"Keep them moving Lane!" Lane Porter wiped the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hand and waved a hand to his boss, Eli White.
"Come on boy." He murmured to the horse he was on and urged him forward to push the cattle he was following forward through the small gate. Moving pastures with over five hundred head of cattle was a huge job, and riding drag was even worse than being anywhere else on the drive. It was scorching outside, unusual as the weather usually started cooling down towards the end of August. It seemed that this year, September was coming in with hot, humid weather instead of the cooler, refreshing winds of fall. The ground was dry and the cattle kicked up a lot of dust, even on the green grass. Lane was covered with dust from head to toe, and sweat was make dirty rivulets down the tan skin of his face. The yells of the other men combined with the cattle lowing and the thunder of hooves made quite a cacophony of sound. Lane noticed a bull and couple cows cut out from the herd and head in the wrong direction. With a click to his horse and a yell, he headed on out after them, herding them back towards the main herd. His horse moved fluidly underneath him, spinning and whirling, cutting off the cattle and keeping them pointed towards the herd almost without any direction from him.
"Good job Lane!" Tyson, one of the other cowboys called as he waited for Lane to herd the strays through the gate after the rest of the cattle. He then swung the gate shut behind them and they stood watching the cattle spread out on the lush green grass of the new pasture.
"Good job boys! Come back in." Lane heard Eli call to the other men. There was four other riders spread throughout the herd of the cattle and Lane watched as they all kicked their horses and settled into an easy jog back to the gate where Lane and Tyson sat their horses, catching their breath.
"Whooo boy. That was a job." Dusty, one of the other riders puffed as he reached the gate. The other men nodded and agreed with laughs and other comments. Lane just smiled. He liked the men he worked with. They were all hard workers, positive and ready to laugh. He was just a lot quieter than a lot of them.
"It is a scorcher today. But we got it done and you boys can have the rest of the afternoon off if you want after we take care of these horses." Eli smiled and the men burst into a bout of laughter.
"The rest of the afternoon? It's 4:00 boss." Tyson hooted and Eli shook his head.
"I could make you fix fences if you want." He raised an eyebrow at Tyson and the men laughed again as Tyson shook his head frantically.
"Nah boss. I think that job can wait until tomorrow." Tyson quickly replied and Eli nodded.
"You boys can head into town for supper if you want. I don't have much else for you to do today, since we got pretty much everything done before this drive. Ellen and I can ride out to check the south pastures this evening." Everyone nodded and headed at a trot back towards the ranch. It was a good 45 minute ride at a brisk trot and Lane settled himself in for the long ride back to the ranch. He could feel his leg muscles complaining, but he ignored them. He watched as the other men rode ahead, laughing and teasing each other. Eli had dropped back to ride beside him and Lane looked over at him.
"You sure you don't want me to start on those fences? I don't mind." He offered. Every muscle in his body was exhausted after the long cattle drive, but he wasn't one to quit because he was tired. He was used to working as hard as he could.
"No. You go into town with the boys. You deserve a little time off. You've hardly quit working since you started a month ago. " Eli smiled over at him.
"Well I'm used to working long hours." Lane shrugged. He could feel his boss studying him, and he glanced over at the other man. He was in his late forties, with thinning brown hair that had grey streaks in it and his face was lined with laugh lines and wrinkles that indicated hard work and long days in the sun. He was an average height and had a stockier build than most of the men on the ranch. Eli owned the Double E ranch and was a fair boss. He had 7-8 men working for him at all times and him and his wife Ellen had over 1,000 head of cattle. The operation was huge, but Eli kept it running like a smooth machine.
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The Art of Healing
Romance(Book 3 in The Healing Series) Willow Arons hasn't had it easy ever since she was left as a young mother by the father of her child. She works as a waitress in a small cafe in Dubios, Wyoming while trying to raise her 2 year old daughter Harper. Aft...
