Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Waffles are just pancakes that are ribbed for your pleasure.
—Magnolia to Beau
MAGNOLIA
Beau:
Come to Denver’s ranch if you get bored today. That’s where I’ll be.
I’d been staring at that text for the last two hours.
I’d intended to spend the day being productive.
Saturdays were usually reserved for getting stuff ready for the week.
Laundry. Food shopping. Rest and recovery.
I should be at the grocery store buying healthy snacks for Iris’ lunch next week, and instead I was staring at the phone that was still lit up on my table, allowing Iris to binge-watch the Shark Week episodes on The Animal Planet channel.
She was having the time of her life, but she’d stopped to ask me about Beau twice today.
And each time, I’d said the same thing: he’s busy.
Except, he wasn’t, was he?
He’d invited us out.
“Iris?”
She looked up from her episode about nurse sharks.
“Yes?” she signed.
She’d been speaking on and off today.
Several times she’d asked me about Beau, and I hadn’t been paying attention to her hands so she’d been forced to speak.
Maybe I should do that more often…
It might encourage her to speak more.
“Do you want to go to Beau’s friend’s ranch and see Beau?”
Iris was off the couch and standing by the front door in the next second.
I eyed her bright pink Crocs and off-white sweatsuit set.
“We’ll probably have to change into something a little…darker,” I suggested. “We don’t want to get those filthy.”
She walked to her room and started to yank out every piece of clothing in her dresser. “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
She paused and looked over her shoulder at me, waiting.
“Jeans,” I said. “With maybe some leggings underneath since it’s pretty cold out today.”
She pulled out a white pair of leggings, and I chose to let it happen.
Her black glitter jeans were next, and again I didn’t argue, even though they were the nicest that she owned.
I walked to her closet and pulled out the little Carhartt jacket that had shown up in her cubby one day a couple of months ago. No one had claimed the jacket, nor admitted that it was a gift, but I knew. Beau had bought it for her. It was pink and represented everything that Iris loved.
She may not outright tell you that pink was her favorite color, but there were definitely signs.
She slipped everything on, leaving the jacket for when we got to Denver’s place, and headed to the front door where her cowgirl boots—the ones she wore to every one of my games—waited.
She slipped her feet into them and then pushed open the door.
“Wait, wait.”
She looked at me impatiently.
“I have to get dressed, too!”
She crossed her arms and all but glared at me.
My lips twitching, I hurried from the room and got dressed in leggings, overalls, and my least favorite sweatshirt. When I got back, Iris was tapping her foot and checking the time on her watch.
A watch that, subsequently, Beau had also purchased for her.
He’d told me a couple of weeks ago that Lysander, his brother, had loved knowing what time it was at any moment. That a watch had really helped him.
Iris not only loved it, but she liked to tell me what time it was whenever she thought I might want to know.
“Can we go?”
I loved that she only spoke with me to give me sass.
That’s my girl.
So much like her mother that it hurt.
The drive to Denver and Holly’s place took us nearly twenty minutes, mostly because I had a little girl in the back seat who demanded that I stop every time that we saw a cow she thought was cool.
Luckily, most of them were boring black or reddish brown, and that didn’t interest her as much.
But man, oh man, when we saw a black and white one…
We arrived at the ranch in time to see Holly walking across the driveway with what looked like a pair of pliers and green rubber bands in her hand.
“Hey!” I called. “Where should I park?”
She gestured behind her where there was a line of trucks covered in dirt. “Over there is perfect!”
I parked, and Iris got out, immediately splashing in the mud with her boots.
I sighed as mud splashed up the length of her pants.
I expected her to flip out, because normally she didn’t do mud whatsoever, but ranch mud seemed to be okay. Apparently, it was only playground mud that did her in.
“Where is everyone?”
“The girls are separating babies from mamas.” She pointed to the far pasture where I could just see a couple of blonde heads bopping around with a couple of men on horseback. “Beau and Denver are leading the stray cows they didn’t bring in yesterday from public land.”
“Ahh,” I said.
“Goats!” Iris whispered.
I looked over to the goats and said, “They’re adorable.”
“And about to get castrated.” She held up the pliers. “Want to come watch?”
Wholly curious, I gestured at Iris and said, “Do you want to go watch the goats?”
Her answer was to start walking toward them.
“We don’t usually do goats,” she said. “But the girls are doing FFA—Future Farmers of America—next year, and they want to breed their own goats to show. We talked about doing cows, but that’s just not something we’re altogether ready to deal with.
Raising cows to eat, and then raising cows to show, are two completely different ball games. ”
“If you’re wanting to breed them then…”
“Why am I castrating them?” she asked as she led me into the gate with the goats.
“Because there are a few we’re not interested in passing their genetics down.
These two are also the ones that we’re going to show next year, and they’re castrated so they’re easier to show… plus they won’t smell like death.”
“They smell?”
“Bucks—male goats—usually do this thing called ‘buck cologne.’”
“It’s when the male goats urinate on their faces,” Iris informed me.
“Exactly right.” Holly smiled.
Holly was the second veterinarian at Boone’s practice in town. She’d graduated not too long ago, according to Beau, and was really good at her job.
I got to see that firsthand as she banded all but one male goat over the next thirty minutes.
“So,” I said as I watched the poor goat’s balls in front of me. “What happens next? I mean, logically, I know what will happen. But seeing and knowing are two different things…”
“They’ll lose blood flow. Probably fall off in about four to eight weeks,” she answered.
“Interesting,” I said as I eyed the bands. “Let me see one of those.”
She handed me a few bands.
I held out my hand for the pliers next when the bands didn’t stretch at all.
She handed those over next.
“Do you think this would fit around a man’s…” I trailed off, letting her fill in the blank.
She nodded. “Oh, absolutely. Did you see the size of that goat’s balls? I should’ve done this weeks ago, to be honest. I almost waited too long. Another week and I would’ve been doing surgery on them all.”
Iris made her way through all the goats, looking but not touching.
She stopped in front of the smallest of the three. “Boer goats are generally the ones that are shown.”
“Yes,” Holly said. “Do you know why?”
“Because they’re the gold standard for meat production,” she answered.
“That’s right.” Holly smiled.
Just as Holly said that, her eyes caught on something over my shoulder.
When I turned, it was to find two men on horseback topping the hill, and several cows running in front of them.
“Whoa,” Iris breathed.
“Stay here,” I said when Holly exited the pen and started rushing toward the far-off pasture where the girls were at.
Iris climbed onto the fence so she could get a better look, and I stood next to her, my eyes taking in the show.
Beau and Denver looked like they did this every day.
Beau looked like he did this for a living.
He rode the horse—which was so freakin’ beautiful—like he was born to do it.
And the black baseball cap now turned around facing backward on his head?
I hadn’t realized that I had a thing for men who wore baseball caps but there I was, practically panting over him.
“Beau!” Iris called.
Beau didn’t hear, his mind preoccupied with trying to keep the cows from running every which way but the way he wanted them to go.
His muscled thighs controlled the horse under him expertly, and I couldn’t help but be in a sort of awe as the horse responded practically without him having to tell her what to do.
It was obvious that she was highly trained.
A rough wind tore through the area, whipping my hair this way and that as we continued to watch Beau and Denver get the cows into the pen.
Two dogs came out of nowhere and the process immediately started to get infinitely easier for the duo.
“Wow,” Iris breathed.
I agreed.
Watching the dogs work was just as much fun as watching the two cowboys.
More cows showed from the opposite side that Beau and Denver had just come from, and soon there were so many cows in the area that I didn’t know where to look.
Beau, Denver, and the dogs didn’t seem to have any issues with the added numbers.
They just backed up and started herding the cows in all over again.
This time, there were more cowboys to help.
Several were familiar, too.
Boone was there, as well as Huxley. I even saw Courtland, though he was on a side-by-side and not a horse.
He was laughing as he blocked off one annoyed cow’s path.
Iris was enamored with the scene, her eyes moving everywhere as she tried to take it all in.
By the time they’d gotten the cows rounded up and locked away, Iris was on the move.
She started running toward the commotion, but I need not worry.
Beau saw her coming and leaned down to snatch her up onto the horse.
She didn’t sit stiffly as I would’ve expected.
She leaned forward and threw her arms around the horse’s neck, burying her face into her mane.
I let myself out of the goat pen, making sure to lock the gate properly before heading their way.
“You made it,” Beau said when I got close enough.
“I did,” I said as I raised my hand and ran my fingers down the jaw of Beau’s horse. “She’s beautiful. What’s her name?”
“Bitch,” Huxley supplied. “Careful. She might bite your finger off if you’re not careful.”
Beau rolled his eyes then replied dramatically, “It’s not my fault that my horse doesn’t like you, Huxley. Get over it.”
“Your horse likes no one,” Huxley countered. “I’m serious. Watch your fingers. I think you might need those to work at the hospital. Even if all you do is get paid to sit there and look pretty.”
“Hey!” I laughed. “I’ll have you know, I have to do more than just sit there and look pretty.”
“Sure, sure.” He winked. “What’s for lunch, Holly? I’m starving.”
“Sorcha is finishing everything up now.”
“Who’s Sorcha?” I wondered.
“That’s my wife.”
I looked up to find the club’s vice president, Major, swing his leg off his horse and grab the reins. “She cooks at the ranch several times a week.”
“Sorcha is also my sister.” Denver swung off his own horse.
Everyone else followed suit but Beau, who was too busy talking to Iris about his horse, Goss.
“Dinner’s on!”
“Dinner is in six hours!” Denver hollered back.
Iris stiffened, not good with the loud sounds.
Neither, apparently, was Beau’s horse.
Both animal and child were not happy at the raised voices.
Which Beau picked up on.
“Let’s go get Goss put up,” Beau said.
“Okay,” Iris signed.
I went to go with them but Holly held me up by saying, “Hey, will you hold this?”
She handed me the bag of green bands and the pliers.
I took them, shoving them into my coat pocket.
The wind whipped my hair around again, and I caught it before tucking the loose strands underneath the hood of my jacket.
“Where are you going?” Denver asked.
“Going to talk to a man about a horse,” Holly called out.
“Was it something I did?” Denver asked after Holly disappeared.
My brows rose. “What?”
“Her covering her ears,” he said. “I’m guessing she doesn’t like yelling?”
“She doesn’t do well with any loud noises,” I explained. “It’s not your fault, though. She’s got to learn to deal with it. She’s getting a whole lot better, but she freezes up instead of having a wall-eyed fit now. Like her mind is trying to process it. You did nothing wrong.”
“I’ll try to not yell,” he said. “We don’t want her to be uncomfortable around us.”
“Kids love me,” Huxley joked. “I’ll bet I can have her as a best friend by the time lunch is over.”
That was how I got divested of my kid and left behind with Beau who was looking at me like I was his own personal snack.
“What?”
He inched closer, tugging on both ends of my hoodie string before saying, “You look adorable.”
I grinned. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t think grown adults wore overalls anymore, though.”
“This one does,” I quipped, moving until our bodies were practically touching. “Hey, Beau?”
His eyes were on my mouth when he said, “Yeah?”
“I missed sleeping under the same roof as you.”
His eyes heated. “Maybe you can come back over tonight, and we can spend the night together for real this time.”