“Rue,” she said, shaking his hand.
“This is fifty head of cattle,” Warrant said from the side of the trailer.
“So?” I asked.
“You said a few,” he said, tone accusatory.
“What the hell does it matter? Between you and your family you have thousands of acres of land,” I replied, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans.
“Fifty head is a lot to add to my herd,” he muttered.
Digging further into my right pocket, I pulled out a wad of cash.
Warrant glared at me. “The fuck is that?”
“It’ll help make it less…a lot…to add to your herd,” I told him.
“You think I want your fucking money?” he snorted. “Don’t need your damn money.” He shoved my hand away from him. “Fucking insulting.”
A heavy kick came from inside the trailer and his brows shot up. “Someone’s got opinions.”
“That’s Mocha,” Rue told him.
Warrant turned his head and stared at her. “...Mocha?”
“You let her name the heifer?” Demo muttered to me. “Youneverlet them name them.”
“I didn’t let her-”
“That’s right,” Rue said firmly. “She’s mine.”
Warrant scowled at me. “What does she mean, she’shers?”
Shrugging my shoulder, I explained, “Told her she could keep one.”
“You told her-” Demo broke off and then moved away from us, pretending he had something important to do.
“We don’t keep cows as pets, OD,” Warrant told him.
I pulled the wad of money out of my pocket. “Looking better every second isn’t it?”
“Shut up.” He glared at me. “You can’t just go making promises to keep animals permanently on another man’s land,” he muttered.
“Okay,” I said in a good-natured tone, causing him to scowl suspiciously at me, “you tell her that.”
He looked over at Rue, who had already caught onto my ploy and was giving him sad puppy dog eyes. “You can’t-” He sighed when Rue’s lower lip began to tremble. “Oh, fuck me. Goddammit.”
Warrant was usually a happy go lucky fucker, but I’d dragged him out of bed in the middle of the night, convinced him not only to drive halfway to Arizona, but also to take on a herd of cows that I’d suddenly acquired. He was a bit grumpy this morning. But even his foul mood couldn’t hold out against Rue.
“Please,” she said in a low voice. “She’s really sweet.”
Mocha punctuated that statement with another kick to the side of the trailer.
“To me,” Rue added with a cute smile. “I’ll pay for her feed. And come visit her.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I need a bleeding heart like you visiting my farm. Next you’ll have me keeping all the damn roosters we hatched out for the year instead of putting them in the stew pot.”
Rue looked over at me in shock.
