Cowgirls Don't Cry(46)

                Cass stared from one to the other. “A cattle drive.” Nadine and Boots exchanged a cryptic look, and she sighed. “See? I told you it was ridiculous. There’s no way we could do a trail drive from the ranch to the stockyards.”

                “Why not?”

                Her jaw dropped. “Because, Uncle Boots. Half of Oklahoma City stands between the Crazy M and the stockyards. Not to mention a couple of major interstate highways.”

                “You know, that just might work.” The man in the booth behind her tapped her on the shoulder. “You’d need some permits and stuff but you could move ’em along section line roads. Wouldn’t have to touch many busy streets at all.”

                Were they not listening? She still wanted to bang her head on the table. This was too crazy to even contemplate.

                “Anybody got a map?” Another man dragged a chair over and planted his beefy body at the end of the table. “We could draw out the route right now.”

                “No. Just...stop. It’s just Boots and me. We can’t handle five hundred head. And it’s...what? At least twenty miles to the stockyards? We can’t push cattle more than five maybe ten miles a day tops. There’d be no place to stop at night. No place to water them. I...thank you. All of you. But I...it won’t work.”

                Her audience grumbled but turned away, returning to their own business. The idea was simply too preposterous to even consider. She drank her coffee, completely unaware it held neither cream nor sugar. There had to be another way. She just needed to figure out what it was. Maybe she’d call Chance. He’d disappeared after her outburst, but he’d called and left voice mails on her cell phone since then, asking how she was doing. He was a cowboy. And smart. Maybe he had some ideas that would help.

                Late that afternoon, she clicked off the phone rather than leave yet another voice mail message for him. Boots was down at the barn working with the colt, and Buddy lay in a puddle of sunshine streaming through a window. He woofed, and his paws twitched as he chased something in his dreams. She dropped beside him on the floor and buried her fingers in his thick fur.

                “Am I crazy, Buddy? I mean like totally insane? There’s no way we can drive those cattle to the stockyards. The logistics alone are...I can’t even wrap my brain around what would be involved. No. I can’t do this. There’s got to be another way. I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and park myself outside the president’s office until he meets with me.” She nodded as if to punctuate her resolve. “He’ll have to talk to me. Have to listen to me. And I’ll work something out.” Bending, she brushed her cheek across the top of the dog’s head. “I have no choice, Buddy.”

                The dog whined and licked her chin. “I’m glad somebody still loves me.”

                * * *

                “I’m glad somebody still loves me.” Chance flashed his legal assistant a smile. “Thanks for staying late.”

                “I stay late every night. Say what you mean.” She waggled her index finger at him, the other hand on her hip. “Why, thank you, Heidi, for taking all the heat from my family, for not making me talk to them.”

                She was right, but he sure hated to admit it. Even so, her attitude made him grin. “You are worth your weight in gold, Heidi.”

                “I’m getting that in writing so I can hold it over your head come bonus time.” She leaned on his desk and closed the folder he’d been staring at for the past hour. “Shut it down, boss. Go home. Or go out. Go do something besides sit here and brood.”