mending fences

A bonus scene for when the river rises

At least a dozen times, Jake had second-guessed agreeing to help shore up the fence line on the ranch he’d been banished from. Yet here he was, riding up to the gate where Robbie’s text had told him to wait, trying to take his own advice that he’d given to Cam and keep his heart rate from racing out of control.

It wasn’t like this was the first time he was meeting his three cousins. But, before, he’d always had Dylan or Bo or even Owen there to take metaphorical shelter behind. He wasn’t proud to admit it, but he was worried he was going to put his foot in his mouth in a way that he couldn’t recover from. Which would disappoint Dylan. Also, whether he liked it or not, Robbie, Johnny, and Danny were his neighbors. In a very small community where they had lived a hell of a lot longer than he had. He intended to make a life for himself and Cam in Trace County. That would be a lot easier if he didn’t burn any bridges that weren’t already in ashes.

Like the family home of these three men.

That had been a fun conversation. He’d been shocked when they’d grudgingly forgiven him and his father. Forgiven, yes. But he had no illusions that their sins had been forgotten.

Penny, predictably picking up on Jake’s unease, tossed her head and chewed on the bit in her mouth.

“No worries, girl,” Jake murmured, leaning forward to pat her neck. “We can do this. And when we get back, Cam will give you some extra carrots.”

Penny settled, as though she’d understood the compromise and was accepting it. In reality, Jake knew it was the mention of Cam that had calmed his own body, which was the kind of communication Penny understood.

Jake was thoroughly lovesick, and not even ashamed of it.

He thought of Cam as his own reward at the end of each day, including and especially this one. Maybe he’d ask for some extra carrots of his own. The thought made him grin, stop the horse, and reach for his phone to send a quick text: Do I get something special if I live through this day?

He was conscious of three pairs of eyes up ahead, staring at him, probably wondering what the hell he was doing, stopping to text when they were already waiting for him. But he didn’t care; in fact, a part of him delighted in pissing them off.

But that petty tendency was something he was working on, so he didn’t indulge it for long. Only as long as it took to see Cam’s answer appear: I’m sure that could be arranged. Any requests?

Grinning, Jake shot back: Dozens. I’ll send you a list.

He made himself leave it at that, slipping his phone back in his pocket and urging Penny into a canter the rest of the way to make up for the delay.

Despite being brothers, Jake’s three cousins didn’t look that much alike. Robbie was tall with black hair and a beard, and had this stoic vibe.

Johnny was the same Hollywood leading man Jake had met back in LA, but he was a little more reserved around his brothers than he’d been out there on his own. Clearly, there was some baggage between the siblings.

Danny, the youngest, looked like a carbon copy of all the photographs Jake had seen of Dylan in his twenties, which was surreal and annoying, though Jake couldn’t put his finger on why exactly.

“Hey,” he said as he rode up. “Didn’t you say nine?” It was still a few minutes before the hour. “I feel like I’m late.”

“You’re not,” Johnny said with a reassuring smile. “We just made sure we were early so you wouldn’t beat us here.”

“It’s the same thing as nine,” Robbie said curtly, turning his big gelding and riding through the open gate. “We’d better keep to the schedule.”

Well, at least Jake had the lay of the land. Johnny wanted him to feel welcome, and Robbie didn’t trust him. He glanced at Danny, the only unknown, but he only received a cool, unreadable look before Danny guided his palomino mare after his oldest brother.

“Go ahead. I’ll get the gate,” Johnny told him. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Jake contained a sigh. It was going to be a long day.

He hoped Cam had been serious about hearing his list of requests.

***

It was a cold morning, though warmer than Jake had been anticipating. He’d spent the last few months learning how to tolerate a Nebraska winter, but the lesson wasn’t fully learned yet. To be safe, he’d dressed in a few more layers than was strictly necessary, and he was beginning to feel the accumulation of his body heat to an uncomfortable degree.

But he didn’t want to hold up the progress of their little party as they wound through a path so narrow, snowy branches scraped against his legs and Penny’s haunches.

“Is this a deer trail?” he asked the man ahead of him, who happened to be Danny.

Danny looked over his shoulder briefly, frowning beneath the brim of a dark-brown hat that made his light-blue eyes stand out and intensified his resemblance to Dylan to a distracting degree. “No, it’s the horses’ trail. You can tell by how compacted the ground is. And it’s twice as wide as a deer trail.”

Jake couldn’t help it. His first instinct would always be a smartass comment, particularly when he was put on the defensive. “Well, I guess I have a lot to learn. If I’d grown up here, like you, I’d probably know the difference between a deer trail and a horse trail too.”

He had the satisfaction of seeing Danny’s shoulders stiffen, before a cough from behind him made him twist in the saddle toward Johnny, who was bringing up the rear of their single-file procession. “Actually, there weren’t horses in this section until we were all grown up. We’ve all learned a lot in the last few years.”

Right. Jake knew some of that story—how their dad, his uncle, had died when Johnny and Danny were little kids and Robbie was eighteen. How Robbie had raised them, and how he’d had more than he could handle with his brothers, the land, and the cattle herd, so he’d liquidated the herd and eventually wound up with a contract with the Bureau of Land Management for off-range housing of several dozen wild horses and saved the day.

Apparently, Robbie was perfect. Jake had never known how to deal with flawless people.

They came to yet another creek crossing. The number of waterways and the density of the trees made it clear why this fence repair job was being done with the aid of horses and not a couple of UTVs. Robbie took his horse down first, and instead of following right away, Danny hung back, his posture tense.

“It’s okay, Dan,” Robbie called from the far bank. The creek itself was dry except for a crust of ice, but the banks were steep. Apparently, Danny wasn’t as confident a rider as the other two, though that hadn’t been evident to Jake before now. “She knows what to do. Just give her plenty of rein.”

“And stay in the middle,” Johnny suggested playfully, earning himself a glare from his little brother.

“Come on,” Robbie coaxed. “You’ve got this.”

Taking a deep, audible breath, Danny loosened the reins as instructed and urged his mare forward. She was a nice-looking horse, though she showed signs of age. But she clearly knew what she was doing, stepping slowly but rhythmically down the slope and then trotting across the creek to Robbie and his horse, ice crunching under her hooves. Robbie reached out and bumped his knuckles against Danny’s shoulder. “Nice job.”

Danny shrugged, looking part relieved, part uncomfortable. Not wanting to get caught watching them, Jake hurried up and guided Penny down the bank. She didn’t have a lot of experience in this kind of setting. He’d mostly ridden her over open land, helping the Castigans and other outfits in need of a cowboy now and then. But she handled herself nicely and fell into step behind Danny’s mare once more. Behind him, he heard Johnny’s horse come down the bank with no trouble.

By the time they reached their destination—the corner of the section and its stretch of sagging fence—Jake was miserably overheated. When everyone dismounted, he immediately struggled free of his heavy coat. He sighed with relief as the cold air hit him. Then, more slowly, he stripped off the jacket and sweatshirt layered beneath.

If the cousins noticed he’d overdressed, they didn’t comment. Jake rolled up his clothes and tied them behind the saddle while Robbie and Danny tied up their horses. Johnny slipped the bridle off his horse to let him graze.

“That’s bold,” Jake observed. Penny was as reliable as any horse he’d ever ridden, but he was pretty sure if he let her loose in sniffing distance of a herd of mustangs, he’d never catch her again.

“Johnny’s horses are in love with him,” Danny informed Jake, a tiny smile turning up one corner of his mouth. Jake hadn’t realized his face was capable of a pleasant expression.

“Is that so?” Jake asked Johnny.

“Well, if they’re not, it’s not for lack of trying,” Johnny said with an easy grin.

“Can somebody give me a hand?” Robbie called. He’d taken the fence stretcher from his giant saddlebag that looked like it was designed to pack a rifle, and now he was pointing to the panel on the other side, which held a roll of wire.

“You bet,” Johnny said, jogging over to help.

Danny watched them, his brief smile disappearing and a furrow building between his eyebrows. He had a wrinkle there, which told Jake a lot about what kind of a twentysomething he was.

Jake didn’t break his stare fast enough, and Danny caught him looking. “What?”

“I was just realizing something,” Jake said, and waited a second for Danny to ask him what it was.

Instead, the little shit just arched an eyebrow at him and said, “Oh yeah? Good for you.” He took a pair of gloves out of his back pocket and pulled them on as he strode over to his brothers.

Jake laughed softly to himself and followed.

Stretching fence wasn’t anyone’s definition of fun, but at least the work offered them tangible, visible progress. As they reached the next straight line brace in the fence, where a pair of cross-braced log posts stood in the place of the steel ones to offer the stretch of fence additional support, Jake looked back and saw a quarter-mile of six strands of taut, smooth wire gleaming in the winter’s sun.

“Let’s take a rest.” Robbie spoke in the tone of someone making an announcement, not a suggestion. Jake wasn’t going to complain, though. He pulled out his phone and texted Cam his list of requests, in alphabetical order just because.

“Want one?”

Jake looked up and found Danny extending a bottle of water toward him. Jake hadn’t thought about bringing water, an oversight he’d regretted for at least an hour.

“Thanks.” He took the bottle, exchanged a short nod with Danny, then watched him deliver water bottles to his brothers.

Johnny was smiling down at his phone in that dopey way that told Jake he was probably texting Owen. Jake had observed a matching smile on Owen’s face when he texted Johnny, which was mildly disturbing, considering Jake wouldn’t have thought Owen capable of sappy behavior, even if he was in love.

Robbie was leaning on the fence post and gazing across the pasture, his dark-brown eyes serious in the shade of his hat brim, his jaw set like he was expecting to spot a trespasser or maybe a whole regiment of them and had to maintain battle readiness.

He did smile quickly at Danny when he accepted his water, at least.

A few minutes later, their break was over. “Jake, Danny, can you get the other roll of wire?” Robbie asked.

“Sure.” Danny was apparently answering for both of them because he bumped Jake’s shoulder pointedly as he walked past. “Come on.”

Jake fell into step beside him. “Do the three of you always gang together for this kind of job?” he asked casually.

“No. Well, those two do. But I’m not like them. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

“You’re going to be a lawyer, right?”

“Yep. I’m in my second year of law school.”

“That tracks.”

His comment earned him a startled look. “What do you mean?”

“You seem like you’re cut out to be a mediator. Or at least somebody’s advocate.”

Danny slanted a thoughtful look Jake’s way. “My brothers don’t get why I’d want to be a lawyer. But…yeah. It’s a way to help people.”

“Like the way you try to help your brothers?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well…earlier I thought you’d come out here—even though you clearly don’t want to be out here—as a peacekeeper between your brothers and me. But now I realize you’re here as a peacekeeper between the two of them.”

Surprise cleared the furrow from between Danny’s brows. Jake guessed that if people had noticed the way he handled his brothers, no one had called him out on it.

“You’re very perceptive,” Danny said after a few long seconds. “Or maybe I’m just not very subtle.” He pushed his hat back so he could rub his forehead, then reached for the roll of wire and grimaced as he took its weight. “Could you…?”

“Yeah, sure.” Jake quickly took one side of the roll to help, and together they walked it back toward where Robbie and Johnny were attaching the stretcher.

As they saw them coming, Johnny smiled cheerfully, but Robbie frowned.

Jake sighed. “I don’t think Robbie likes me very much,” he muttered to Danny. They were still too far away for Johnny and Robbie to overhear them.

“He’s not used to placing trust in new people.”

“Especially considering what my father did?”

Danny tilted his head. “I don’t think Robbie would hold that against you. Besides, people screw up. Even Robbie has made some mistakes.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“No,” Danny admitted, then when Jake grinned, he laughed.

Quiet had made good on his promise to make an effort to pay the Chases something, sending the money to Jake, who’d then passed it along to Robbie. It had been enough for them to rebuild a bridge and clear some trees for new pasture, allowing them to apply for more horses and create additional long-term revenue for the ranch. It didn’t make up for the loss of a house and everything in it, especially one that contained so many memories of family members who had passed, but Jake liked to think it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.

“Look at you two, getting along,” Johnny called, apparently having overheard Danny’s laughter. Robbie, leaning over to pick up a box of fence clips from the grass, only glanced at them with a deepening frown.

Jake sighed. He’d promised Dylan he’d try to win them over, and he was two for three. But he didn’t like his odds where Robbie was concerned, regardless of Danny’s assurances.

“Come on, y’all,” Robbie said gruffly. “We still have three miles to go.”

Jake grabbed his pliers and got to work.

***

They rode along the fence’s edge and found it to be in good condition for another three quarters of a mile, but then they reached a point where young trees were growing through the wires and pressing against a couple of posts.

Danny held all four horses while the other three men tackled the brush clearing. With a pair of pruners from Johnny’s saddlebag, Robbie cut back the branches while Jake and Johnny held them out of his way. Jake was grateful for his winter gloves when he discovered several of the trees had thorns.

“We call those locust trees,” Johnny said, pulling off his glove and sucking on his forefinger where a thorn had cut through and nicked his skin. “The new growth is the worst part. Did it get you?”

“Just a little.” Jake touched a spot on his cheek where he’d been grazed. It stung, but he knew it would be no more than a nuisance. He waited for Robbie to weigh into the casual back-and-forth, and when he didn’t, Jake pressed his lips together and trudged back to his horse.

It wasn’t that he expected a thank-you. Or maybe he did. Was he in some kind of karmic debt to Robbie that he could never repay? Bound to have to complete thankless chores for decades in penance for the few minutes of indecision and bad decision-making after he’d dragged his sobbing father from an already burning house?

He felt exhausted, suddenly. And when he checked his phone, it told him he had no signal, so he couldn’t even send snarky texts or suggest sex acts to his boyfriend.

This had already been a long day, and he wasn’t even halfway through it.

“It’s eleven o’clock,” Johnny announced from the rear as they rode along another horse trail. Jake had always thought he had a good sense of direction, but he was sure that if he didn’t have his cousins to follow, he’d be lost forever in these trees.

“Early lunch?” Jake guessed.

Ahead of him, Danny shook his head, twisting around to aim a frown at Johnny. “I don’t have to go.”

“Yes, you do,” Robbie corrected, pulling up his horse and halting their procession. “Danny has to get back to school this afternoon,” he explained to Jake. “Though if you ask him, he can work all day and drive all night, then go to class in the morning.” He gave his brother a patient smile, reminding Jake that Johnny and Danny had been parented better by their older brother than Jake had been by his actual father. “We’re about to the end of this trail, and then you two can follow the creek to the hay meadow and have a smooth ride from there.”

“You two?” Jake echoed as Robbie turned around in the saddle and urged his horse on.

“I’m going to ride back with him,” Johnny answered from behind Jake.

So Danny and Johnny were going to leave the rest of the job to Jake and Robbie. Incidentally, leaving them alone together.

Well, he’d wanted to win Robbie over. Maybe this was his chance.

Twenty minutes into their one-on-one, Jake was pretty sure this wasn’t his chance to do anything except maybe, possibly, avoid pissing Robbie off. If he didn’t keep his mouth shut and the guy rode off and left him to wander these never-ending woods for eternity, he’d have no one but himself to blame.

“So, have you had horses slip the fence?” he asked, trying to make conversation and seizing upon the seemingly neutral topic of why they were out there together in the first place.

“Not since your dad cut the fence,” Robbie said shortly, but then cleared his throat and looked over with a grim frown, like he hadn’t meant the jibe. “Actually, the answer is yes, but probably not in the way you mean. We’ve had horses get in, rather than horses getting out.”

Jake snorted. “That’s…weird.”

“Yep. I was out checking the bands in their usual spots, and I caught sight of a horse going into the trees. I might have assumed it was one of ours, except it was a loud-marked pinto. Hard to miss, and also, we don’t have any of those.”

“Did you find out where it came from?”

“No. I haven’t seen it again either, but I haven’t looked too hard. I thought the first priority would be figuring out how it got in, but even though the fence has had a couple of weak spots, I doubt the horse—or horses, who knows—got in here on their own.”

Jake digested that. “You think somebody brought them over and let them in?” He’d never heard of anything like that.

His surprise must have been obvious in his voice because Robbie sighed. “I know it doesn’t make any sense. But I don’t think there’s another explanation. However it happened, I need to sort it out. I don’t need outside horses disrupting the herd dynamics out here, or worse, spreading sickness.”

The land was more open through this stretch, presenting a vista of the river that made Jake pause for a few long seconds and watch the water. Robbie didn’t rush him, stopping his own horse and sharing in the moment without saying anything, until Jake clucked to Penny to move her on.

“I like your horse,” he told Robbie honestly. He didn’t give false horse-related compliments, and he meant this one. The gelding was big, stout, and had a soft, good-natured expression. He reminded Jake of Chance in appearance, but he clearly had a quieter nature.

“Poco’s a good one,” Robbie agreed, stroking a hand down the gelding’s mane. “Thanks. I like your mare too,” he added, and the appreciative glance he shot toward Penny made Jake think he meant the compliment too. As he should. Penny was a good-looking mare, and she’d been handling the day admirably for a youngster.

They rode into shorter grass as they ascended a rocky slope, and Jake heard the telltale clunk of a loose shoe before Robbie did. He frowned down at Penny, but he didn’t think it was coming from her.

Sure enough, Robbie pulled up a second later with a sigh.

“I think I’ve got a loose shoe.” He hopped out of the saddle and bent down out of sight on the other side of his horse, then straightened again and leaned across his saddle. “Yep. Front left. He’s got tough feet, though. I think he’ll be all right with a bare foot if we take it easy.” He dug in his saddlebag. “I’ve got a hoof pick somewhere.”

“I have one, if you don’t,” Jake said. That was the one thing he’d never forget to have with him on a ride, even if remembering water and suitable attire wasn’t guaranteed.

“Found it.” Robbie held up a hoof pick, then bent to pick up Poco’s leg, his back turned to the hillside, so Jake was the one who saw them appear—a half-dozen rangy mustangs drifting up the slope that had sheltered the scents and sounds of Robbie, Jake, and the saddle horses.

“We’ve got visitors,” Jake murmured to Robbie.

Robbie set down Poco’s foot and turned. “We do. Damn, we must really be out of sniffing range right here. I’ve hardly ever seen Rebel’s band this time of year. That’s the black mare.” He pointed her out to Jake.

They watched the horses appear a few at a time in companionable silence, and then they both sucked in a breath when the next head and shoulders to come into view were those of a white horse dotted with light sorrel patches. Robbie’s uninvited pinto.

At the same moment, a breeze combed Jake’s hair, and the black mare browsing the sparse grass a hundred yards ahead of them up the hillside lifted her head and snorted at them.

“We’re spotted,” Jake murmured as the horses turned as one and disappeared over the slope.

Robbie swore, his gaze swinging toward Poco, visibly wrestling with the urge to swing into the saddle and go after the horses but not wanting to risk the loose shoe.

Jake only hesitated for a half-second before he jumped to the ground and held out Penny’s reins. “Here. Take Penny.” He didn’t loan out a horse lightly, but he’d watched Robbie ride plenty of times, including for several hours today. He knew he’d take good care of her.

Robbie didn’t ask if he was sure, just nodded shortly, traded his gelding’s reins for Penny’s, and mounted in one smooth motion. Penny tilted her ears back as he settled in the saddle, and then she put them forward again, like she knew she was in capable hands. Then she headed off like a bullet from a chamber, and within a second or two, she was out of sight over the ridge after the wild horses.

Poco fidgeted, then pawed, the excitement more than even a well-trained horse could tolerate without expressing at least a little consternation.

“You’re okay, big guy,” Jake murmured, rubbing his neck and talking to him until he quieted.

A few long minutes passed. The trees were silent around them, as if the mustangs and Robbie and Penny had run straight into another world and left Jake and Poco alone in this one.

Robbie had stuck the hoof pick back in the saddlebag before he took off, so Jake removed it and set about prying off the shoe. He’d just succeeded when Poco whinnied loudly enough to make his ears rattle, heralding the return of Robbie and Penny.

“Did you get a look at your visitors?” Jake asked, returning the hoof pick and removed shoe to the saddlebag, and studying Penny as Robbie dismounted. She looked calm but winded, her nostrils flaring, a sheen of sweat on her shoulders.

“I did,” Robbie confirmed. “Not one pinto, but two. And one of them has a wild eye. At least I can offer a bit more of a description. But we’re going to have to get them corralled somehow. It’ll take all four of us, and Rett too. I might be able to talk Megan into it if I ask nicely.”

By “the four of us,” Robbie presumably meant himself, his brothers, and…Jake. He hadn’t expected an “us” to fall so casually from Robbie’s mouth.

“Well, I’m happy to help out. Just let me know when.”

“Thanks, Jake.”

Robbie dismounted while Jake was still processing the offhand expression of gratitude, which he’d been so conscious of not having earlier. But now that he had it, he wasn’t sure he deserved it.

He supposed all he could do was keep trying. And rounding up the wild horses to weed out the domestic ones would be a start.

“She’s an awfully nice mare,” Robbie said, stroking Penny’s neck. “Confident, but a good listener. She took good care of me.” To Jake’s shock, when Robbie turned back to him to hand him Penny’s reins, he was smiling. “I believe you can tell everything you need to know about a guy from meeting his horse.”

Jake said without thinking, “My dad used to say that.”

Robbie’s smile widened. “So did mine.”