Page 38 of Herds and Hooves

“Guess that’s our cue to get out.”

“I can tell how sad you are,” he said.

“Not a big fan of the cold water,” I admitted making him laugh.

“Come on, let’s go eat and warm up.” He climbed out of the water without a backward glance before gathering up his clothes and walking over to where he’d left his bag. I’d never been so thankful to see a towel in my life. The last thing I needed was it getting around town that we were—

“Hey, Keith, is that you over there?”

“Pete, did your mom give you permission to come out here?” His face sobered and his group moved closer to the other side and farther away from us.

“Here,” Bart said and handed me a towel similar to the one he was already wrapped in. “Better to not give them a show.”

“You have no idea how true that is,” I said and made quick work of getting out and covering my ass with the towel.

“Townies?” he asked.

“What? Oh yeah, they’re a little wild but nothing too bad.” They were all young and still figuring out life, but they all worked on their families’ farms and mostly stayed out of trouble. Except for Pete. That kid was more trouble than all of them combined. “They all live on farms around here, so I see them when I shoe their horses. None of them have cows or I’d be trimming their hooves.”

“I guess we gotta be nice to them then,” Bart said and led me halfway up the trail. He laid out a blanket under one of the oak trees and set our clothes on it along with the ice chest. After slipping on my pants, I sat down opposite him.

“I’m not going to worry about them. They’re good kids,” I said just as one of them screamed a warning before landing with a big splash. “This looks great. You thought of everything.”

“Not really, but I wanted us to be able to enjoy it here if we did find it.” He grinned and kissed me again before passing out the sandwiches he’d made and opening a bag of chips. “It’s not gourmet but it’ll do.”

“Well for someone who has never gone on a picnic before I think it’s amazing.”

He took a big bite of his sandwich and for the next couple of hours we sat and enjoyed each other’s company under a big oak tree, surrounded by the sounds of boys having fun without anyone to tell them not to.

Thirty-One

Bart

The drive home was much less terrifying, mostly because it turned out there was another way to go that didn’t involve that steep ass climb. Something I vowed to remind Keith of for the rest of his life.

“Oh, it’s good to get your heart going now and then. It reminds you you’re still alive,” he teased.

As soon as we were close enough to town to get a cellphone signal, both of our phones started pinging with notifications. “Holy shit, something’s going on.”

I checked my text messages and opened the one from Noah.

Noah: Asa got hurt pretty bad, I’m taking him to the hospital. Call as soon as you get this message.

“Noah? What’s going on?” I reached for Keith as he drove a little faster.

“We were out feeding and he tripped on that fucking squirrel hole by the barn and went down hard.”

“Is he okay?” We’d all noticed the hole just a few days ago, but we were keeping an eye on it to make sure it wasn’t a mother with babies. Asa had said we’d seal it once we knew for sure but apparently that hadn’t happened in time.

“He broke his arm and they’re making sure he doesn’t need surgery. He’s going to be down for the count for a while.”

“I’m on the way, where is the hospital?”

“It’s okay. I know where he is,” Keith said.

“He’s in the ER,” Noah said before hanging up.

“How far is it?”