Ashley waited until both Tyler and Adam were mounted. She was surprised at how much Tyler had learned yesterday even though he didn’t seem like he’d been paying attention. Adam was doing well, too. He looked good on a horse.

“Come on, you two. We got work to do and we’re running late,” she called to them.

“Sorry,” Adam replied.

Tyler didn’t respond. She didn’t acknowledge either of them and instead let Devil run. The stallion took off quickly. She debated for a second whether to wait for the other two or let them catch up. Greybird and Snowy delighted in running fast, too. Adam looked to be enjoying himself while Tyler was holding onto the reins too tightly.

“Loosen up, Tyler, or you’ll hurt her mouth.”

“How do you slow her down then?” he asked.

“You can do it like this.” She showed him with her own reins. “Like we went over yesterday. Just be kind…if that’s possible.” She muttered that last part, sure he hadn’t heard her. She couldn’t afford for one of their guests to make a complaint to Ward. He only put up with a female ranch hand on Mack’s word. He made it clear he believed the work could only be done by a man.

She slowed Devil, allowing Greybird to catch up, and then Adam on Snowy came next.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to delay you guys,” Adam said while running his hand softly over Snowy’s mane.

* * *

“We’re almost there,” Ashley said, not acknowledging his apology. “We’ll leave the horses by the river under the shade and head out on foot.”

“To where? All I can see are cows,” Tyler said.

“If you see cows you need your eyes tested. That is a beef herd. We’re going to count every one of them before we go home.”

“There are thousands of them,” Tyler balked.

“Hardly. There’s between fifty to eighty in this area. The rest of the herd are on the northern side. We’ll check those tomorrow.” Ashley dismounted and walked her horse to the river. Adam followed suit, but Tyler jumped off and headed to the shade to drink from his canteen.

“Tyler, animal first then human,” Ashley instructed.

“What? I’m thirsty.”

“A good cowboy always looks after his horse first.”

“Yeah, well, I told you. I’m not a cowboy.”

Ashley whistled. Adam watched in amazement as the horse Tyler had been riding walked over to her and nudged her arm as if to say “hi”. She patted her down before she brought her to the river to drink. Then she led both horses to the trees.

Adam followed. “Do we need to tie them up?”

“No, not today. The horses are well trained. They’ll stay here.”

“You’re the boss.”

He caught the look she gave him and smiled, hoping to dispel any thoughts she had of him being sarcastic.

She didn’t smile back but her eyes were back to sapphire blue. With her strawberry blonde hair, she was a remarkable-looking woman. Not beautiful, but arresting. He wondered again if she was dating anyone. He quickly told himself to stop it. Looking for love had landed him in enough trouble. Tyler ignored her advice and tied Greybird to a tree.

“You heard what Ashley said. We don’t need to tie them up.”

“She can do what she likes, but I’m not walking back to the ranch if the horses run off. Least this way, she can’t go anywhere.”

Ashley didn’t seem to notice the horse was tied up, so he didn’t feel right telling her. It was too much like tattling at school.

“What are we looking for?” he asked.

“Pardon?”

“You said we had to check the herd. So I wondered what we need to look out for? I’m rather like Tyler. I wouldn’t know a male cow from a female one.”

She giggled.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I know I sound like an idiot but where I come from, milk comes in plastic containers.”

“If you tried to milk a bull, you would learn quite quickly.” What she said next shocked him. “For what it’s worth, you don’t seem a bit like Tyler.”

She was gone before he could react. He saw her walk a bit farther along the stream before she refilled her canteen. He followed suit.

“The boss heard rumors that there may be cattle rustlers around. We, along with Seth, will check all the cattle are accounted for.”

Adam looked around but couldn’t see another man.

“Who?”

Ashley whistled but it was a different one to the one she used with the horses. In seconds, a blur of black and white came racing toward them and bounded into Ashley’s arms.

“This is Seth. He’s the best cowboy on the ranch.”

“He’s a dog,” Tyler said dismissively.

“He is, but worth more than most humans.” Her look clearly consigned Tyler to the worthless humans.

Adam stepped forward.

“Careful, Seth is fabulous but he isn’t keen on strangers.”

Adam didn’t say a word but held out his hand to the dog. Seth sniffed it before Adam moved it to tickle the dog behind his ears. He caught the look of surprise in her eyes.

“I love dogs. I have two at home. At least my mam has two. I miss them.”

She didn’t respond but when she let Seth down, the dog jumped up at Adam. He bent to ruffle his ears.

Then she whistled again. At once Seth was on guard beside her.

“Come on, Seth. We have work to do.”

“Wait. Why can’t we count them when we are riding? You can’t possibly expect us to walk in there.” Tyler pointed at the herd, his fear evident on his face.

“They won’t hurt you. You just need to approach each animal slowly. Don’t do anything hastily and don’t run. For any reason. I want you to check each animal in case any were hurt. If you have any doubts, just call me and I will check them over.”

Tyler didn’t look reassured. Adam just wanted to get it over with. He walked faster to catch up to Ashley. If he were honest, he wanted to keep her eyes sapphire and not the cold grey they had turned to whenever she’d glanced in his direction previously.