didn’t want to incur the wrath of Dad or Uncle Lucien. Everyone was so tense, and I hadn’t even tried to talk to anyone all day. A part of me worried about what Dad would do when we got home. Would he try to get their money back because of Sawyer being with me? Would he try to sue them for some reason? I hoped to God not.
That brought up other uncomfortable thoughts about Sawyer. Like if I was ever going to see him again after this. If he would even want to see me after everything that happened with Rubin and my Dad. I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure if I would have an answer even a while after we left. It weighed heavily on my mind as we passed through the late morning and into the afternoon.
This part of the drive was peaceful, but I could see how some people would find it boring. By that point, you should have known what to do and when and how to do it, and all that was left was getting the cattle back to the ranch. There were no more stops, aside from breaks to eat and rest the animals, and it would all be over in just a few hours. But the bulk of the day was just casually driving the cattle back across the gorgeous landscape and admiring the Montgomery Ranch.
I couldn’t help but be awed by it, the hundreds of acres and cattle and working farm areas and the Dude Ranch. All of it. It was so big and ambitious and free. It was uniquely American in its way, and it spoke to the soul. The soul of the nation that had grit. The nation that worked with their hands. The nation of cowboys.
Sawyer was a living embodiment of that. He was a modern day, non-smoking Marlboro Man, and he was sweet and caring to his animals, and tender and sexy. He was everything I never knew I wanted in a man, and the ranch was everything I never knew I wanted out of life.
It was a lot to think about.
As the afternoon wore on, I noticed Rubin getting bolder with the cattle. Either he was bored or emboldened by being the agitator and catalyst for the silence, but he was being rude and goofing off in a dangerous way. Ridding wide and then running hard in on the herd to spook the cattle was getting tiresome and old. Not to mention it was terrorizing the poor cattle.
It was a trick Sawyer taught us on the first drive as a way of getting stubborn cattle back in line and up to pace, but Rubin didn’t quite get the hang of it until that morning and had spent a good portion of the afternoon cackling as he did it.
“Rubin,” Sawyer called from behind him, “cut it out.”
“Rubin,” Rubin mocked, “cut it out.” He then leaned down to the cattle he had been teasing the most recently. “I don’t know, Rubin,” he said in a big, dumb fake voice that had a slow drawl like Sawyer’s, but added in a stupid sounding tone, “that hick cowboy looks awful mad!”
“Shut up, Rubin,” I said.
“Oh no,” he continued in the voice. “Now your easy cousin is joining in to rescue her boy toy. How ever will you defend yourself, Rubin?”
“Well, partner,” Rubin said in a more normal voice, although lower than his usual and adding a bit of twang, “I reckon I could take one or the both of them on easy enough. The one I’d have trouble with is you.”
“Me?” he said again as the mocking cattle. “Why, I would never hurt you!”
“That’s because you’re too damn dumb!” he exclaimed in his normal voice, reaching over and slapping the cow on the ass.
I could feel the unrest in the cattle near him. There were several of them he had been agitating, and he was riding too close to them and messing with them too much. I worried that not only was my idiot cousin being a jerk, but he was also way out of his depth, and something was going to happen that would put him in danger.
A little bit of time passed with nothing much happening, and Sawyer rode ahead to meet with Colt near the front. Dad and Lucien and Cecelia were near the middle, leaving me and Rubin in the back. I ignored him for the most part, hoping he would ride up a little and