Cowboys & Nightmares

Chapter Twenty Five

 It was a long day out in the sun. With sorting taken care of, Boss had asked the gang and I to drive the herd back to the east pasture. It proved more difficult than I imagined. With the sorted bull calves removed, the bunch was half its size, and a lot more unpredictable.

The sun was a few inches above the foothills when we finally reached the gate. Arion and I trotted ahead, and I leaned down to quickly unchain the gate. My horse quietly maneuvered himself until we had swung it completely open, then waited patiently as the other riders rode back through. I nudged him back into action, and it was only a moment before I was once again slipping the appropriate link of the chain back through the metal slot, securing the herd behind the fencing.

Joe sidled up next to me just then, and pulled on my belt loop, drawing me up into a sitting position. "Hey!" I said, laughing along with him and the others. "I don't need your help sitting up, thank you."

Butch snickered. "We just wanted him to make sure that you weren't falling."

"I guess you have a point." As I rode up to the group, I felt my grin widening until it felt like the Cheshire Cat's. "Because I would be falling into a gate - instead of the creek like you, huh, Butch?"

Everyone broke into another bout of laughter as we turned back, their guffaws drowning out Butch's grumbling. Zane came alongside me, wiping his bangs out of his eyes as he chuckled. "That was a good one," He commented, then paused and looked at me. "Hey, are you okay?"

I blinked, forcing a smile onto my face. "Yeah, of course," I replied, the lie sliding across my tongue like sandpaper. Ever since I had turned away from the driveway that morning, the security I normally felt around Dune had vanished altogether, and it was more than unnerving after months of its presence. "I've just got a lot on my mind, I guess."

He smiled, falling for my lies. "How did you like the dance last night?"

"It was great." Happy for the change of subject, I let my mind drift back to the ballroom, whirling around with everyone. For the first time since arriving, I hadn't been afraid of Ronnie sneaking up on me, and I could just have fun. "I had a wonderful time." Then I remembered the girl he had been with, and cocked my head at him, feeling Kora's influence on me. "So...who was the pretty girl you brought along last night?"

He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's Nicole," he said, and I could see his cheeks blooming into red. "I've known her since we were really little. We used to play together at school."

I reached over to nudge him. "So..was last night a date?" I felt just like Christie, giggling and nudging like a schoolgirl. Then her face shifted into the heart shape of Grace, and I smiled wider. If they ever got the chance to meet, those two would be impossible to separate once they bonded.

Zane choking out a cough brought me back to the present, and I chuckled as he blushed harder. "W-well, k-k-kinda," he stuttered. "I...I want to date her, honestly, but..." He sighed, picking his reins up and dropping them across his horse's neck. "I don't know. Maybe she doesn't care about me."

I felt my heart go out to him. The kid was sixteen; it was about time he took the next step and got a girlfriend. "Zane," I chided, "you didn't see what I did last night. She was mooning over you the whole night. I know that if you asked her, she would go steady with you."

He perked up a little, sitting straighter in the saddle. "You think so?"

I nodded, smiling at his youthful eagerness. "Oh yeah. Besides, who wouldn't want to date a stud like you?"

About that time, Joe came up alongside us, and gently punched my arm. "Well, I sure don't," he teased.

We continued to talk quietly as our horses jogged toward home. We reached the open pasture land behind the yard as the setting sun stretched our shadows behind us. Shading my eyes, I squinted, and realized that it was a clear shot back. "Who wants to race?" I asked.