“We need to get those cows started tomorrow, Cassie. Big sale is on Friday mornin’. The cattle need to be penned and ready in the stockyards by Thursday night.”
She rubbed her eyes again and rolled her head, listening to the familiar snap and crackle as vertebrae ground together at the top of her spine. “I got all the permits for Canadian County. And the commissioner from Oklahoma County says he’ll have a set ready today.”
“Nadine’s offered to feed everyone. She’s shuttin’ down the Four Corners and is gonna drive her RV. She’ll set up camp for us and have food ready for the crew mornin’ and night.”
“But...she can’t close the diner. She’ll lose too much money, Uncle Boots.”
He patted her shoulder, his grin adding more crinkles to his weatherworn cheeks. “Honey, she wouldn’t miss this for the world. She closes a week for vacation ever year anyway, so this is her vacation.”
Cass rubbed her chest to ease the tightness forming there. “This is going to work, Uncle Boots.”
“Yup.”
Boots could be a man of few words. “I guess I’d better go pick up those permits, huh?”
“Yup.” He dug in his pocket and handed over the keys to the truck.
* * *
Cass perched on the tailgate of Boots’s truck and tried not to laugh. She really did. But the sight of the group of high school kids flapping their arms and waving their hats as they tried to funnel the herd through the gate while on foot had her doubled over. She lightly punched Boots’s arm as he leaned next to her.
“That’s just mean.”
“Yup.”
The ag teacher laughed along with her. “They need to taste a little vinegar. Ranching is hard. The sooner they learn that, the better. This life isn’t a glorified Western movie.”
“Boy, isn’t that the truth!”
“Still, I’m always reminded of that speech John Wayne makes in the movie McClintock. The one where he’s talking to his daughter about how he didn’t plan to leave her the whole ranch, just a little start-up place. There’s a whole lot of growing a person has to do to become a rancher.”
Cass stared at the teacher, struck dumb by the revelation. She watched the kids work, sober now in her reflections. In many ways, her dad had given her that same speech—but in his actions, not his words. She ran off to the world and forgot the lessons she’d learned here in this place. She’d forgotten what home felt like. And now she remembered. Thanks to Boots. And Chance.
Her heart burned with fierce pride for the first time in ten years. She turned her head slightly to look at Boots, and a small smile hovered at the corner of her mouth. Squeezing the old man’s arm, she leaned in and planted an impulsive kiss on his cheek.
“What was that for?”
“For helping me realize that I’m home.” She laughed as a boy tripped and face-planted in the pasture. A girl helped him up, and the two of them jogged after a steer refusing to go through the gate. “God help me with that bunch, but by golly, we’re going to get this herd to market!”
Chance’s absence kept this from being perfect. She knew he was busy. Lawyers with their own law firms were. Her feelings for him were still new enough she hadn’t figured out the rules. Cass did know that what she felt for Chance was all tied up with her feelings of coming home.