And I knew what that disbelief was. It was the pampered, expectant disbelief that something didn’t go exactly like he wanted it to.
I knew Rubin well enough to know that when he got cocky, it was all downhill. He thought he was getting shown up by Sawyer and Colt and that since it was his last day, he was going to show everyone he was better than they were. It was just who he was, who he had been all his life.
Now it had almost gotten him killed, and I hardly thought it was going to affect him at all. He was going to try to turn his embarrassment into anger that he was even in the situation in the first place—or insistence that he had everything under control. Either blame someone else or pretend it wasn’t a problem. That was how Rubin dealt with things.
But it wasn’t even that he almost got himself killed. He had endangered everyone when he did what he did. Not only did he put the people at risk but the other animals too. Carelessly, recklessly, he had caused a situation that even still wasn’t completely under control. All for his own dumb ego. All for his own dumb pride. In that moment, I had every intention of telling him just how stupid he was, or better yet, showing him.
I began riding over to him, intent on saying a number of words I was fairly certain my father would not be proud of me for using in public, or at all. Rubin hopped up to his feet. He began brushing the dirt off his knees and rear end, as if getting dirty was the worst aspect of what had just happened. He was still only a few yards from the cow, and Sawyer was now facing him, still stroking the cow and shushing it in a soothing voice.
“Don’t move,” Sawyer said, his voice just a notch above his normal calm voice. Despite it not being a shout, it felt like one. It was a direct order to Rubin, and it was so intense and full of barely contained bubbling rage that I instinctively pulled on the reins to stop Cloudy.
“Why?” Rubin said, frozen in place in an exaggerated position as he was brushing off his pants. His voice was flat and sarcastic, and I felt like slapping the taste out of his mouth.
“Because,” Sawyer said, trying to maintain his calm, “she still sees you, personally, as a threat. She is spooked because you were stupid and got her worked up, and she needs a few minutes to calm down.”
“Oh, hell,” Rubin said dismissively. “You don’t know that any more than anyone else does. What are you, the cow whisperer?”
“Something like that, yeah,” Sawyer responded coolly.
“No, you aren’t,” Rubin said. “You’re just a nobody in a hat. That’s what you are. If that cow was as mad as you think she was, you wouldn’t be able to calm her down. Not by just walking up to her and talking. That’s a load of crap. She’s fine because she’s just a big dumb cow. I had the situation completely under control, and you had to go and show off because you’re just such a big strong man, aren’t you?”
“Better man than you,” Sawyer said, the anger in his voice evident and the fire in his eyes burning brightly. If he weren’t still trying to calm that animal down, he likely would have put his fist through Rubin’s nose already.
“Like hell you are,” Rubin said. “My family could buy and sell you all day. But you aren’t worth the paper I’d write the check on.”
“Shut up, Rubin,” I said from my perch not far away.
He turned his angry eyes to me and spat on the ground. “Keep out of this, Jane,” he said and turned back to Sawyer. “All damn week, you’ve been on my back. Constant ‘lessons’ about everything under the sun. Stuff I already know about. Stuff my father already knows about. And you just kept going on and on about how I wasn’t doing this right or I wasn’t doing that right. Well, I know I was doing it right. I did my research. I looked up videos online before I got here, and I know I was doing it right.”
Sawyer scoffed. That only seemed to make Rubin angrier. His nostrils flared and his arms went stiff by his side. I wondered how long it would take before he began stomping on the ground with