Читать книгу Her Lone Star Cowboy - Debra Clopton, Elizabeth Wiseman Mackey, Debra Clopton - Страница 9

Chapter Three

Gabi drove the truck over the cattle guard of Jess Holden’s ranch. He’d found four dead heifers the evening before. Four at one time. They’d been dead too long for a necropsy to determine the cause of death, so her boss Susan sent her out to draw blood. For some reason, the idea of seeing the cowboy again caused a nervousness to wash over her.

Susan had confided to her that Jess and his two brothers had worked hard to scrape together the money to buy their ranch and stock it. The potential for these deaths to be something that could affect their entire herd had to be worrying them. Maybe make or break them.

Gabi hated to hear that. She was still thinking about it as the corral and Jess came into view. She would have been lying if she denied that she wasn’t curious about the cowboy.

Standing beside the corral at the corner of the pasture, he watched her pull to a halt, his face a work of seriousness. The man was better looking than she remembered—if that were even possible. How in the world this guy was still walking around single in a town that had gone wild with matchmaking was a huge mystery. His hair was just the length to make a woman want to run her fingers through it, tucking it behind his ear. On some guys she might have thought it scruffy looking, but not on Jess. Nope. On him it looked great. It looked right—

What are you doing?

Surprised that she was thinking about Jess more intimately than she wanted to, Gabi shook her head. She’d just broken up with her fiancé a month ago. This proved what she’d realized earlier—she hadn’t truly been in love with Phillip. Still, she was shocked by how swiftly she could become attracted to someone else.

Not just someone—Jess Holden.

Parking the truck she hopped from the cab, all business. She’d come to do her job. She didn’t want his cattle to get all sick and die, but she didn’t want to marry the guy, either—Gabi tripped at the thought, snagging her boot toe and nearly taking a dive at his feet.

“Watch it.” Jess caught her arm. “Are you all right?”

“Oh yeah, I’m just a tripper.” Her voice shook as she tugged away her arm from his warm grasp.

He chuckled. “So that’s what happened the other day.”

She made a face at him.

“Where’s Susan?” he asked, his gaze flitting past her to the truck.

“She sent me on ahead to draw some blood for testing so the labs could get it started.”

A brief hint of worry flashed across his expression. She knew he’d have rather Susan had showed up.

“That sounds like a good plan,” he said, hiding his disappointment. “I pulled the cattle I think we should look at. They’re in the corral.”

Gabi didn’t normally let negative reactions bother her, especially in such a stressful situation like this. After all the man was worried about his cattle. She followed him to the corral, a little stunned by how his reactions were affecting her. But she tried hard not to take it personally.

* * *

Jess had searched the property for any other sick or dead cattle and had found four total. He was worried. Everything they had was invested in this land, these cattle and the livestock. He owned his cattle rig outright but that was about the only thing the bank didn’t actually own.

“Is this all of them?” Gabi asked surveying the ten cows.

“So far. I watched them this morning, trying to pick out any that might even look slightly ill.”

Gabi stood quietly and observed them milling around. Her gaze skimmed the animals, lingering here and there. “They do look a little distressed. Not only their nasal activity, but some of them are drawn-looking in their stomachs.”

“Yeah, they were sluggish about eating.”

She glanced his way, her sparkling green eyes lit with agreement. “When stock is slow to eat, they’re sick. Problem is, how sick? Let me grab my bag and we’ll get to work. The quicker my part is done, the sooner Susan can give you answers.”

“I’ll have one in by the squeeze chute by the time you’re ready.”

“Sounds good.” She paused after taking a couple steps and glanced at him over her shoulder. “We’re going to figure this out, Jess.”

She gave him a reassuring smile before continuing toward the truck for her equipment. He opened the gate and entered the pen with the cattle. It didn’t take him but a few minutes to cull one from the bunch and herd him into the alley that led to the steel squeeze chute. He’d just pulled the lever that brought the bars in close, holding the heifer in place so that Gabi could draw the blood.

“You’re quick,” she said, striding to the pen.

“I should be,” he said. “I do this every day.” As worried about his livestock as he was, he couldn’t help noticing that she looked as sunny and bright as a fresh summer day. She wore old jeans and scuffed boots that looked like they’d seen a lot of miles. Her tank top was bright pink and fresh looking and showed off her sun-kissed arms. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail with a bright yellow ribbon that fluttered in the warm breeze. He watched as she pulled out the syringe and prepared to take the first sample with speedy efficiency. “You look pretty quick yourself.”

“I should be. I do this every day,” she copied him and smiled through the steel bars before inserting the needle in the heifer’s neck.

The animal hardly reacted to her expert touch. For some reason he’d had visions of Gabi making the animals nervous.

“You know, I’m mad at you.” She didn’t look up as she spoke.

“About what?”

She met his curious stare with frank eyes. “You bragged in the diner about rescuing me from that rushing water.”

“I wasn’t bragging. Sam asked why I was dripping water on his wood floors so I told him. There was no bragging involved. Concern? Yeah. Bragging? No way.”

“You worried my grandmother for no reason.”

He hadn’t thought of that. “I told them you were safe.” The cute quirk of her left eyebrow told him she was mad at him. Not to mention the green flash of fire in her eyes.

“You didn’t have to tell them the details. You should have known it would cause Adela to worry.” She pushed hard on the steel lever, releasing the heifer.

Jess let the next one into the chute. “She seemed fine to me. You’re getting all bent out of shape for nothing.”

“You think? My gram was worried and there was no need in it.”

He thought about it for a minute. He hadn’t called Colt or Luke and told them about the dead heifers or about the cattle that were looking ill. Why hadn’t he? Because he didn’t want to worry them. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t think.”

She met his gaze through the bars. “It’s just that I’ve worried her enough in my lifetime. I’d rather not do that anymore.”

There was a long silence as they worked together. He wondered what she’d done to make Adela worry. If she was prone to traipsing across pastures during electrical storms, then he could understand why. “I’m sure you didn’t worry her too much,” he said, unable to let her comment linger in the air.

Pulling more blood into the syringe, she frowned. “Sadly, I did. Anyway, I guess in some way all kids worry their parents and grandparents. Still, I don’t want to cause Adela any more worry.”

Jess could have told her that that wasn’t necessarily true. Parents had to care before they could be worried. “You are lucky to have Adela in your life.”

She yanked the lever again, releasing another heifer. “I’m not lucky. I’m blessed. God did right by me when He gave me my mother and my grandmother.”

Growing up, Jess had watched other kids with parents who cared. He’d wondered what that would feel like.

“I know Miss Adela is a good woman, I’m sure your mother is too,” he said, as they continued working through the cattle. She smiled, just enough to show a bit of the dimple that he’d seen during the storm.

“You know what my goal is now?” Light seemed drawn to her, making her blond ponytail sparkle and her suntanned skin glow.

“What?”

“I want to be a blessing to my Gram and anyone else who I meet. I’m not sure I can do it, but I’m trying.” She finished pulling the blood. “You know what I mean?” Sincerity vibrated in her voice as she pulled the lever and let the last animal run free.

Jess hadn’t ever thought about being a blessing to anyone. Looking at her, he almost wished he could say he knew exactly what she meant. But that wasn’t true. “No. I don’t know what you mean,” he said, his brows crunching slightly as he spoke. “But, I can tell you that if that blood work comes back clear, you’ll have been a big blessing to me.”

She smiled a dazzler of a smile that blew his boots off.

“I hope so.” She picked up the case full of blood samples and headed toward her truck. He closed the gate behind him and followed her, watching as she set them in the seat.

“Let’s pray that this report comes back and it’s an easy fix, or better yet that nothing is wrong with these heifers,” she said turning back to him and holding her hand out toward him.

“That’d be great,” he said, not sure what she was doing.

She cocked her head slightly then wiggled her fingers. “Hold my hand.”

Jess was by no means a fool. He wasn’t about to forego holding the hand of a beautiful woman. When he took her hand, his pulse kicked up a notch… .

“Let’s pray.” She bowed her head.

Pray? Now?

“Oh, Father,” she prayed, squeezing his hand in hers. “Please watch over Jess’s cattle and let them stay healthy and strong. If they are ill, we pray You’ll lead us to the answer quickly and that You’ll help us to know what to do for them so that they return to health quickly. We ask in Your name that Your will be done. Amen.”

Jess wasn’t surprised by much, but this was twice that Gabi Newberry had done it. First asking about his salvation and now taking his hand and praying out loud—he wasn’t sure which had him most startled. He was staring at the top of her head as she finished and raised happy eyes to his. She took his breath away.

“There that should do it.” She grinned, squeezing his hand before letting go and stepping away from him. “I’m heading back so I can get these samples to Susan. We should know something soon.”

“Great,” Jess said, still reeling from her prayer and the touch of her hand. He’d felt a wave of awareness the instant her hand had touched his.

Gabi Newberry had the ability to catch him off guard when most didn’t. He liked that, but she also had a close relationship with the Lord. He wasn’t used to that. Even Luke, who had a strong faith, didn’t pray out loud unless it was before a meal. Jess didn’t pray. He’d stopped a long time ago.

And he was fine with that.

Luke and several of his friends never gave up though. They asked him to come to church all the time. And every once in a while he went so they would feel better. But it didn’t feel right to him, knowing how much resentment about his past he had buried inside of him. He didn’t let his past affect him in many ways, but church was a hard fit.

Attractive to him as she was, Gabi’s front-and-center faith had him backtracking.

Besides, he had a gut feeling that once she found out he wasn’t sold on Jesus like she was, two things could happen. One, she’d want nothing to do with him even if she was attracted to him. Or two, she would make him her project, deciding she needed to “fix” him.

He was fine the way he was and didn’t need, or want to be, fixed! Nope, that idea didn’t sit well at all. Matter of fact, Jess figured the best course of action would be to steer clear of Gabi altogether, which was one more good reason to hope his cattle hadn’t contracted anything that would require a lot of interaction with the vet clinic—or Gabi.

He needed favorable test results. He did not need Gabi out here testing cattle, drawing blood or trying to help him in any way.

Watching her drive off, he felt a pang of regret…she was like a ray of sunshine. Even mad at him. That made him smile.

Yup. He needed healthy cattle.

And he needed to steer clear of Gabi Newberry.

* * *

“I think it’s a plant.”

“A plant?” Gabi was changing the dressing on Peanut’s wound when Susan came through the swinging door from the front of the clinic. Despite the painful wound, the colt was doing great. It wasn’t every animal that would allow people to touch it after experiencing such a traumatic injury. Especially a vicious attack like Peanut had endured. “That could be good or bad. What are your thoughts?”

Gabi ran a gentle hand along Peanut’s flank before stepping out of the stall. She’d had Jess on her mind more than she’d wanted to. She’d been worrying about him and his ranch—after what Susan had told her, Gabi couldn’t stand the thought of something bad being wrong with his cattle and them all dying and leaving him and his brothers in a financial bind. She’d tried to be mad at him when she’d gone to take the blood samples, but she’d been unable to maintain her ire.

Goodness, when the man turned those silky brown eyes on her, it was kinda hard to stay mad. It was maddening, really.

Susan crossed her arms and leaned against the stall gate, checking out the colt’s condition as she spoke. “I found that the liver values showed there was damage. I’m fairly certain that’s what it is. But we both know that I can’t be sure what kind of plant specifically without seeing the contents of the dead animal’s stomach. That’ll show what the cattle have eaten, and we can quickly get to the bottom of this if we got there in time. We don’t want any more of Jess’s livestock to die, so we are going to pray that we’re able to locate the plant culprit and solve the issue before any more life is lost.”

Just as Gabi had thought! “I agree,” she said, hoping on the one hand she’d be sent to test, and on the other hand wishing she wouldn’t. “So do you need me to find it?” she asked. There was no way Susan had time to traipse about Jess’s pasture in search of a poisonous plant. The array of deadly plants and weeds was big, especially in drought conditions when weeds tended to pop up and good grasses were eaten down. It could be something hard to find. Plus, Susan knew Gabi had experience with this.

Susan nodded. “That’s exactly what I need you to do. So grab a sample box and get out there to Jess’s pastures and find any poisonous plant you can.”

Hope and purpose filled Gabi—and yes, anticipation of seeing Jess Holden again. But she had a job to do and if she did it well, she might be able to prevent any more of Jess’s cattle from dying. “I’ll get right to it!”

“Love your attitude,” Susan said, heading back toward the office. “I’ll contact Jess and tell him you’re heading his way. I know he’ll be excited.”

Gabi laughed because she wasn’t so sure about that. She was fairly certain Jess would rather have Susan on the case, but hopefully he’d trust Gabi enough to give her a chance.

She ignored the excitement she felt at seeing him again. She was going to have to get a cap on that unwanted emotion. She was here in Mule Hollow to draw closer to God, and that had nothing whatsoever to do with a man. She was excited about getting to be a blessing to someone, anyone. That someone might just be Jess Holden.