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plan.
Tor's smile grew even more and he shook his head. "You were, yes. With about three other guys.
And you were going to ride back to the house at night, the four of you trading shifts on who had to
stay out there with the cattle over the three days it'll take to get them there." He waited for Jake to
nod and then kissed the tip of his nose. "What I'm telling you is that you and me are doing it alone,
and we're not coming back until it's done. You, me, three horses, and that damn dog of yours. Three
days, two nights, and the open range."
Jake laughed, utterly amused by the absurdity of it, but Tor didn't laugh with him and with a choke
he started shaking his head. "Oh, no," he said, not quite believing that Tor was serious. "You and
me. Away from the--"
"The ranch, the house, the stables, the headaches, the books, the nephew," Tor confirmed. "For
three days and two nights." He nodded sharply and stepped back two paces. "Elias can run the
show, we'll take the radios because we're not stupid, and Jacob can either put himself to bed or he
can stay in the bunkhouse, his choice. The boys will make sure he eats, and he's old enough to do
his homework without us nagging him. If he doesn't, it's his problem."
Jake shook his head again, speechless.
"We're goin'," Tor said firmly. "Monday morning. You might want to have a last look at the books
on Sunday night, follow that seventy-two hour thing you got going on." Then he picked up his hat
and headed out, sparing Jake one more grin as he opened the door. "Hey, you might even like it,"
he called as he walked outside. "Camping and shit. It'll be fun."
Jake watched him go, still trying to come up with objections, but he didn't hold out much hope of
settling Tor down without a fight, not when he was being that unrelentingly cheerful about messing
up Jake's order. There wasn't much he could do until he had some time to think about Tor's grand
plan for getting him back to the way he was supposed to be. Whatever that was.
166
Chris Owen
Chapter Forty
By the time Monday morning dawned Jake still hadn't been able to come up with anything logical
to say against Tor's idea and a whiny 'I don't want to' would likely just get him a pat on the head.
So he said nothing and made sure that he had a change of clothes ready to take along with his
toothbrush. His revenge would consist of letting Tor take care of all the details. Food, supplies,
blankets, a kettle to boil water and a pan to cook in& all of it he happily left up to Tor.
It was particularly frustrating that Tor took care of it all with a grin and obvious enjoyment. He
even made sure that Jake saw him packing the lube away in his blankets, the bastard. "Okay, hot
breakfast and we're out of here," Tor said, plunking a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him.
"I wanted toast," Jake said under his breath.
"I know," Tor said, dropping three slices of hot toast on top of the eggs. "There you go."
Jake pointedly ignored the way Tor was smirking and Jacob's laugh and ate his breakfast without
giving them any more reason to tease.
He saw Jacob off to school and then reluctantly followed Tor out to the barn, where most of the
hands were gathered. He was, by that point, unsurprised to find both River and Creek saddled up
and with their saddlebags packed; Tor wasn't giving him an out, or a reason to bitch and complain.
Within a couple of short hours the entire move had been organized, the cattle Jake and Tor were
taking rounded up, and Elias had sent everyone off to their jobs for the day. Jake and Tor sat on
River and Lug and made a final check of their overall plan, double-checked the radios with Elias,
and then they went to work.
Jake found it amazingly easy to put aside any distractions. There was a job to do, work he was
made to do, and his head didn't have space for any pondering right then. He wasn't really upset to
be there in the first place, although he wasn't thrilled with the way Tor had strong-armed him. He
was still a little baffled about what had spurred Tor into his fit of temper, but out there with the cat-
tle and the sun shining on him, it wasn't something he was going to concern himself with. There
were more important things to deal with.
He whistled Barkley up and rode out; one of the nice things about cattle was that if they took it into
their heads to wander off from where they were wanted, they were pretty easy to urge back into the
herd. Really, he and Tor weren't moving that many either, and between the nice weather and the
scenery, it was actually kind of like the vacation Tor had promised.
167
Natural Disaster
He caught Tor grinning at him a time or two, and by late afternoon Jake had finally given up the
last of his resistance. Their land was beautiful, spread out all around them. The wind tossed the
grass, the cattle kicked up dust, and everything under the huge blue sky was perfect. They rode and
called out to the cattle, urging them up a rocky slope and then down the other side, letting them
take their time getting to the small patch of level land.
The cattle milled around them and Jake waited for Tor to make his way to him, Lug nudging cows
out of the way and Barkley standing on the top of the rise they'd just come over like a proper cattle
dog, looking very pleased with himself.
Jake squinted into the sun as Tor reached him and nodded. "We'll get to the first stop site in under
an hour, I think," he said, looking around. "We made better time than I thought we would."
Tor smiled and shrugged. "Nice weather, fresh start& we'll probably be right on time tomorrow,
and dragging our asses in on Wednesday."
Jake snorted. "The real drag will be the ride back to the house."
"Yeah, but it's days off," Tor said, flashing him another grin. "You settled in your skin, now?"
Jake nodded slowly. "Getting there," he admitted. "This idea didn't suck, I guess."
"Why, thank you," Tor laughed, looking as pleased as Barkley on his hill. "Lucky for you, I do. So
we should get these cows, moving, yeah? Before I change my mind about rewards for good behav-
ior."
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