Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Meaning, I knew this land like the back of my hand and could navigate it probably better than DeeDee could.
I followed anyway, despite my desire to stay.
Though, I immediately scolded myself for thinking that.
Denver wasn’t anyone to me. Just because he was having a bad day, didn’t mean that I had to be nice to him. He wouldn’t do the same for me.
Though, that didn’t stop me from turning around and looking at him a couple of times on my way back to the main ranch house.
Every time I looked, he was staring down at the cows with a ferocious scowl on his face.
Except the last time.
The last time, when I looked back, that scowl was aimed my way.
As if he was pissed as hell I hadn’t gotten there faster…
As if my day couldn’t get any worse, when I got to my apartment later that evening, I saw a note on my door from the lady that owned and rented my apartment to me.
I’d been there four months, and I’d gotten a note a month.
Usually they were telling me that I was being too loud and needed to quiet down—which was hilarious since I spent more time out of the apartment than I did in it—but generally they were nothing to worry about.
When I saw the note pinned to the door like all the others, I didn’t worry too much.
But then I opened it up and saw what was inside.
EVICTION NOTICE
You have 30 days to move out of the property. Any remaining items left in the apartment after thirty days will be forfeited…
I read the rest of the note with my stomach in cramps.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit!
This place was one of the cheapest that I could find that was close to my work and wouldn’t require me to drive more than a couple of miles.
My car, though working much better now for some odd reason after it broke down a couple of months ago in the vet parking lot, was still a little finicky and didn’t like to drive longer than a couple of miles at a time before it overheated.
And since I wasn’t really willing to pay for a vehicle that I barely ever used to get fixed, the apartment in town was imperative.
I was a mile away from the grocery store. A mile away from the vet. And a mile away from the library.
I could reach everything if I walked, even if it was the dead of winter.
If I had to move out of town, that would require my car to work. I would also have to get new tires. Put gas in it…
I ripped the paper in half and threw it on the counter, immediately going in search of my computer.
I frantically searched the classifieds for anything that would help while standing up at my kitchen counter.
The first one to pop up that was in my price range was practically an hour away.
The second through the fifth were the same.
But it was the eighth that popped up that caught my eye.
Small apartment available for rent. Rent free if you help with feeding animals every morning and evening. Eight hundred square feet. Over a barn, so you have to be okay with the sound of animals. Single occupancy only. No overnight guests allowed. Must be able to climb stairs and lift over fifty pounds.
I hoped and prayed that it would do.
I immediately sent an email and hoped that they wouldn’t take too long to reply back.
Then I took the hottest shower I could stand and cried my eyes out.
FOUR
Most people have “ah-ha” moments. I have “oh, for fuck’s sake” moments.
—Denver to Boone
DENVER
I was angry as hell.
Not at anyone in particular.
Just at the situation.
Four calves that were a couple of months away from being weaned, as well as two of the mothers that’d been with them, had been attacked by wolves during the night.
All of them had gotten away from the original attack but one, and luckily the wolves had contented themselves on gorging themselves on the one calf rather than pursuing the others.
Our ranch foreman, Brice Bray, had been out checking fences when he’d spotted the hurt calves and cows.
Unluckily, none of them would survive the attack. Their injuries along their necks and heads weren’t going to heal well and they were in a lot of pain.
I’d dispatched them humanely, angry that I’d had to do it.
Hence why we were now loading five cows into a truck to take to the processor.
Luckily, I had a club brother that was willing to take last-minute appointments for his club president, because usually I would have to be on the waiting list for a couple of months before I’d get in.
Huxley was waiting for me when I pulled up in the flatbed farm truck.
He whistled softly. “Brutal.”
“And effective,” I agreed. “Already got on the horn with Creed and made sure I can take the wolves out if I see them again.”