as much as you think you do. I think you’re just some dumb hick rancher whose brothers do all the work and have you babysit people.”
“Rubin,” Lucien began, pleading with his son in the way fathers tend to, where it sounds more like they are disappointed in them than angry.
I held up my hand to wave him off. Rubin was his own man. Daddy wasn’t going to save him now.
“I’m gonna tell you this one more time,” I said, noticing how eerily quiet everything else was suddenly. It was like not even the horses were breathing and everyone held their exhales until it was resolved. “Get back on your horse, Rubin. Now.”
“I don’t have to take orders from you,” Rubin yelled, looking back at me. Then a grin spread across his face as he turned back to the cow. He bent over at the waist, put his hands way out in front of him, and clapped them together hard. “Boo!”
Everything happened fast. Out of its mind and angry, the cow charged at Rubin. Rubin had no time to react because he was too close and got hit hard by the shoulder of the animal as it blew past him. By sheer dumb luck, he went up into the air instead of getting trampled, and he flew several feet before landing hard on his ass a few feet in front of Smoke.
The cow wasn’t done. She circled, gaining some distance to pick up running speed, and turned to aim at Rubin. She made a loud sound and bore down on the prone Rubin. Thinking quickly, I yelled for Rubin to get behind me as I reared up Smoke and came down on the other side of him. The cow was angry and crazed and had a look in her eye like she wanted blood, but when she saw Smoke in the way of her target, there was a moment of hesitation.
Then at the last second, the cow pulled left and headed back toward the herd. The other cows were stopped, and Colt could see what was about to happen. He was bolting down the line, riding toward us as hard as he could, but he would never make it in time. I had to take care of this situation myself.
The cow was wailing, darting in wild directions and coming dangerously close to slamming into others. Thankfully, the other riders were pretty far away from it, with only myself and Rubin anywhere close, but that just meant there was no one to help. She bucked and pawed and finally found herself prancing in a circle, shaking her head hard and huffing. She was at a delicate place and needed a gentle hand.
I rode toward her, circling her for a moment to give her an idea of where she was going to be allowed to go. As angry as she was, she was still a cow, and they reacted to a rider on a horse as someone with authority. By making a circle around her, it worked to cut her available world off a little. Then I rode that circle a little tighter. Each time I circled her, I slowed down Smoke and got a little closer.
The cow was still angry but seemed to accept that the circle was as far as she was going to be allowed to go, at least for the moment. She was still eyeing me with suspicion, and secretly, I felt like riding out, picking Rubin up by the scruff of his neck, and showing him that he was a beaten and docile moron not to be afraid of.
Once she seemed to be mostly pacing in one patch of grass, I realized it was time for the next step and the one that was the most dangerous. I was going to have to dismount and approach on foot. It wasn’t ideal, but when they were this angry, it was the only thing left.
I pulled on the reins and Smoke came to a complete halt. I slid out of the saddle, taking my time before gently dropping to the ground on the other side of the horse from the cow. It kept a little extra distance between us, should she decide that me being off my horse was a sign of weakness and charged. When she didn’t, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, I had done this before. Ever since I was little, I’d had a way with angry animals. Not as much as Wade, sure, but I was