Both boys laughed as Jake rose. “One more thing,” he told them. “Living like I did the first thirty years of my life has left me with a lot of aches and pains and scars and regrets, so live a good life, boys. You’ll feel a lot better physically and be a lot happier when you get to be my age.”
“Oh, Grampa, you’re still a strong man,” Stephen argued. “Pa says he thinks you’re just as strong as he is.”
“He does, does he? He’s never told me that. He’s always saying he could beat me senseless if he wanted.”
“And you’re always daring him to try,” Stephen answered. “I see how you talk to each other. Is that because you love each other?”
Jake felt the old ache deep in his heart, remembering when he thought he’d lost his son’s love. “Yeah, something like that. Let’s get these horses saddled. The men out there probably think we’re shirking our duties.”
Just then Lloyd pushed open the barn door and came inside, leading his horse behind him. “Where in hell have you three been? We’re all out there working our asses off, and you’re in here taking your own sweet time getting fresh horses.” His smile faded when he noticed the boys had been crying. “Anything wrong?”
Jake turned away and went into the stall again to finish cinching the saddle on his horse. “Just having a little heart-to-heart,” he answered. “Everything is fine.”
Lloyd looked from the boys to his father. “You okay?”
Jake fought a distinct desire to walk up and hug his son. “Never been better,” he answered. “I was just explaining why we don’t think the boys are ready yet to carry handguns.”
Lloyd pushed his hat back and moved closer to the stall. “What did you tell them?”
Jake didn’t answer right away. He urged his horse backward out of the stall and mounted up. “Everything,” he told Lloyd. “And you’d be wise to do the same. It’s about time Stephen knew it all.” He rode the horse toward the barn entrance.
“Pa?”
Jake reined the horse in, not looking at Lloyd.
“You know I love you,” Lloyd told him.
Jake rode out of the barn.
“Why didn’t he say anything, Pa?” Stephen asked.
Lloyd sighed and rearranged his hat again. “He didn’t need to.” He looked at Ben. “And you boys had better finish saddling fresh horses and get back to work. We still have more cattle to bring in and brand. No rest for the wicked on this ranch, boys, so get busy.”
The boys eagerly obeyed. Lloyd led his horse out of the barn and mounted up again, watching Jake ride down a calf and rope it. “No rest for the wicked, that’s for sure,” he muttered.
Ten
Late May
“It’s like watching a circus,” Evie commented, laughing when Billy Dooley, who was cutting calves from their mothers, fell off his horse and got up, cussing a blue streak.
“I call it organized bedlam,” Randy remarked.
Katie laughed. “It sure is that!”
The three women sat in a wagon bed in the middle of all the action on one of the J&L’s busiest days. Cattle and cowboys filled the air with braying and whistling and swearing and yelling. Extra men had been hired just for roundup and the busy job of branding. Steers meant for slaughter were herded into designated pens, calves were culled out and roped for branding, and certain male calves were urged into a separate corral, where they would later be castrated. Two breeding bulls were penned well away from the rest of the herd, including mean old Gus.
Lloyd stayed busy culling out calves. The sharp turning and dodging movements of his favorite cutting horse made Katie nervous. More than one man had been thrown from his horse when it would suddenly dart in a different direction. Well-trained cutting horses did most of the work on their own.
Once Lloyd urged a calf into the branding area, Vance Kelly took over from there, riding down the calf and roping it. When he’d climb off his saddle, the back end of it would jerk up from the calf pulling on the rope tied to the saddle horn. He and Jake took turns wrestling calves onto their sides for branding.
Lloyd had decided the women shouldn’t have to cook today, so he’d put Rodriguez back on duty feeding the men. Smoke wafted from the cookhouse, where the Mexican was preparing supper for what would be a bunkhouse full of very hungry men in a couple of hours. Teresa had stayed at Evie’s house with both little girls to keep them out of dirt and danger.
Men rode every which way, stirring up swirls of dust as whistles and shouts filled the air. Ben and Stephen sat on a fence counting cattle, and even Brian helped, using a quirt to urge the cattle into the chute one by one. Little Jake also sat on a fence, watching the branding, obeying his grandfather’s orders to stay where he would be out of danger.