Page 99 of The Only Seconds that Matter
“I’m glad I changed your mind.”
“That’s cuz you’re a soft California boy, not some hardened jack ass redneck who rides bulls for a livin’.”
“Speaking as someone who knows a hardened jack ass redneck who rides broncs for a living, I think you bring something to the table.”
“I can suck a dick pretty well, I’ll give myself credit for that.”
Victor considered playing it off as a joke like Johnny so obviously saw it, but instead he decided to challenge him a little.“I’m not dating you for your dick-sucking skills, impressive as they are.I like you because of all the other stuff.”
“I think you’re just hard up.”
“Johnny.”Victor pressed both hands against Johnny’s jaw, rubbing his cheeks with his thumbs.Johnny lifted his gaze and caught Victor’s eyes.“You’re wonderful, and I’m not the only one who sees it.”
Johnny shifted, gaze darting away.Judging by the color in his cheeks, Victor had made him uncomfortable.He solved this predicament by tucking his face in against Victor’s chest and sliding his arms around him.In response, Victor ran slow and gentle fingers through Johnny’s hair, glad to have Johnny digesting his words for once instead of just parrying with some snappy riposte.Maybe he’d finally believe them.
CHAPTER 28
Victor had just put his pants on the next morning when he got a call from his neighbor Frank Hillard from down the road.
“Buncha my cows got out after some fucking dingus left the gate open,” he informed Victor.“There were about forty head in that field, mostly heifers… you wouldn’t happen to have a few boys around you could offer to help me wrangle them, would ya?I’m too damn old to be doing it by myself.”
“I’ll be over there with a few folks as soon as I can.”
“I ’preciate ya,” Frank said before hanging up.
Victor lightly tapped Johnny’s head, which was only partially visible above the comforter.“Come on.We got some cows to round up.”
“Huh?”
“You said you’re off work today, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Neighbor’s cows are loose.He asked for my help to wrangle them up.”
Johnny let out a slow groan, digging his face in the pillow.“Don’t I do enough of that at work?Don’t wanna see a single cow on my day off.”
“My neighbor is in his seventies and none of his kids live around here.We’re gonna help him out.”
Eventually Victor was able to convince Johnny to crawl out of bed and put some pants on.Then, with dogs in tow, they headed outside into the frostbitten morning chill.Victor was halfway through saddling Blitz when he heard Jade’s car driving up.When Victor explained the situation, she wasted no time in grabbing her horse and her saddle and tacking up.With three of them and two dogs at heel, they could make short work of forty Angus heifers.
Frank Hillard was sitting in a parked truck smoking a cigarette at the end of his driveway when Victor, Johnny, and Jade cantered up to him.True to what Victor knew of him, he didn’t waste their time with any small talk.He simply gestured toward a sloping hill to their south, informed him that was the last place he’d seen the cows, and wished them good luck.
Victor, Johnny, and Jade all spread out to look for the escapees.Within twenty minutes, Jade called Victor’s cellphone and told him she’d found them down in a swamp at the edge of a cornfield, about a ten minute ride from where Victor was.So Victor whistled for the dogs, and the dogs whipped past him as he pushed Blitz into a steady gallop along the grassy shoulder of the road.Soon he spotted Jade on her roan gelding, waving him down, with Johnny on Saturn at her side.He followed her into the cornfield, and at the very edge were the cows, some with muck lines up to their elbows as they waded through mud and stagnant water that had made the grass in that area especially tantalizing.
The dogs were bred to herd cattle, but Victor’s aunt had never given them any formal training, and Victor didn’t know how to, so for the most part they did as best as instinct could manage.So far that was working well, as the dogs showed no hesitation in diving into the muck to drive the cows higher up the hill, somewhere the horses could more easily access them.From there the group split into three different sections, each of which had to be driven back into the bigger herd until they were able to move as a unit down to the road.
At that time, Victor could hear a faint mooing come from the field they’d just left.He told Jade to watch over the herd while he backtracked and found the straggler.Thanks to Piper, he was able to; the cow’s black coat made her nearly impossible to spot in the brambles that grew around the swamp, and half of her was submerged in mud.Victor called Johnny on his phone.
“Can you come down here?I think it’s gonna take two of us to get her out.”
Twenty seconds later, Saturn came cantering up over the hill.She slid to a stop on the way down, leaving long skid marks in her wake.Victor pointed out the heifer to Johnny, who gathered up the lariat hanging from his saddle.
“How heavy you think she is?”Johnny asked.
“Probably about 400 pounds.”
“No way we’re pushing her out.”
