had crashed through his plans, taken his heart hostage, and generally upended his entire life. But instead of thanking her, he’d let her go. That was the mistake.
“Delilah trained him to be more docile,” Tag announced to the room at large. “Just like she trained the Captains to work together, and Elizabeth Swann to lie down any time people are in the room, so Hunter wouldn’t be startled.”
Zero swung around to stare at his friend. “How do you know all of that?”
“I told you.” Tag shrugged. “I watched her train them.”