by RJ Scott
“Where do you need us to start?” Jack looked up at the sky, there was still a good three hours until twilight and they could at least get the lay of the land.
He turned to Jack. “Twenty head are cut off from the main herd; we’ve got time today to get them out simply enough with your help.”
They looked at each other and Jack’s rancher-heart felt Rowdy’s pain. They had over fifty other head of cattle out there stuck, not to mention horses. But they had to choose their battles.
Jack settled his Stetson on his head. “Let’s get this done.”
They saddled up at speed, and left the ranch in the direction of the stranded cattle, the water deepening as they headed downhill. Jack was riding the most dependable workhorse they had at the D, Domino, who didn’t hesitate to wade into the water. Rowdy led the way; he knew the ground, knew where the problems would be, like hidden posts, or fencing, but right now the water was only maybe three feet high, enough to brush Jack’s boots. They’d all donned wet weather pants but the heat, even this late in the day, was stifling. It was still so freaking hot the compulsion to slip from the horse’s back and into the water was a strong one Jack had to ignore.
A rider drew level with him, Rowdy’s son and Neil’s friend, Alec, “Thanks for this, Mr. Campbell-Hayes.”
Jack tipped his hat. There was no need to exchange words; cowboys did what they could to help. It was a code that he lived by. He did have one thing to say though. “Jack,” he corrected. “These here are Robbie, Vaughn, and Liam.”
Alec nodded at the men, and then reined in a little to retake his place at the rear of the group. He probably knew the ranch as well as his dad, but he’d taken the role of keeping the group together. Like Neil, he had a huge backpack full of medical equipment; Jack imagined they could handle most things thrown at them today.
Rowdy was the one with the rifle.
Sometimes, the only solution was to euthanize. Jack hated that part of being a rancher and he’d only had to face it twice, both when he was a kid, before his dad left, all part of making Jack a man. He tapped the saddle twice, needing some of that luck now.
They saw the cattle when they rounded the next stand of trees, the river water now a good four feet here and steadily flowing sideways. The pull of the flow wasn’t enough to unseat anyone, but Domino snorted and shook his head. Jack patted him, reassured him, and talked to him until they settled back into the walk they’d mastered so far.
“Watch here,” Rowdy called back, and Jack passed the message back to Vaughn who was behind him. Jack had to work hard to keep Domino on the same path as Rowdy’s palomino, his muscles tight with exertion.
The cattle were scared, ten trapped in a space no bigger than fifty square feet. They were huddled right in the middle of the raised ground.
“They said we’d be okay,” Rowdy said, his voice cracking, “said the water wouldn’t reach this far.”
Jack allowed him a few moments to connect to what was happening. Then he asked the question he needed an answer to. “Where do you want us?”
Rowdy snapped out of it, pushed his Stetson harder on his head, and wiped his face of sweat. “Alec, you go left, we’ve got right.”
Instinctively Jack’s guys split to their usual positions, Jack and Vaughn with Rowdy and his other two cowboys.
“We’re taking them up, beyond the house.”
Even getting the cattle to move out of the foot of water they were in was nearly impossible, getting them to move into deeper water, wading through the wet stuff, needed so much shouting and cajoling that Jack was hoarse by the end of it.
It took two hours to get them heading uphill, away from the deeper flooding, and to the driest areas way beyond the house.
Rowdy’s no-nonsense rancher’s wife had dinner on, and had made up cots as she could. The ground floor of the house was nearly empty; everything of value had been moved to the top floor just in case.
“Never seen anything like this,” Rowdy said again, for the tenth time. This time with food in his belly and a beer smoothing the edges. “They said it wouldn’t reach us, and then we watched it climb the hill, knowing that right down there sixty-five remaining head were trapped. And the horses…”
By the time Jack was ready for bed he could have slept as soon as his head hit the pillow. Only he didn’t, he took his cell to the porch and called Riley. The reception was crappy, the service unreliable there, but it was enough to touch base.
He didn’t want to talk about the details, about the devastation that he had seen, the surreal expanse of lake where there should be fields. He didn’t like thinking about what was waiting under the water, snakes, fire ants, worse, and posts, debris carried along by the force of the flood; hated the fact he couldn’t see.
Riley’s voice was what he needed right now. That soft tone as he whispered over the sleeping kids, and then louder when he took the call outside.
“I love you. Stay safe,” were Riley’s last words.
And Jack had one thing to say back, “Always. I love you.”
The next day, up and out with only a few hours’ sleep, wasn’t any better. The rest of the cattle were lower down, already up to their flanks in water. The surface of the flood rippled as it moved, like a living thing, the taller grasses just peeking over and bending at the force of the flood. There was a fence and the herd was up against it, as if it was an anchor for them.
“We hadn’t sold a lot of the calves,” Rowdy said, grief in his voice. “There’s calves, tiny babies, under this, drowned.”
They’d talked last night about what the flood would reveal when it subsided, and it broke Jack’s heart to think of the animals that couldn’t be saved.
And even then, there were longer-term concerns for the cattle; foot rot from standing in water or muddy fields for long periods and the risk of disease from mosquitoes. None of this was good. Water seemed so benign, but this? Jack looked across the space, the water, some tufts of grass and the very top of a fence line. This was a disaster of epic proportions for the ranches in this area.
Between them they moved the cattle, the going was slow, and the impossibility of getting behind some of them was heartbreaking. There was nothing they could do for the three that refused to move, even roped they were slipping and sliding into the mud under the water. Only when the main herd began to swim-walk through deeper water, and then up the hill, did two of the cows left there move. Jack imagined they were the ones with the babies that were lost under the water.
And the hits just kept coming.
It was early afternoon when they managed to get as many as they could to drier ground, and stopped, exhausted, at the main house.
“What’s left?” Jack asked, and caught the look between Alec and his dad.
Rowdy shrugged. “Stranded horses,” he said.
“The ones at the house?”
They’d talked last night about six horses at a place just outside the floodplain on the river itself. Raised on stilts because of it’s proximity to the river, there was room for the horses to huddle on the porch.
These weren’t Rowdy’s horses, but that didn’t matter.
“It’s a boat trip, no horses.” Jack glanced over at Domino, who was exhausted and being stabled by Rowdy’s wife and their youngest daughter.
Jack took his cell phone out and everything else in his pockets and placed it on a table. “I’m in,” he said without hesitation.
Robbie, Vaughn and Liam moved to stand next to him.
“I don’t much like boats,” Robbie murmured, “but trapped horses, show me the way.”
What they came across was nothing that Jack could put into words. One of the mares, older and exhausted, after examination, was trapped, her leg through the porch wood. His gut told him there wasn’t any hope. She wasn’t in any shape to travel, let alone swim to dry ground. But for the others? The house itself was empty; the horses had been here three days. There was no correlation between horses and owner, the horses had just found hig
her ground.
“They’re barely halter broke.” Rowdy jumped from the boat to the porch. The nearest horse flattening its ears and snorting. This was clearly the brave one, the horse that was the barricade between the rest of this small group and the outside world.
Rowdy took his time, talked, moved slowly, and managed to slip a halter on the horse in charge of this motley crew. One by one, they covered the horses’ eyes so they couldn’t see left and right, haltered them, and led them off the porch then down the slope. All except for the trapped horse.
Jack exchanged glances with Rowdy, nodded, and along with Alec they led the horses away, each man up to his chest in the water.
The rifle shot was loud in the eerie silence of the horses and men making their way in the opposite direction to the river and up to the nearest road. Ranching sure wasn’t a Disney movie, there were not always happy endings.
Jack didn’t think he would ever forget.
Chapter 7
Riley watched the news, even caught sight of Jack briefly in a video on YouTube about the horse rescue on the porch. They said people died, that the area would take years to recover, that they didn’t know what they would find when the waters receded.
The middle of the night was the worst. Watching stories of people with missing family, a wall that had given way under the pressure of the water, crushing a first responder. There had been graphic film of the rescue, the man who was pronounced dead on scene, and Riley watched it all.
Fear was his constant companion. What would life be like without Jack? How would he carry on for the kids?
People must live on after losing family, but how could he?
Jack was coming home, and Riley was as bad as a kid waiting for Christmas. He’d initially decided he was going to wait inside for Jack, but with no kids or nanny in the house it was quiet in there. So, a full hour before Jack said he’d be home, Riley was out on the fence waiting. He wanted to see Jack so badly, and even after only five days Riley had missed him.
When the first truck and trailer arrived Riley’s heart sank. It was Robbie and Liam, not Jack. He hid his disappointment and welcomed them back, helped where he could, got shouted at for getting near the horses and that he should watch his neck. By the time the second truck rolled in, Riley was wound tight, and desperate to make sure Jack was okay. He’d exchanged texts and some FaceTime with his exhausted husband, but reception had been awful and the FaceTime had only lasted long enough for Riley to see that Jack was devastated at what he’d seen.
The tension was evidenced in his expression, the way he held himself, and the way he hugged Riley. Always the cowboy, he dealt with the horses first and then everyone split up to go to their respective homes. Riley tugged Jack into the house.
“Have you eaten?”
“We stopped about an hour back.”
“Are you hungry?”
Jack yawned. “No, tired is all.”
So Riley continued to tug him through the house to their bedroom and shut the door behind them. Jack went to sit on the bed, but Riley stopped him. “Shower, then bed.”
“I’m exhausted, I don’t want…” Jack scrubbed a hand through his dark hair and yawned again.
“Come on,” Riley insisted, and began to undress Jack, one item of clothing at a time, stopping in between each one to comment on a bruise, or a cut. He asked about every mark revealed, and after a while Jack began to answer, talking about razor wire, and snakes, and the horrible screams of trapped animals and how he couldn’t even begin to explain what it had looked like.
And Riley listened, stripping at the same time until they were naked and in their walk-in shower. They didn’t kiss, or talk. Riley soaped his hands and loved Jack. In every press of his fingers, in every touch, he loved Jack. He held him up when Jack began to falter, cradled his face to look into his eyes, and watched Jack’s slow, soft sleepy smile.
Then he dried Jack with the biggest, fluffiest towels he had.
“Some people lost everything,” Jack murmured, as Riley encouraged him to sit on the bed.
“We’ll help them.” Riley helped Jack tug on the boxers they wore in bed. Too many times the kids had jumped on them and they’d made a silent pact long ago not to sleep naked. It was a compromise they agreed on easily.
He settled onto his side, and then encouraged Jack to lay next to him. He pressed a kiss to Jack’s smooth back, nosing at one of the larger bruises.
“I love you,” he murmured, but Jack was already asleep, his breathing rhythmic, his body pressing against Riley’s. The fact he was asleep didn’t stop Riley talking though because he had a lot of mess in his head he wanted to get out. Jack would understand that. “I missed you so much, but I’m glad you went, because that’s all you, all the time, thinking about others, helping others. If I didn’t love you already, then this would only make me love you more.”
Being woken by an elephant trampling on your balls is one thing, having two is quite another.
“Pappa, you’re home!”
“Pappa, I won a star, look!”
Lexie and Connor were bouncing on Riley’s side of the bed, poking at Jack, whose hair had dried hopelessly in cute, dark tufts.
“Shhh, Pappa’s asleep,” Riley said.
Jack grumbled something and then turned on his back. “I’m awake,” he announced, with a wide yawn. “Who’s that jumping all over me?”
“It’s Connor and Lexie!” Lexie shouted and bounced some more. Riley curled in on himself, one knee to his balls was enough already.
“I don’t know anyone called Lonnor or Cexie?” Jack teased and blinked up at them.
“Connor and Lexie, silly!” Lexie added, still in the same near-shouted tones.
“Oh…Connor and Lexie, I remember you.”
“Didja bring us a present?” Lexie asked, even as she kissed Jack’s face.
“Pappa wouldn’t have had time,” Riley began but Jack nodded.
“Yep, you’ll have it after dinner.”
Lexie pouted, but then her smile flashed. “Connor, we’re helping with dinner,” she announced, and Connor went with her.
“You know we said one day she’ll be President.” Jack let his head fall back on the pillow.
“Yeah?”
“Not just of the US you know, the world.”
Riley grinned and half rolled over Jack and they kissed enough to reassure each other that Jack was home. Safe. Then it was back to normal, Lexie helping to chop vegetables, Connor playing on his iPad and explaining how the vegetables were all different thicknesses. Max came in, gave Jack a hug and then went under the table with Toby. Hayley arrived with all the drama of someone who was running late, and apologized and hugged and apologized again.
Soon she wouldn’t be there to run late at all, she’d be at college doing her thing, and even as Riley watched her smiling and laughing with Jack, his heart hurt. In four weeks it was her birthday and going away party all in one go; a typical Campbell-Hayes celebration with banners, and family, and barbecue.
Tomorrow, Riley and Jack were gift shopping as well as choosing a cake. But what did you choose for a young woman who was leaving home? She was beyond princesses, and teddy bears in jeans. This had to be grown-up, but for the life of him he wasn’t feeling the right kind of present for her.
The things that made him worry these days amazed him. Before Jack, before kids, it was all about what people owed him, what was going to be his. Now he was solely focused on family, on what he could give to them. They kept him grounded.
What happened when they all left? Would he just become what he used to be? Was he only a good guy because of them? Would he return to being selfish and self-absorbed?
“Penny for them?” Jack whispered, right in his ear, startling him out of his spiraling thoughts.
“Not worth that,” Riley snapped a quick comeback, and then winked. Let Jack think that he was contemplating his ass or something. Anything but the serious stuff that sometimes blindsided him.
&nb
sp; “How about a champagne bottle?” the cake guy suggested.
Riley knew he’d introduced himself but he’d not heard properly and was now resigned to thinking of him as the cake guy. “Boring,” Riley said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…”
Cake guy waved a hand as if he’d heard it all before. “I know, it’s a classic celebration cake for someone off to college but I’m sure we can come up with something better.”
“She won’t be eating much of it anyway,” Jack pointed out. “She’s diabetic, but she wouldn’t want a low sugar anything.”
“Says low sugar stuff tastes like crap,” Riley finished.
They did that a lot, finishing each other’s sentences, and always looked at each other after and smiled. Today was no different. The smile Jack gave him made the gentle laugh lines around his eyes crinkle and Riley was lost again in their blue depths. He probably had the same kind of lines; they laughed a lot.
All the time.
Well, the times that Riley wasn’t angsting over something.
“Riley?”
Riley blinked back to the discussion. “Sorry, what did I miss?”
“Allen was asking about what kinds of things Hayley likes?”
“What did you say already?” Riley asked.
“Horses, geology, her family.”
Riley couldn’t think of much to add to that, apart from maybe Logan, but he came under family, or at least extended-but-not-by-blood family.
Allen, as Riley now knew he was called, tapped his goatee thoughtfully. Then he pulled his sketch pad to himself and drew a quick something that from this angle looked like an ant hill.
“How about layers?” Allen began quietly, “the geological layers under the ranch, and then the horses, and your house maybe, and then representations of her family?” He sketched more and turned it around. Of course the geology he’d represented with some shaded lines was bad, but hell, Riley could fix that and explain just how the red layer was under the blue and then gray. Or at least tell him what layers of the cake should be what color. Could Allen even make a gray cake?
