Daisies in the Canyon(16)

“After you get the feeding done, there’s eggs to be gathered, a cow to milk, and the pigs to feed. In a few weeks, we’ll plow up the garden behind the house and put in the potatoes and onions. Ezra said if we don’t produce it here, we don’t eat it.”

“Cannin’?” Bonnie asked.

“Every day in the summer, but that’s in the evenings after the work is done.”

Abby pulled the suede work gloves on her hands and picked up the first bale of hay by the wire holding it together. It weighed a little less than the fifty-pound plates in the gym but still, heaving it up over the end of the truck and sliding it forward wasn’t an easy feat.

“So how many cows are we feeding?” she asked.

“We’re running about a hundred and fifty head right now. Ten pounds of hay per cow, twice a day. Ezra liked to spread it out over two feedings rather than putting twenty pounds per cow out there in the morning.”

Shiloh was huffing after her first bale. “Why should we do it the way he did?”

“He might have been a son of a bitch in y’all’s eyes, but he knew ranchin’ and he knew cattle. I learned a lot from him that I’m passin’ on, because I told him I would. You can like it or stay at the house. It doesn’t make me a bit of difference.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and for a minute there Abby thought he might cry.

She picked up another bale and threw it over the side of the truck. Bonnie wasn’t even breathing heavily. That scrawny woman must have worked hard her whole life. With that work ethic, she could have made a fine army officer, too.

“We should be completely done with everything by nine thirty with so many hands to help out,” Rusty said. “I go to church on Sunday morning. Any of you want to follow me, be ready by ten forty-five. You can drive your own vehicles or ride with me if you want. I have a double cab truck, and I don’t mind haulin’ you to church, since I’m going anyway.”

Well, wasn’t that nice of him, but no, thank you. Abby would rather stay on the ranch than go meet the neighbors this week. By her calculations, when they got this truckload of hay unloaded, there’d be another one to do. Then late that evening it started all over again. Forget the running in the morning. She’d be getting plenty of exercise with ranching and she could get an extra hour of sleep—provided that the nightmares stayed away.

“I’ll go to church with you,” Bonnie said. “I’d like to meet the people here in the canyon and get acquainted since I’m plannin’ on bein’ here a long, long time.”

“I’ll honk one time. If you don’t come out the door at the count of five, you can find your own way,” Rusty said.

“Hard-ass, ain’t you?” Abby smarted off.

“Darlin’, he’s just protecting his interests. He promised to teach us. He didn’t promise to like it or to baby us. He and Ezra are cut from the same cloth. He’d probably drown his girl babies,” Shiloh said.

Rusty chuckled. “Naw, I’d sell them to the gypsies that come through here in the spring every year. Ain’t no use in drownin’ something that could bring in a few dollars.”

Abby decided right then that she liked Rusty. He had a sense of humor. He didn’t turn her insides to mush like Cooper. She damn sure didn’t have visions of stripping his clothes off and having wild passionate sex with him. And that was a good thing.

Shiloh threw her last bale on the truck and crawled over the side to get it situated right on the top of the others. “Don’t want y’all bitchin’ at me because I didn’t do the job right.”

“Are you ready to go back to Arkansas?” Abby asked.

“Hell, no! I might not be superwomen like you two but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to throw in the towel the first day,” she said.

“All right ladies, time to move this wagon train out so we can come back and do it again. Who’s going to milk the cow and who’s going to feed the hogs and gather the eggs? I figure there’s a job for each of you. You can keep that job every day, or you can switch off. They’re minor jobs, but when it comes to working cows or deliverin’ baby pigs, you’ll all have to learn that part.”

Abby raised her hand. “I’ll take care of the hog feeding.”

There was no way in hell she was going to admit that she hated chickens and didn’t know jack shit about milking a damn cow.

“I’ll take the milking every morning. I’ve done it many, many times,” Bonnie said.

“Your trailer on a farm?” Abby asked.

Bonnie’s head bobbed once. “My grandparents had a little bit of land and they deeded an acre over to Mama. They’re gone now, but they did some small-time ranchin’ and farmin’. After they were gone, one of Mama’s boyfriends fancied himself a rancher. He had a milk cow and a pen full of goats. He didn’t like to take care of them, so the job fell on me.”

“That leaves me with chickens. I can do that,” Shiloh said. “My grandmother had a henhouse when I was a little girl. I used to gather eggs. I guess it’s like riding a bicycle. You never unlearn the art once you get it down.”




Abby paced from the living room through the kitchen to her bedroom and back to the living room. The house was empty with both Shiloh and Bonnie taking Rusty up on his offer to go to church. Finally she stretched out on the sofa, leaned her head back on the arm, and shut her eyes.