Christmas On The Silver Horn Ranch

The idea was appealing. At least then he wouldn’t have to listen to his dad or grandfather telling him he needed to strap on his chaps and spurs and get back to being a cowboy. Not that he’d ever been one, Bowie thought dourly. His being a ranch hand was their delusion, not his.

“Can’t leave now. I have to have these blasted bandages changed every day for the next few weeks. Maybe longer.”

“Oh. Forgot about that. Lilly said the nurse Dad hired is a friend of hers. Have you met her yet?”

Met her? That was hardly the way he would describe the exchange he’d had with the beautiful Ava Archer, Bowie thought.

“She’s already been here this morning and left,” Bowie said as he stared out the passenger window.

“And?”

Rafe’s persistence put a frown on Bowie’s face. “She treated my burns and applied clean bandages. That’s all there was to it.”

Rafe was silent for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.

Bowie cut a sharp glance at him. “You find something funny about that? Maybe you’d like to change places with me?”

His voice still full of humor, Rafe said, “I don’t think Lilly would like that too much. In fact, I think she’d put on her nurse’s cap and take care of me herself.”

When the family learned Bowie was being released from the hospital and would need home care, Lilly had immediately volunteered for the job. Bowie had thanked her for the offer, but he’d not wanted to put his sister-in-law in the awkward situation of seeing him half-naked every day. So Ava had been hired instead. Lovely Ava, who’d lost her husband so long ago.

Bowie remained silent with his thoughts, and Rafe chuckled again.

“So a beautiful woman walks into your bedroom this morning and you have nothing to say about it? You are more than wounded, little brother, you’re sick with a fever or something.”

Bowie let out a heavy breath. He couldn’t hide from Rafe. The two brothers were too much alike.

“Okay, I’ll fess up. I got off to a really bad start with Ava,” Bowie muttered. “When she walked in I was on the phone telling Dad how I didn’t want a nurse. And a few other derogatory things that I wouldn’t have wanted any woman to hear. I had to do some fast apologizing to get her to stay.”

“Well, Ava’s too old for you, anyway. And from what Lilly says, she isn’t interested in having a man in her life. Which is unfortunate, if you ask me. The few times I’ve been around her, she seems like a woman who needs a family.”

Why had Rafe had to go and say that kind of thing and ruin the fantasies he’d been having of the sexy nurse? To Bowie, she’d seemed like a woman who needed a man to make love to her.

“Don’t look at me. I’m hardly in the market for a wife and kids. Besides, I like younger women. The kind that wants to have fun. Not babies.”

“So you’re still on that kick. I was thinking now that you’ve gotten out of the Marines you might be feeling different about women—and other things.”

“I might be out of the Marines, but I’m hardly ready for slippers and a recliner every night.”

“You’re hardly ready for a barroom brawl, either,” Rafe said drily. “Have your doctors given you an idea as to when you might go back to work?”

“Barring no complications, in six to eight weeks.”

“That quick?”

Bowie groaned. “You call sitting around on this ranch for the next six weeks quick?”

Rafe whipped the truck around a patch of sagebrush growing in the middle of the rough pasture road. “Be patient, Bowie, and you might get to liking it.”

So this was why his brother had taken him on this jaunt this morning, Bowie thought. Not for a breath of fresh air or a change in scenery. But to give him a pep talk about giving up the hotshot crew and becoming a full-time rancher.

“Look, Rafe, it’s nice that you and the rest of the family want me around. I appreciate that. But this kind of life isn’t for me. I’d go out of my mind with boredom. It’s one of the reasons I went into the Marines in the first place.”

Rafe snorted. “Bull. You didn’t go into the Marines because you were bored. You did it because you were a rebel. Hell, Mom was the only one who thought the military would be good for you. And I guess in some ways she was right,” he added thoughtfully.

“Mom,” Bowie repeated softly. “I sure wish she was still with us. You know, while I was in the Corps, I often caught myself imagining she was still here on the ranch. But now that I’m home, everything I look at reminds me she’s gone.”

Rafe glanced his way. “You know, the first time I met Ava, she sort of reminded me of Mom. She’s tall and dark and elegant like Mom was. Maybe that’s why I connect Ava with having a family. It’s just too bad that she can’t get past losing her husband.”

She didn’t want to get past losing him, Bowie thought. But that was her choice and had nothing to do with him. For the next few weeks he was going to enjoy her visits, but beyond that, she was off-limits.

They rounded a rolling hill covered in scraggly juniper, and a small herd of cattle came into view. Bowie was relieved to see them. He didn’t want to talk about Ava or hear his brother talking about the woman needing a husband anymore.

“There’s a herd off to the right,” Bowie said. “Are they the heifers you wanted to look at?”

“Sure are.”

Slowing the truck, Rafe steered off the narrow road and toward the black cattle. As soon as the animals spotted the vehicle, they came running with hopes of getting fed.

“If you don’t have some feed in the back of the truck,” Bowie commented, “those heifers are going to be mighty upset.”

Rafe chuckled. “This isn’t my first rodeo. I loaded some hay bales earlier.”

He parked the truck on a flat space of ground and waited for the cattle to gather nearby. By now fat flakes of snow were splattering against the windshield and dusting the backs of the black cattle. It had been years since Bowie had seen snow and experienced cold weather. He’d almost forgotten the hardship it placed on the livestock and the men who cared for them.

After Rafe had tossed blocks of hay to the cattle, he climbed back into the warm cab and held his gloved hands toward the vents on the dashboard.

“Sorry I can’t help,” Bowie told him. “I might not be much of a rancher, but I do know how to spread hay.”

“You know how to do more than spread hay,” Rafe said. “Remember when we were kids and we found that cow down by the river? She was trying to calve and was in really bad shape.”

“Yeah. I remember. I argued with you that there wasn’t enough time to go back to the ranch and get help. We pulled the calf ourselves.”

“And everything turned out good,” Rafe said with a wry grin. “I was fifteen and you were only ten. But you had more guts than I did, little brother. If you hadn’t been there with me, I would have lit out for the ranch.”

“Dad didn’t call it guts. He called it being reckless,” Bowie reminded him.

“Yeah, but he was happy.” He pointed to the heifers. “How do they look to you?”

“Good. Except for those two standing over at the edge. They’re not eating and their ears are drooped. They look a little sick to me.”

Grinning, Rafe was about to reach over and slap Bowie’s shoulder when he suddenly remembered his injuries and pulled back his hand. “Just what I expected. You haven’t forgotten a thing about being a cowboy. Welcome home, Bowie.”

Bowie started to remind him that he was only going to be home for a few weeks, but the smile on Rafe’s face was such a happy one, he just didn’t have the heart to ruin the moment.

Rafe, and everyone else in the family, would learn soon enough that he was heading back to the hotshot crew just as soon as his body had returned to working order.

* * *