Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“Old Man Spears’ granddaughter bought Scooby,” Banks offered up as he walked to his horse’s stall to saddle him up.

“Sheeee-it,” Callum said. “Spears’ going to hemorrhage when he hears that.”

I grinned.

“I kind of want to go over there and watch him flip out,” Banks threw in his two cents.

“We have to ride right by their back fence to get to the herd,” I suggested.

My brothers smiled.

“Let’s do it.”

Thirty minutes later found us hitting the dividing fence between the Spears acreage and our acreage.

I couldn’t see anyone out in the pen yet, but I did see the bull still in the trailer.

“How long ago did y’all get him?” Banks asked.

I sighed and dismounted my horse, Bee, and opened the gate that separated our land from theirs.

“Go on,” I said to my brothers.

Both grinning, they crossed through the fence, Banks taking Bee for me so I could close the gate.

Once it was shut, I remounted Bee and tapped her flanks, causing her to rush into a gallop.

The ride from our fence to their house wasn’t long.

The Spears used to rent our land out, giving the four remaining brothers of the Valentine family constant income over the last decade. Which had immediately stopped the moment we arrived back on Valentine land and stopped renting it out.

Once we entered the pasture that led straight to the house, I started to look around to see what’d changed over the years since I’d been there last.

The corrals were painted, a bright white now instead of the rusted yellow they used to be.

There was a new barn with a couple of stalls to the back right of it used for likely housing unruly guests that didn’t want to be there.

Such as one of those broncos that I’d considered buying off of him.

One of which was pacing the fence, staring at us as we made our way up to the Spears’ two-story house.

It, surprisingly, hadn’t changed. Not one bit.

It was exactly the same color and condition it had been in when I’d first seen it all those years ago when I’d been just a boy running fences.

The moment we arrived at the house, I could hear the yelling, and I immediately winced.

“They won’t take him back, Granddad!” Codie yelled loudly. “I already told you that!”

“I have nowhere to put him. Shaggy is in our pens, and there’s no way in hell I’m fencing him in with my heifers!” Spears yelled. “Find somewhere else to keep him!”

Codie’s growl of frustration could be heard by all three of us.

“Who exactly do you think is just going to allow me to store my bull there?” Codie shot back. “No one, that’s who. I might as well go out back and shoot him.”

“Well, serves you right,” Jacob Spears said stubbornly.

“I don’t know what Grandma ever saw in your old stubborn ass, anyway.” She stomped across the room and threw open the door. “Oh, and by the way. I told Noreen not to come back. They’re going to be sending Gary from now on. You’re welcome.”

With that parting comment, Codie slammed the front door to her house and was nearly all the way across the front porch before she realized she had company.

The moment her eyes lit on mine, she stopped, freezing.

“Who are Noreen and Gary?” I asked.

“They’re his home health nurses,” she replied anxiously.

God, she was breathtaking. Especially mad. With anger flaring in her big brown eyes, she was stunning.

Codie wasn’t just the girl next door.

She was what I used to classify as ‘all that and a bag of chips.’

My more grown-up self would call her hot.

At five foot nothing, she didn’t look like she’d be much more than a nuisance.

However, once you got past her short stature, a very nice, proportional package awaited you.

Curvy bottom, shapely hips. Large breasts, brown hair braided down her back, and honey brown eyes. Like mine.

Smooth white, milky skin that had a sprinkling of freckles over all the inches I could see.

She’d changed into a pair of tennis shoes, forgoing the flashy boots she’d been wearing at the sale barn.

“What are you doing here?” she asked warily, eyes going from me to my brothers and back.

“I wanted to know if you wanted help unloading Scooby, but I can see you don’t.” I grinned.

She growled underneath her breath.

“Apparently my granddad doesn’t like competition,” she said through clenched teeth. “Now I have to go so I can find somewhere for him to stay.”

“You can use our land… for a fee,” I offered without putting much thought into what I was offering.

She stopped with one foot lowered onto the bottom step.

“Really?” she asked, her eyes widening.

I shrugged.

“I want to breed him to our heifers. One in particular,” I said. “You can store him at our place for free if you’ll allow us to stud him out.”

I felt my brothers’ praise beside me, even though it wasn’t spoken aloud.