Chapter Two #2
Bulls lived happily together during the rest of the year, but during the breeding season when they had their cows with them, they would bellow at one another across pastures, one guy warning the other off.
They sometimes even went through fences to fight.
It was dangerous breaking them up and a pain getting them back where they belonged.
Some bulls were mellow, though, and preferred to just take their cows and leave.
Once a bull hit three years old, he might get harder to handle and more dangerous to be around. Most bulls were sold at the three- to four-year mark. Some bulls, though, were sweethearts their entire lives, but were still not to be trusted during breeding season. Those hormones.
Becket couldn’t help chuckling at his thoughts. Humans were not so different, were they?
It was therefore important to regularly check on the bulls to make sure they were healthy and that they were still in the pastures they were supposed to be in.
“Coop,” Hayden called out and moved closer to their younger brother. “The fences adjacent to the Higgins Ranch—those were checked? I don’t want to give Higgins another chance to accuse us of stealing his cattle.”
“Yep,” Cooper said. “Becket and I checked it yesterday.”
“Becket?” Willow asked as her horse trotted closer to him. “Why are you so quiet? We missed you at lunchtime.”
Becket looked away. “I had something to do in town.” His sister had an uncanny way of knowing what they were thinking.
Fey, like their grandmother, their mother called it.
Cooper had it too, although he focused on animals.
If there was a stray anywhere close by, it would find its way to Cooper’s house on the ranch.
Recently Luke, Hayden’s son, had also seemed to have a sixth sense about things.
It was disconcerting, to say the least. When he was trying to keep something to himself Becket took great care not to look them in the eye and not to react to anything they said.
“Like visiting the lovely Ellie Campbell in her yarn shop, I’ve been told,” Willow chuckled.
Becket whipped his head around. “How on earth…?”
Willow grinned. “Gotcha! I heard about it minutes after you left the shop. From none other than Janice O’Sullivan, the town matchmaker. Rumor has it, you held her in your arms for quite some time. I was wondering how that happened?”
Becket opened and closed his mouth a few times. “People should mind their own damn business.”
Her eyes widened. “You like Ellie, don’t you?”
Becket swore under his breath. “Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t even know her. She was on a ladder that wasn’t very stable. It was lucky I was there to catch her. She would’ve hurt herself otherwise.”
Hayden chuckled. “Of course you had to catch her. Chivalrous as always.”
“She’s very pretty,” Cooper said.
“How do you know?” slipped out before Becket could stop himself.
“I’ve got eyes,” Cooper grinned. “She attended Hayden and Laura’s wedding.”
“Yes, I know, I just didn’t know…” Damn, he’d said way too much.
Willow’s eyes were twinkling. “As I’ve said, you like her. So did you make a date with her to take her to the outdoor music festival Friday night?”
“No, I’m taking Roxy,” Becket said.
“Who’s Roxy?” Hayden asked.
“A new nurse. I met her in Grey’s Saloon last Friday.”
Cooper shook his head. “Do you even know what Roxy’s surname is?”
“Come on, Brandy, let’s go,” Becket said to his horse instead of answering his brother. Brandy was happy to oblige and galloped away.
No, he didn’t know what Roxy’s surname was and quite frankly he didn’t care.
The moment she’d laid eyes on him Friday night, she’d made it clear she was available.
When she’d asked him to pick her up for the festival, he’d agreed, thinking it was probably time to go on a date again.
He’d been behaving himself for a while now.
But that was before Ellie Campbell had fallen into his arms. Now all he could think about was her.
“So,” Willow said, coming up behind him. “When are you going to tell Hayden you’d rather spend time doing your illustrations than working on the ranch?”
Stunned, Becket shook his head. “This still freaks me out. You knowing every damn thing.”
Willow sobered. “I know, I’m sorry. But I hate seeing you like this. You only come alive when you’re sketching; you know that? And you’ve been doing so well.”
“How do you know?” Of course she’d know.
“I follow you on social media.”
“I use a pseudonym; how could you possibly have known it’s me?”
“I recognized your style. And of course, your dogs. And the name, ET Beck—not a very original anagram, is it?”
He shrugged. Nobody was supposed to know it was him. “You’re the well-known artist in the family. Me? I just doodle.”
“You know that’s not true! Becket, I wasn’t going to say anything because I know how you hate it when I know what’s going on in your life, but lately your followers are going crazy over your illustrations of the dogs in your life with your witty words.
You should spend more time doing that. How are sales going? ”
“Surprisingly good.”
“It’s just a pity you don’t put your own name to it.”
“It’s complicated, you know that as well as I do. I’m needed on the ranch and it’s fine. Besides, sketching is just a hobby, something I do on weekends or in the evenings.”
“It could be so much more and you know it,” Willow said.
“Life is short, bro. Don’t waste it on doing things that don’t make your soul happy.
Also,” she said as she turned her horse around, “don’t waste time with women you don’t even like.
Ellie is different, I like her. She’s got spunk and brains.
She’s also going to be at the outdoor festival on Friday. ”
As Willow’s horse trotted away, Becket shook his head. His sister’s uncanny way of just knowing what went on in their lives didn’t freak him out quite the way it used to when they were little, but he was still wary around her.
What was more, what Willow didn’t just know, she found out through the town gossip mill, lately run by Aurelia Hill and her new friends. Apparently, the hardware store was the center of the gossip mill these days, and minutes after anything happened, everyone knew about it.
Staring out over the pasture in front of him, he sighed. He liked the ranch, he enjoyed doing the work, but yeah, it wasn’t his first love. It had taken him a long time to be honest with himself about that.
Ranching wasn’t the reason he couldn’t wait to get up in the morning.
His art was the one thing that had always made him come alive.
Ever since he could remember, he’d been doodling, creating cartoon images of things on the ranch.
He’d never thought of himself as a serious artist, though.
He didn’t have any formal training; he simply did what came naturally.
At some point he’d decided to share sketches of his dogs, along with a simple line or two of their ‘thoughts’—that were, of course, his thoughts—on Instagram.
To his surprise people seemed to like what he was doing.
Very quickly he’d received requests to buy his work and commissions to do sketches of other dogs.
He loved doing that, but with the ranch work, he had a hard time keeping up with the demand.
As for telling Hayden? There was no way he could do that. They were brought up to be stewards of this land. It was a privilege he didn’t take lightly. Ranch work was hard and never eased up, not even during winter. Now that only four of them were left, he had no choice but to do his share and more.
With a deep sigh, Becket shook his head.
On the night Walker had died, he’d been staring out of the car window, thinking about how and when he could tell Hayden he wanted to concentrate on his art.
If he’d been paying attention, if he hadn’t been so lost in thought, so busy with his own ‘problems,’ maybe he could’ve grabbed Walker’s sleeve in time, stopped him from being flung out into the night.
It was a regret he’d live with for the rest of his life.
An ache grabbed him around the throat as it usually did when he thought of Walker. It was his fault his brother died, and as a consequence he could never stop working on the ranch, even if he’d wanted to spend more time on his art.
So, no, as much he wanted to, there was no way he could ever tell his brothers he’d rather stay at home and sketch his dogs. It wasn’t hard to imagine the look they’d have on their faces.