“He’s not useless, after all, you were going to say?” she teased. Tanner snorted out a chuckle at that.
“Maybe,” he replied drily.
The knowledge that they were all okay, that there was perhaps a change in the war between the brothers, and that they’d found the cattle before they were gone all hit her at once. Tears welled up in her eyes again, and considering she was not a crier,she growled and looked away to hide them.
“Let’s get these cows rounded up. I need to do a head count, and we gotta get some fencing from the ranch. Can your horse handle that?” Tanner called back to her, already throwing his leg up and over Chip.
“He’ll manage,” she replied. Movement beside her caught her eye, and Jake was vaulting back into the saddle as well, a smile on his face, his clothing dirty, his hat plopped back on his head carelessly, one side dented. Sandy shuffled closer to Finnegan, and Jake’s knee touched hers as he leaned over to pull the stirrup fully onto his right foot.
She wordlessly handed his reins back to him, her insides unclenching as he settled into the saddle. He was making her think about things she shouldn’t be in the middle of their situation. But mixed in with those dirty thoughts was also the sheer relief that he was okay, in one piece, and the urge to grab him and hold him close to her pushed more tears close to the surface.
Damn it, she was going soft because shit like this was not normal for her. She cleared her throat, looking at her hands, trying to think of something to say.
“Can’t say I’ve ever done anything like that before,” he said, raising an eyebrow, his voice light but careful. “I feel like a Western movie stunt double.”
“Wading in like a damned fool, you mean? You could have gotten hurt or—” she chided, trying her best to hide the emotion still whirling inside her. She was interrupted as Jake leaned over, grasped the back of her head with one hand, pulled her toward him, and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
She let him because his bravado was too much to ignore in the moment, and grabbed at the horn of her saddle with one hand to keep him from yanking her out of the tack. His kiss was needy and possessive, and it curled her toes, heat flashing across her body.
The horses jostled and he let go of her, leaning back, obviously pleased with himself. She laughed as he puffed his chest out, brushing dust off his shoulders as he let out another heart-stopping smile.
Liz rolled her eyes at him but laughed. “Feeling good about yourself, cowboy?” she drawled. “We still gotta herd all these damned cows back up the road. Don’t get too cocky on me yet.”
With that, he pierced her with a smoldering look that stopped her laugh in her throat, replacing it with a shot of pure want. An irrational thought about pulling him off his horse and having her way with him up against a tree entered her head and she had to swallow it down, because it was ridiculous. They were in the middle of a herd of escaped cattle with three unconscious cattle thieves tied to the bumper of a semitruck.
“Jumped off a moving horse. Stopped some cattle thieves. Got a cattle prod to the back. I’d say I deserve a minute to revel in it.”
“What do you want? Adoration? Praise? Hero worship?” she sassed back.
“You,” he rumbled. “Because in this scenario, I get the girl.”
Despite the insanity around them of bawling cattle, Tanner and Brady whistling, yipping and slapping their legs as they moved the cows into the safety of the fenced roadway, Liz’s focus narrowed in on him. She met his intense stare, all thoughts of teasing gone from her head.
He held her eyes a moment more before grinning and kicking Sandy forward, and Liz let out a shaky breath. He did have her, damn it.
She let out another tense breath, stowed the thought, and moved Finnegan forward to catch up to Sandy so her horse would stay calm as sirens pierced the background.
* * *
Jake couldn’t shake the adrenaline rush as they started back up the road, his hands trembling on the reins, his back aching from the cattle prod hit, his knuckles cracking from the abuse. It was a wonder he wasn’t toppling out of the saddle.
“Stick back here, you’ve got the easy job,” Brady said, grinning. “Sandy will show you what to do.”
Jake doubted that but quickly let Sandy do just what Brady said she would to keep the cows moving with her laid-back ears, shaking her head if one of them stopped or turned around. All he had to do was keep himself upright, whistle, slap his legs, and point the horse in the same direction as the ponderous mass slowly ambling back up the road.
All the way back, Tanner took charge, grousing that they had to wait for the police to give them the all clear before they could herd their cattle. He kept looking at the sun, obviously worried they wouldn’t get done before dark.
Tanner knew exactly where to be to keep the cows in line, shuttling his horse back and forth along the herd, pointing and barking orders. Brady and Liz wove in and out without needing to shout at one another, just hand signals and the odd “Yep!” Liz’s horse reared a few times, and tried to run away once, and each time she handled it and then just kept pushing the cattle, a determined look on her face.
Jake was in awe of her, his eyes darting to her as he grew more comfortable riding behind the herd. He’d been the big damned idiot, wading into a herd of cows that could have kicked him in the head, toward men who might’ve had guns. She was the capable one, buckling down to work when not so long ago they were all in a stressful, dangerous situation. For that matter, all three of them seemed unfazed, apart from Tanner’s mood, as they worked.
Jake still felt like a tagalong, even if he’d had a moment of fake bravado with Liz. He’d taken one look at her terrified face, the tears threatening to spill, and reacted to distract her.
The crew met them at the gap in the fence a lot quicker than he anticipated. Jake finally relaxed and let the tired in as they rolled the fence back over to repair it, offering to hold all the horses while everyone else finished up the job. Sandy stood still while he leaned on her, rooting at him with her nose then resting her muzzle on his neck and nibbling at the collar of his shirt. The other three horses dozed off, back legs cocked, tails swishing.
Tanner waved off help fixing the fence to the posts, grunting as he twisted wire to hold the new page wire that Bobby and Rowan were holding taut with a winch, his shoulders bunched as he strained to get it tight. He looked angry the entire time, but the crew moved around him like it was nothing new, accepting his clipped responses and orders with a smile, and a fatherly pat on his back from Harry when he straightened, the last twisted wire end hammered into the post.
At that, they mounted and followed the dust from the crew truck as it barreled back up the road, the horses tired, everyone slumped in the saddle. Tanner led the way, silently stewing. Jake didn’t mind; he was too tired to carry a conversation with a rock, let alone his brothers or Liz. The sun was just dipping behind the mountains as the stables came into view, and the horses picked up the pace, as eager to be home as their riders.
