Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“I…” she hesitated. “Okay.”

Then she grinned, and I realized I’d just royally fucked myself without even realizing it.

Codie was a beautiful woman.

She’d been three years behind me in school, but now that we were no longer in school, and age didn’t matter nearly as much, I realized that I had quite a few options lying ahead of me.

Mainly getting a chance to get Codie in my bed.

“That’s all you want?” she asked, flipping her long braid over her shoulder.

I nodded

“I’ll supply him feed and…” I held my hand up to stop her before she could get too worked up.

“I’m not going to tell you what to feed him. In fact, we’ll keep him in the pasture that butts up to your fence if you’ll feel more comfortable,” I offered.

Her eyebrows raised.

“I just saw you move your cows into the field back here. I can’t ask you to—” I stopped her again.

“You didn’t ask me to, I offered,” I informed her.

She pursed her lips.

“I’d feel more comfortable if you’d put him into one of your smaller ones. I wouldn’t feel right about you…” I sighed as she continued to speak nonsense.

“My brother-in-law’s giving us access to his land. He’s got just as much as we do, and we’re using his first forty acres that butt up to ours for grazing land as well. It doesn’t take but a couple of hours to get the cattle rounded up and moved. If it makes you feel better, you can keep Scooby in the front pasture that the cows just finished grazing on, and we’ll move him when we move ours next. Acceptable?” I questioned.

She nodded, biting her lip.

Her eyes went to my brothers, who’d remained remarkably silent throughout the entire encounter.

“Hi,” she said to them, picking up her hand and waving slightly.

The two buttheads smiled and waved back, making me want to kick them.

Let’s see how cute they are with their front teeth missing.

Then I chastised myself for having those thoughts about the woman.

She could smile at whoever she fucking wanted.

With nothing else to say, I said, “Bring your trailer over. We’ll get him settled.”

Without waiting for her to comply, I turned my horse around, thankful for some unknown reason that my brothers followed instead of waiting any longer than they had to.

“What was that all about?” Banks asked the moment we crossed over onto our land.

“That…” I hesitated. “That was me being a dumbass.”Chapter 3This heifer don’t take no bull.

-T-shirt

Codie

I saddled up Poppy and threw the reins over her head as I came up to her side, a carrot in one hand and the pommel of the saddle in the other.

“Be gentle with me,” I told her, offering the carrot to her.

She lipped it out of my fingers and crunched happily, allowing me to mount her without nary a protest on her part.

Looking longingly at Jessie’s stall, my horse that I’d realized just a few weeks ago was struggling to carry me during our daily ride, I rode out.

I’d been riding horses since I was a young girl and had always loved the freeing feeling of having a horse between my legs, and no constraints on the directions I’d wanted to go.

Then my parents had moved from the country to the city, and I’d lost everything I’d known and held dear.

My granddad had taken care of Jessie for me over the years, and each time I’d come home, I’d immediately spend hours upon hours on her back, riding and exploring.

This visit home, though, I realized she wasn’t the young spry horse she used to be.

At nearly twenty-five years, she was no longer in the prime of her life.

Although Jessie didn’t hold any grudges, Poppy sure as hell did.

She hated that I chose other horses over her and made sure to let me know that she didn’t like me very much.

She was a young girl at a year old, and most assuredly not my favorite of all my granddad’s horses.

I was an equal opportunity rider, though.

Since Jessie was now out of commission, I’d given each and every horse a ride since realizing Jessie’s limitations.

Every horse but Poppy.

Because if I was being honest, Poppy was a right bitch.

Not the type of girl to be nervous when it came to a horse, I finally decided to suck it up and give Poppy a try.

So far so good.

Pulling the reins slightly to the right, I guided her out of the barn and into the pasture that would lead me to Valentine land.

It’d been a little over two weeks since Ace Valentine had offered up his land to Scooby, and in those two weeks, I’d realized I’d made a colossal mistake in taking him up on the offer.

Not because he was bad or anything, but because he was good.

So very, very good.

And sexy.

Today, though, was the worst.

Before I’d only witnessed jeans and no t-shirt.