The Rancher's Wyoming Twins by Virginia McCullough

Author:Virginia McCullough
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-12-23T14:52:20+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

A MORNING LIKE this was familiar in the way old shoes were easy to slip on. In good times and bad, Heather had known she could count on birdsong and the sunrise over the pastures, even when nothing else remained the same. When she and Matt trotted to the crest of a hill, he stopped to point out familiar ravines, rocks and slabs where sage and primrose had pushed their way through the cracks and crevices.

“There are a couple of narrow creeks crisscrossing the land up ahead,” Matt said, bringing Bo alongside Heather and her horse. She took their stop as a chance to talk to Archie, the quarter horse Matt had readied for her to ride. Unlike Bo, Pebbles hadn’t trained for herding work.

“Everything is green,” Heather observed, smiling. “Except for all the places where it’s not and never will be.” To her right, the fresh grazing land eventually became patchy and rocky until it turned into desolate country, where what grew at all was wild. The ancient cottonwood trees, often whipped around in storms, were turning into skeletons. “Not everything is like a postcard, is it?”

“Would the younger ranch-hand in you have said that? Maybe some tidier views have jaded you for all this.” Matt’s eyes looked especially blue on this unseasonably warm but hazy day. They were teasing eyes now.

“Not a chance,” Heather said. “But there’s something to be said for the ocean and sandy beaches and spotting herons standing like statues in the Carolina marshes.” Heather thought about the dairy cows on the rolling fields in Minnesota. “I felt like I’d stepped into a postcard many times.”

“I know you didn’t want to leave your original home, but seeing other parts of the country must have had its upside.”

She nodded, but it was hard to sort all that out when she was on a new horse traveling old ground that didn’t feel like the routine ride it once had been. She was tentative now, as if she’d lost a step in terms of her skills and instincts.

On the other hand, there was Matt and Kenny, who confidently separated groups of sheep moms and fast-growing lambs. Kenny worked with Spice, an Australian shepherd, deliberately moving quicker toward the new pasture. Meanwhile, Matt had the other dog, Casey, a classic black-and-white border collie.

Kenny’s wife, Nancy, had raised both dogs from puppies, Heather had learned. That was when, Matt had told her, that Nancy and Kenny had once managed a sheep ranch for an owner who rarely took an interest in the operation. “They said the best thing to come out of that was hard-won experience,” Matt said. After a couple of years, the gentleman farmer must have learned that raising sheep was challenging work, even with good hired hands.

Casey expertly circled the group of sheep and held them together while Matt stopped to check the terrain before taking this group down the hill. From where they were at the crest, a few old oil rigs, shut down now, were visible in the distance.

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