by Kizzie Hayes
“Wow, I didn’t know that one could have so much cattle,” Nick said as they broke into an open field where there was an endless sight of cattle disappearing into the horizon.
“That is why I was telling you that it is going to be very hard for the ranch hands to take a tally of all the animals today,” the foreman said as Nick looked around at all the cattle and horses in disbelief, thinking of the best way forward.
“Okay, I think I know what we are going to do, we are going to do an aerial count of all the adult females and then from there, we can try and get a round figure of all the animals. From now on, we will be tagging all the newborn calves so that it is easier for us to keep count,” Nick said, getting off his horse as he continued to scan around deep in thought.
“Pardon me, Sir, but what is an aerial count?” the foreman looked confused.
“We will count the animals from an airplane,” Nick laughed.
“It’s gonna be pretty hard to come by an airplane in these sides, Sir, I don’t know of any folks that have any of those, because as it is, the ranchers are already struggling with the drought, and the prices of beef dropped greatly,” the foreman said.
“Don’t you worry about that, Jake, I'm going to figure out a way around that. Now, we had better get back to the ranch house, I'm feeling pretty exhausted. I hope that there is somewhere I can catch a cold beer in town.”
“There is actually a canteen out in town, although I'm not really sure if you are going to like it, you don’t look like the type to go to such places,” the foreman said.
“If there is something that I have learned in life, Jake, it is never judge a book by the cover,” Nick said, mounting his horse as they began riding back to the ranch house.
The sun was just coming down by the time that they were arriving back at the ranch house.
“Welcome back home, Sir, it looks like you took after your grandfather, the old man would go out all day without anything to eat, only darkness bringing him back here,” Jake’s wife said to him fondly as he stepped into the house.
Maggie was the one that handled the affairs of the house, cooking and all. She and Jake had worked for his grandfather for years and they were full of very fond memories, taking their time to tell Nick all about it. According to them, Francis had been one of the kindest men that were left in the countryside, and his death had affected them greatly. They had been like his family while he lived alone and when Nick had arrived, they had thought that he would relieve them of their duties and probably sell the ranch, something that he had no plans of doing.
“Well, I guess it is in the blood,” Nick smiled at her.
He already liked the both of them, even though he barely knew them. They made him feel like he had a family to come back home to. Inside the wooden house, a sweet mouthwatering aroma came from the kitchen, stimulating his appetite.
“Mmm, something smells good in here,” he said, taking off his Stetson and placing it onto a hat rack.
“I prepared some grilled chicken and potatoes along with a fruit salad. I hope that you'll like it. Unfortunately, we don’t have any liquor in the house, but you can ride into town, Madam Solange owns a saloon there,” she said cheerfully to him.
“Thank you, Maggie, I guess I'll ride into town later on, it might give me the opportunity to meet up with some of the townsfolk here,” he said to her, patting her on the back.
*****
It was a Friday and as usual on such a day, the saloon was packed with cowboys. Most of the customers were her regulars as well as farm hands that had received their weekly wages. Solange sat in the inner side of the counter, watching her customers closely. It was the usual boring crowd, but then what could she do about it apart from make do with what she got.
“Another beer, Andy,” she said to the sheriff.
“Yes, Madam Solange, another beer will do, and then maybe you could get me one of your best girls upstairs,” he winked at her knowingly.
“That shouldn’t be a problem at all, as a matter of fact, there are some new hot girls that came in yesterday, and I'm sure that you would like to try out some fresh meat,” she smiled at him, carrying a keg of beer to his table.
She was walking back to the counter when she heard the door of the saloon opening, and when she turned to look, there stood a man that she had never seen before. He was slightly older than her and was dressed very decently, even wearing a gold watch, despite the fact that he was wearing cowboy gear. He stood in the doorway looking around the room before his eyes finally settled on her, his deep blue eyes searching hers. Solange found herself blushing deeply as something stirred in between her thighs.
This had to be the most handsome man that she had ever laid her eyes on, and Solange found herself staring at him, unable to look away. Everyone in the saloon turned to look at the newcomer, and he nodded at them, tipping his Stetson as he walked towards the counter. Solange felt as if her thighs were going to give in, her strength draining away for some unknown reason. No man had ever made her feel this way, and it was only because everyone in the saloon was suddenly concentrating on the stranger as he came to a stop at the counter, that she got back her composure.
“Evening, Sir, what can I serve you?” she said to him in a strange voice, her throat running dry.
“Hi, I would like a cold beer, if you please,” he said to her as he settled onto one of the bar stools at the counter.
“One moment,” she said, fetching an empty keg and filling it with cold broth. “You must be new around here, I've never seen you around.”
His blue eyes studied her for a moment, running over her body from her head downwards. She felt goose bumps forming on her forearms as a pleasant ripple went through her already horny love slit, all the way to her throbbing clit.
“I'm not very sure if I would call myself new here, because I have a ranch here, the Ford Fold,” he said to her as he took the keg from her and sat with his back against the wall, looking around.
“Wait a minute, you are related to the old man that passed away recently?” she asked, feeling a little surprised since it had always been rumored that the old man had no family, and holding the largest and most prime land in the area, it would go back into the hands of the government.
The man nodded at her as she looked at him with interest. “Nobody has ever heard of any of his relatives, but looking at it differently, you do look similar.”
He smiled at her the sexiest smile that she had seen in a long time, dimples forming in his cheeks. He was the first young guy that she had seen in Elm Tree in the two years that she had been here, and he felt like a breeze of fresh air.
“So, does this mean that you're actually moving here, or considering to move to Elm Tree?” she couldn’t hide her curiosity.
“Something like that, it all depends on how everything goes,” he said to her, his eyes hovering over her breasts for a moment before he looked away.
“Well, I'm Solange Smith, but the folk here call me Madam Solange,” she said, not mentioning that the title Madam had come around because of the brothel that she ran.
“Nick, Nick DuPont, it is a pleasure to meet you, Solange,” he said to her, extending his hand to hers for a handshake.
As their hands connected, Solange felt a powerful wave of electricity passing through them and going all the way down to her throbbing clit. As he greeted her, he looked into her green eyes and she was not sure if that was passion that she saw written in his eyes.
“Can I buy you a beer or something to drink?” he said to her. “Oh, and before I forget, give everyone in here a round on me.”
She arched her eyebrows to look at him, blushing when she realized that his eyes were right down her cleavage, checking out her boobs. She covered her cleavage with her hands, making him look away. She was used to men staring at her this way, but for some reason, she felt very self-conscious when she was around Nick.
“Did you say for everyone, a round on you?” she asked, not sure if she’d hear
d right, since something like this had never happened before, and today the saloon was packed to the brim.
“Yes, I would like to buy everyone in this saloon a round of drinks, and that includes you, sexy lady,” he said, making her blush even more as her cheeks colored deeply.
She went about passing around the drinks, and just like that, her dream man became the legend of Elm Tree. Solange did not mean to flirt with him, but that is what she found herself doing for the rest of the evening, and especially as more and more drinks were poured. She almost couldn’t believe how horny she was feeling, her cunt hot and wet all evening. She wanted this man in ways that she had never wanted anyone before, although maybe she felt this way because it had been quite a while since she’d had a good shag, and from such a hot dude. She almost died of longing that evening when he left her saloon, because she had just began to think that she just might have a chance with him.
*****
She had been on his mind all week and Nick just couldn’t seem to shake her image out of his mind. Solange Smith was a woman of a kind. She was not only sexy and young for such a place, but she was also very determined, her business among the best thriving ones in Elm Tree. Nick had wanted to go back to the saloon after that, but so much had been happening at the ranch, he had not gotten the time to go back. From the information that he gathered from the ranch hands, Solange had just appeared from nowhere and set up the saloon, and slightly later, putting up a brothel to supplement the men’s needs. Sex was the oldest trade on the market and so Nick understood Solange's business sense in opening the brothel in Elm Tree.
He looked at his watch knowing that Gary Stiles would be here any minute. He had been a week at the ranch and it felt good that his friend was coming to visit him so soon. Gary was a dedicated biker, and had been one right from the time that they had met in the army, and so Nick knew that Gary would most likely arrive on his Harley. It would probably be brought to Austin by air and then he could ride all the way down here.
“Everything in order in the fields?” he asked Jake as Jake came galloping into the compound, dismounting and tethering his mare by the barn.
“Yes, we had a couple of rustlers down by the far end, but we scared them away with explosives,” he said as a matter of fact, as if it was the most normal thing to go blowing up explosives.
“We are going to have to mend the fences on the borders of the ranch to prevent such things happening again,” Nick said as he turned from Jake to look at the far horizon at the setting sun. “An electric fence would probably do the trick here.”
“I think that will be a good idea, Sir, because not a week goes by before we come across rustlers. There is even a time we had to chase after some of the cattle that had already been pushed by the fence,” the foreman said as Nick turned around on hearing a humming sound.
At first there was no sign of anything in sight except the low hum, becoming louder and louder, and a cloud of dust in the distance. He nearly expected to see one of the neighbor’s trucks passing by when he saw a familiar Harley turning into the gate of the ranch house. Gary's huge frame was at the wheel of the Harley as it began rumbling down the gravel road that led to the ranch house, parking next to Nick's hired truck. Nick immediately forgot about Jake and hurried towards the bike.
“Gary, it is so good to see you here,” he said, hugging his friend as his friend got off the bike.
“Same here, bro. How is it going down here, and I must say, the heat could kill somebody,” Nate said, wiping his brow.
“That is one of the reasons that you need to get yourself a Stetson when you are here, it keeps the sunburn away from your face. Come on in, I'm pretty sure that you are going to fall in love with this place just like I did,” Nick said, leading his guest into the house and noting the look on Gary's face when the aroma coming from the kitchen hit his nose.
“Okay, wait a minute, I know that you have only been here for a week, but don’t tell me that you already got yourself a wife,” he said, raising his eyebrows to look at Nate, who broke into an enchanted laughter.
“Hell no, where in the world can you get genuine wife that quickly, not even in Austin, my friend,” Nick laughed, slapping his friend on the back. “But back in town there is a pretty hot lady. She runs the saloon in town, and I think that she is into me.”
“Well, it looks like we have our evening planned already, because we are going to the saloon tonight,” Gary winked at his friend as Maggie arrived to welcome Gary into the home. Gary seemed surprised at all the hospitality that he was getting here and he turned to Nick as soon as Maggie had gone back into the kitchen. “Looks like down here folks are very hospitable. I might start considering getting me a wife from these parts, and besides, I love the accent.”
“Well, the field is open, but mind you, the only young lady that I have seen around here is Solange, the one from the saloon. It is as if the rest of them moved to the bigger towns and cities,” Nick said to Gary as they slumped into the couch.
*****
Solange was outside the saloon sweeping when she heard the low hum of an automobile. When she turned, she was completely surprised to see a motorcycle slowly rumbling down the road. It was one of those very expensive motorcycles and there was a man on it. He was not from around here, maybe about the same age as Nick DuPont, only that his body was a little stockier, and his hair was pulled behind his head in a ponytail.
From the look of things, it looked like Elm Tree was beginning to get some sort of life over the past one week, and if things continued like this, she might never have to leave. Not bothering with the motorcycle again, she proceeded with the sweeping of her saloon terrace. She was a little surprised when the bike pulled up to the saloon, the guy getting off. She stood upright to look at the guy that got off the bike.
He had handsome features, although not as refined as Nick, but she couldn’t deny that he also had the looks that could drive any woman crazy. She watched him removing his gloves as he walked over to where she was, stuffing them into the back pocket of his pants. She was still there staring at him when she heard the galloping of hooves coming their way, and when she tuned to see who it was, her heart skipped a beat. On a white stallion was Nick looking sexier than she could remember. She had only met him once but she was sure that she would never forget his face. A smile broke out on her face as he rode to the terrace of the saloon and tethered his horse onto one of the bars there.
“That is pretty impressive for a horse,” the biker said to Nick, who smiled at the guy.
“I told you that I've been riding horses since I was a child, but it never seems to stay in your skull,” Nick said, removing his Stetson and ruffling his sandy hair before putting it back on.
His attention shifted from the biker to Solange, and Solange found her throat going dry. He walked towards her and she was sure that she could hear every piece of sand grain crunching under his boots.
“Solange, how nice it is to see you,” he said, walking over to her and hugging her as she felt as if her heart had just melted.
“You went and got lost, why didn’t you come back to see me?” she asked curiously.
“Let’s just say that there was a lot of things that I had to take care of at the ranch,” he said to her as Gary walked up to them.
“So, is this the lady that you were talking about, remember, the hot sexy one? When are you going to introduce me?” the other guy said, and Solange noted the way that Nick flushed with embarrassment at the way that his friend was so direct.
“At times I think that you should really go back to school so that you can learn how to tame that tongue of yours,” Nick said to his friend as he turned to look at Solange. “I'm really sorry about that, my friend Gary here happens to have no brakes when it comes to talking.”
“Well, at least it feels good to think that at least someone thinks that I'm hot and sexy,” she smiled at him. “Hello, Gary, my name is Solange.”
“It is always a pleasure to meet a beautifu
l woman like you, Solange,” Gary said, taking her hand and pecking it lightly on the palm.
Solange could not remember the last time that she had gotten this sort of attention from two equally handsome men, she was virtually in heaven. As soon as they were done with the greeting formalities, they made their way into the saloon, and Solange served them with beer.
*****
The evening was progressing nicely, and Solange was totally enjoying the company of Gary and Nick. In the beginning she had been reluctant to drink since she did not want to get too drunk on the job, but as the customers started to thin out as the evening progressed, she had decided to begin by taking a couple of shots of whiskey. She was on her fourth or fifth shot when the doors of the saloon were suddenly kicked open and into the building stormed three outlaws. They were wielding revolvers and wore bandanas as well as the Zorro type of masks.
“Oh fuck, it looks like we are being robbed today,” she said to Gary and Nick under her breath as the three men walked in, one of them smoking a cigar.
“Good evening, everyone, we are not here to hurt anyone. We are just here to collect what belongs to us and we will be on our way,” the one with the cigar said, and Solange recognized him from all of the previous robberies. “So y’all had better take out all of your money and cell phones and put them onto the tables.”
Almost everyone in the room, including Solange seemed to be in a panic except Nick and Gary. They did not even make moves to empty their pockets like the rest of the customers were doing.
“You, open the cash register for us,” the man said, pointing his gun at Solange as she quickly got up and made her way around the counter. The other two outlaws went about collecting the loot that the customers had put on the table, and it was then that the man with the cigar noticed that Nick and Gary were just seated there drinking their beer as if nothing were the matter. Solange wondered if the men were drunk, or if they thought that the outlaws were actually joking or playing around with toy guns.
