Rough Stock(16)

Even Sawyer, normally lighthearted, frowned intensely.

For all his faults, Court would never hit a woman. Never. Not once. But he could be a cutting bastard when he got going, and Rowan was in no state right now to handle that side of him.

Court turned and headed straight for his truck.

Seth lunged for him and grabbed his arm. “Now wait a minute! You need to think about what you’re going to do.”

“I know exactly what I’m going to do! I’m going over there!” Court insisted. “And I’m going to make her look me in the eye and tell me what in the hell she’s been thinking all these years!”

“Court,” Seth replied, “there’s a little girl here.”

Court glared at him, eyes slitted like a rattler. He even hissed like one. “That would be the fucking point.”

“You know what I mean,” Seth argued. “You need to calm down and realize that this isn’t about you. Or Rowan. It’s about that little girl and what she needs. She’s just a kid, Court. Okay? And Rowan is, too. Or, at least, she was when she made this decision.”

“A decision she made without me!” Court growled.

“So it really doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” Seth continued. “Or who did what to whom five years ago.”

Court didn’t look like any of this was getting through, but Seth kept trying anyway. For Rowan, for the little girl, and for Court, too, if he’d put aside his rage long enough to realize it.

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” Seth repeated. “You and Rowan—”

“Well, it sure as hell isn’t my fault!” Court insisted.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’d be willing to bet that whatever it is, it’s probably Court’s fault.”

Everyone turned to see Walker, who’d just come around the corner of the barn.

Sawyer began to whistle the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

“Knock it off,” Seth growled.

Walker took note of Sawyer and his soundtrack, and judging by the smile that faded from their oldest brother’s lips, Walker seemed to realize that whatever was going on wasn’t Court’s usual fare of traffic tickets and bar fights.

“So what is it now?” Walker demanded, eyeing the three of them.

No one answered for a moment.

“Seth.”

Just the sound of his name was an order plain as day. And though Seth was younger, he could stand up to Walker, certain times, certain places, but this wasn’t one of those times. There was no point in trying. Half the town would be talking about it by now. Walker was bound to get another phone call before dark.

Seth let go of Court’s arm. “Court got Rowan Archer pregnant,” he replied.

Walker rolled his eyes and snorted. “You move fast. You just rolled back into town two months ago. Now you’re offering stud fees in Star Valley?”

Court scowled and said nothing.

“Not now,” Seth replied for him. “A while ago. Years ago. The little girl is about four, maybe five.”

Walker’s eyes narrowed sharply at Court. “And you didn’t know? Or did you walk away from them, too? Are you ever going to grow up, become a real man?”

Court looked positively stricken, like Walker had landed an actual blow. “I didn’t know!” he cried. “But you can be damn sure I’m going to take care of it now!”

“Let up, Walker,” Seth warned.

Walker only smirked. “I’ll let up when he stops letting everyone else down.”

“That’s not fair,” Seth argued before Court could. “Dad never asked for help. You know that.”

Walker wasn’t placated. “And somehow he couldn’t see that we were losing heads, letting go of ranch hands? No, he knew.” Walker half-turned and glared at Sawyer. “You both knew.” He turned back to Court. “I’m not giving you another dime. Not a single penny other than what’s already in your paycheck every week. You screwed the pooch on this one…or the prom date, I guess,” Walker amended. “You clean it up. If you can.”

The gauntlet had been thrown down, and so Walker turned to leave.

Seth probably wouldn’t have been as harsh about it, but Walker was right. It was time for Court to grow up, become a man, a father. Seth doubted that Rowan would have anything do with Court, but Seth believed what he’d told the man just moments ago—it wasn’t about Rowan or Court’s relationship with her that mattered. It was about that little girl.

If Seth had a little girl, he’d move the Tetons themselves to give her everything she ever needed.

“Come on,” he told Court. “Let’s get in the truck. I’ll drive.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Court snapped.

“Then stop acting like a baby,” Sawyer replied for Seth.

The two of them got in Seth’s truck and headed down the highway toward the Archer farm. It was probably a good opportunity for a lecture on responsibility and setting a good example, now that Court was Seth’s captive audience, but they rode in silence instead, with only Court muttering the occasional Unbelievable under his breath.

Seth hoped the silence would help the man calm down.

He knew where the Archer place was even though he never been there himself. The spread was nice, a large, old farmhouse with a one-story barn adjacent. Seth didn’t know much about raising sheep, but he supposed it was like cattle ranching: feed, breed, and then to market.

He couldn’t say how well the Archers were doing financially, but by his quick count they had two hundred head and the lights were still on. That was something, at least, in these difficult times.

He pulled into the long, circular driveway shaped much like his own (Seth assumed sheep ranchers also used trailers), killed the truck’s engine and pulled the parking brake.

“There she is,” Court growled, and for a moment Seth thought he meant Rowan.

He turned to follow Court’s gaze but saw the little girl instead. She was in the sheep paddock, splashing in a mud puddle with little pink rubber boots. Next to her was a huge dog. It had been white at one time, judging from the patches of lighter fur peeking out from underneath the filth, but the puddle adventure had left the dog streaked with brown splotches. The girl looked up at them, frowning, obviously cautious around strangers. The dog maneuvered closer to her, eyeing them warily.

“Hi, there,” said Court.

Seth didn’t know if he was trying come off friendly and just failing or if Court was too angry to rein himself in. His words came out clipped, through clenched teeth.

The little girl, wisely, didn’t respond.

“It’s okay. I’m a friend of your mommy’s,” Court assured her.

The girl looked from Court to Seth, inspecting each man closely. “You’re a friend of Mama’s,” she finally declared to Seth. “I remember. From the store.”

“I’m a friend of your mama’s, too,” Court insisted, moving past Seth and closer to the girl. “Where’s your daddy?”

“Court,” Seth warned quietly.

The dog apparently felt the same way, because he growled, low in his throat, when Court moved in. Court hesitated, seemed to consider his chances with a dog who might actually outweigh him, and took a step back. The dog stopped growling but continued to keep a watchful eye on them. Seth had the impression that if either of them so much as touched the gate, they’d draw back a bloody stump.

The little girl wrinkled up her nose. “My daddy?”

“Yeah.”

She shrugged.

“You don’t know where he is?” Court pressed.

“Court,” Seth repeated. “Let’s go to the house. Don’t do this. Not this way.”

“He’s lost,” she told them.

That surprised Seth and from the look of it, the word had Court thoroughly confused, as well.

“Lost?” Court asked her.

She nodded. “I hope we find him, though. If I had a daddy, he’d give me a real pony. Maybe.” She waved a plastic toy horse at them that had seen better days. Before either he or Court could say anything in response, Rowan burst out of the house behind them.

She was running full speed—well, as fast as she could anyway, through the spring mud that hadn’t fully dried yet. “You get away from her!” she shouted.

The dog on the other side of the fence barked loudly, startling the little girl. Seth watched as two more of the huge beasts came tearing ass around the side of the barn, the whole pack of them yipping and pawing the ground.

Rowan made it to them, breathless and red faced. She surged past them, to the gate, and for a moment Seth thought she would open it, releasing the dogs. But she reached over the steel gate, lifted the girl into her arms, and hugged her tightly, ignoring the muddy pink boots that were splattering her clothes.

“What the hell did you say to her?!” Rowan demanded, backing away from them.

“Nothing,” Court snapped.

Rowan turned and fled again, back across the yard.

When Court started to follow, Seth grabbed his arm and held him back. When Court tried to jerk away, Seth dragged him for a few feet and pinned him to the front of his truck’s grill. “Hey!” he said firmly. “Let her go.”

Court pushed at him, but Seth was slightly larger and unwilling to move. “I’m not letting this go!” Court declared.