Chapter 2
Beau
The sun was barely over the horizon, but the air was already hot and thick by the time I stepped out of my cabin.
I breathed it in, letting my family’s legacy settle deep in my lungs.
Circle M stretched out before me—a thousand acres with happy, beefy cattle that had supplied my family with an income for the last six generations.
But I wanted more.
There was something to be said about being raised by a man who went by Mount, as in the abbreviation for mountain. It meant he cast a mighty big shadow, a shadow that I had been living in and trying to claw my way out from under for the past thirty-five years.
I had yet to be successful.
I tried everything—being a good son, a good brother, a good student, a good cowboy, a good person. I came up with ideas to streamline herding and ease the burden my father and his ranch hands endured. I went to college and majored in agricultural studies to maximize our land’s potential.
It didn’t seem to matter—nothing I did pleased Mount.
And man, if I wasn’t fucking exhausted by it.
I technically ran things now, but my father still tried to pull the strings from his walker that he refused to use half the time. If it weren’t for Anna forcing him into retirement after he fell from his horse and shattered his hip, he’d probably still be in charge.
Thank God for bossy little sisters and fathers who were totally wrapped around their fingers. All she had to do was shed a single tear, and he gave up after I had been trying for weeks.
The herd was moving slowly this morning, lazy and content.
I fired off my drone to get a better look at the pastures, even though I’d ride out there to double-check myself later.
It still amazed me that technology like this existed and was making its way into ranching, but I’d never rely on it completely.
The screen door slammed open, the sudden sound making me almost slosh coffee on my tablet. Only one person would make that much noise this early in the morning. “Could you try not to bang shit around?”
Weston shoved his shirt tail into his worn Wranglers, grinning like the smug little shit he was. My little brother’s best friend was essentially a McLeod in his own right, having lived with us since he was thirteen when his parents cut and ran.
Seventeen years later, he still acted like a kid. Thankfully, he was only here for a few weeks at a time between rodeoing gigs. He was getting more and more popular, and I hated to admit it, but he was pretty damn good.
“Had to make sure you weren’t dead out here, sprawled out in that chair.” Typical Weston Tate response.
I shook my head, pulling up my drone’s live feed while fighting a smile. “Get outta here before I give you somethin’ to do.”
He just laughed and sauntered off the porch, raking his dirty blonde waves back into a cowboy hat.
Coffee long gone, I was reviewing our new rotational grazing plan with an app a buddy of mine from school recommended. With the drone footage, it tracked which pastures needed rest and which had enough clover to feed the cattle.
Naturally, Mount hated it, and that made me love it even more.
The door opened again, and he hobbled out onto the porch with his walker. “Mornin’,” I said, hoping today could be a semi-decent day for us.
“You gonna ride out there and do your job or sit on your ass and play games?” Mount’s voice grated on me like nails on a chalkboard, but his judgment was nothing new. I actually would’ve been concerned about his well-being if he hadn’t said something along those lines.
I let out a heavy sigh, setting the tablet down. “I’ve told you a hundred times, Dad, this is work. I’m checking the grazing flow. The northern pasture needs another day before we send the herd out.”
He scoffed. “You woulda known that if you’d just gotten on a damn horse and rode out there. This ain’t NASA, Beaumont, this is Circle M.”
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. All I wanted was to prove to him that I wasn’t playing rancher, that I had what it took to run this place so he could have the retirement he deserved. “I know where I am,” I replied lowly, my gaze sliding up to his.
Looking at my father felt like seeing myself thirty years in the future. I had grown up hearing how I was his spitting image, and I hated it every damn time. But it was undeniable. Same short, dark brown hair—his now salt and pepper, same blue eyes, same scowl, same build.
It was some sick joke the universe had played on me to give me a man as formidable as Mount as a father and make me look like him, too.
“We lost nearly a quarter of our grass to overgrazing last year because nobody did checks like this.” I waved the tablet at him. “I told you I’d show you how to use it.”
“I don’t want to learn that nonsense. I got eyes for a reason.
” He looked out at the pastures, a twinkle of pride in his eyes that humanized him.
“Your granddaddy ran this ranch without all those gadgets. So did I. And we made it the best ranch in the county. Just look at Golden Bridle”—he scoffed in its direction—“damn place looks like it’s about to go under. ”
I peered over at the fence line that divided our land from the Hayes’s, and he wasn’t wrong.
But knowing how that family planned to go against mine after our ranches were supposed to merge in the seventies made me care a lot less.
Didn’t matter how much time I spent with Claire and her siblings as a kid, an enemy was an enemy.
That was probably the one thing my father and I could agree on—we hated the Hayeses.
Although it hadn’t always been that way.
“I need to go do some admin,” I announced and went back inside, not waiting for a response.
Once in my office away from Mount, I breathed a little easier. I opened my email, and the first one hit me like a blow to the gut.
Cavendish Equestrian Academy invites you to apply to be the home of our newest expansion! We’re looking to partner with an already established ranch that can support our elite training and breeding program. If you are interested, please complete and return the application below.
I skimmed the fine details, my mind already churning.
If I could pull off an expansion like that, there was no way Mount would disapprove.
He’d have to finally see me as the man I was, and not a clueless boy.
That was the whole point of the merger in the seventies with Golden Bridle, anyway, to move into horse training and breeding.
Slumped back in my chair, I ran a hand over my stubbled chin at the realization that there was no way Claire Hayes wasn’t all over this. If I had any hesitation about applying before, I didn’t now.
I just needed to get my smoking gun locked in, and I’d be set. I picked up my phone and dialed my brother-in-law.
“The baby isn’t coming, is she?” Joseph asked in place of a proper greeting. His new-father anxiety never failed to make me laugh. It didn’t matter that he and my sister had gone through this once before; he acted like it was the first time since they were having a girl this go around.
“No,” I chuckled, spinning my pen around. “Pretty sure there’s still a few months left.”
He let out an audible sigh of relief. “I think Anna would castrate me herself if I missed it.”
“I’ve seen her do it to a three-hundred-pound bull, gruesome business.” It was hard to get out of castrations when you grew up on a cattle farm. Dad had us out there helping and learning the ropes as soon as we could walk.
“I don’t wanna think about it.”
I laughed again. “Anyway, you busy? I wasn’t callin’ just to shoot the shit.”
“And here I thought you cared about me.” I could hear his fake crying, but behind it, the opening and closing of paddocks.
He was up in Kentucky training a couple of horses for the Derby.
Just a casual Tuesday for Joseph Roberts, world-famous horse trainer—and my ace in the hole in winning this partnership.
“What's up?”
I told him about Cavendish and that I wanted to apply and basically name-drop him to the moon and back.
He whistled low. “Damn. Cavendish is big. They’re responsible for most of the horses I’ve been working with here. Are you planning on telling Mount before or after you apply?”
“I’m not telling him until I get the partnership.”
“That’ll go over about as well as a lead balloon. You sound pretty confident that you’ll win.”
“Well,” I grinned, “when you have the world’s best brother-in-law in your corner, it’s hard to lose.”
Joseph let out a loud laugh. “Who knew Beau McLeod was such a kiss ass?”
“Bend over and you’ll find out.” My laughter faded, and I tapped my pen against the desk quickly, trying to find the words.
I’d never asked Joseph for anything aside from taking care of my sister and nephew.
I wasn’t the kind of man who liked to ask for help or admit I needed it if I could help it. But now was one of those times.
I cleared my throat. “But seriously, I could really use your pull with this. I might actually have a chance to prove to my dad that I know what I’m doing if I get this partnership. So are you in or not?”
“Of course, I’m in, you dipshit, I just wanted to hear you beg first.”
The relief was crushing. I rolled my eyes, smiling. “Thanks, asshole.”
After we got off the phone, I just stared at my desk, not really knowing what to do with myself.
I really had to do it now, and was putting everything on the line to do so.
But if I won the partnership, I’d be the McLeod to bring horses to the ranch, the same goal my grandfather—the first Beaumont McLeod—had in the seventies.
After finishing up the application and my chores around the ranch, I drove into town to grab a quick dinner with Colt.
The Wild Creek Diner was nearly packed when I walked through the door, the bell ringing over my head. My brother was already sitting in a booth by the window, looking all official in his sheriff’s uniform.
“You’re late,” Colt said as I slid into the booth. Of the three of us McLeod kids, he was definitely the most serious, which is ironic since he was the youngest. But that made ribbing him all the more fun.
“Sorry, officer, please don’t arrest me.” I put on a full pout, and he rolled his eyes, already over me. “You order yet?”
“Nah, was waiting for you and now I’m starving.”
I opened the menu even though I’d been ordering the same thing here since I was thirteen. “You poor thing.”
We waited for the waitress to come and take our order. Instead of Marie, the waitress who had known us since we could throw a lasso, Louise showed up with two sweet teas.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” she said, smacking her gum, with a smile that could rival the Cheshire cat. “Two of the cutest boys in Wild Creek are here in my diner.” She grabbed our biceps and gave them a good squeeze. “Oh, you two just know how to make an old woman’s day.”
My brother’s neck tinged pink at her harmless flirting.
And it truly was harmless, considering she was pushing eighty.
But Colt never liked being the center of attention, so it was always fun when Louise got her hands on him.
And as his older brother, it was my God-given right and duty to torture him whenever I could.
“I’d be careful if I were you, Miss Louise,” I grinned, kicking Colt’s leg under the table. He only blushed harder. “Brittany might not take too kindly to you grabbin’ her man.”
She rolled her eyes. “That girl just needs to focus on keeping my hair looking this good.” When we didn’t say anything, she glanced between us. “That’s when you’re s’posed to tell me it looks good.”
Colt straightened in the booth, his sheriff’s badge glinting in the overhead lights. “Of course, it looks good. Great even,” he stammered, and I snickered.
She patted him on the head like he was a dog that’d done his trick well. “I’ll get you your burgers, sit tight,” she said, walking off.
“So what’s new?” I asked Colt, sipping on my tooth-rotting tea. I nearly spat it out at how sweet it was, but I knew Louise would tan my hide if I did.
Colt ran a hand over his mouth and that monstrosity of a mustache, doing a once-over of the diner.
“Not much. Everything’s been calm at the station.
Everything’s good with Britt.” He took a sip of his tea and grimaced.
“God damn, I think she’s trying to poison us.
” He shook his head at the glass, smacking his lips.
“What about you? You gonna tell me about this horse deal?”
I squinted. “Horse deal?”
“Yeah, some big shot breeder looking for a partner. Brittany texted me and told me to ask you about it.”
“How the hell did she hear about that?”
“Well, apparently, Louise and Kelly were talking about Claire applying when they got their hair done earlier. Guess she came here to talk to them about it before their appointment.”
I knew she’d apply, but somehow having it confirmed lit a competitive fire inside me. “It doesn’t matter if she applied or not. Joseph said I could mention him in my application, so Circle M is a shoo-in.”
I did have to give credit when it was due and commend Claire for even trying with how things were at the Golden Bridle.
Claire was a fearsome contender at the rodeos, even went pro for a short time, and I knew she brought that same intensity to everything else in her life.
I respected it, I really did. But that didn’t mean I planned to lose, and I wouldn’t with Joseph in my back pocket.
“She’s got heart, that’s for sure,” Colt said as if he could read my mind.
“Yeah, well, so does my pickup, but you don’t see me entering her into a race.”
An amused scoff shot out of him. “Jesus, you’re smug.”
We stopped talking when Louise dropped our plates at the table, our orders just as we liked. “Don’t stop gabbing on my account,” she said.
I leaned back in the booth, draping my arm across the back. “We were just talkin’ about the Cavendish Academy. Colt here says Claire is applying.”
“Sure is,” she said with a hint of pride. “Are you?”
I pretended to mull it over. “Thinking about it. Just so busy at Circle M, you know?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You might be cute as a button, Beau McLeod, but I’ve known you since you were in your mama’s belly, and I see right through you. We all know you’re applying, so you might as well fess up.”
“He’s applying,” Colt confirmed. Now the whole town, including Claire, would know by the time the sun rose tomorrow.
He gave me an innocent look when I shot him a glare. “What? You are.”
Louise left now that she had gotten the information she wanted, and I had a feeling I had just been played.
Colt dug into his burger. “Dad’s gonna disown you when he finds out,” he said between mouthfuls.
I sucked my teeth, my knee bouncing under the table. Plastering a smirk on my face, I leaned forward. “Might as well go big then, right?”