Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Too bad we don’t have a stapler.”
“I do back at the Red,” he told me.
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “More importantly, we got us a doctor and a nurse to go with it.”
I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. “You’re gonna have a whole town on the Red pretty soon, ain’t ya, Rand? You won’t be dependent on no one for nothin’ at all.”
“That’s the plan,” he said, and actually smiled at me.
I sighed deeply. “I’d love to go and get this looked at, but I can’t leave the cattle here all alone, you know that.”
Just then I saw Pierce and Tom coming down the embankment.
“They’re here, so come on.”
Rand waved to the two men, who lifted their hands in greeting. I was surprised they both smiled and waved at me as well, but we had been traveling companions after all.
“Glenn,” he said gently. “Please.”
I followed him because he was being nice to me, and it was really hard to say no to him when he was.
We dismounted when we got close to the wagon carrying food but that also, because we had others with us from the dude ranch, carried medical supplies as well. On a normal drive, there was a first-aid kit, but nothing extensive. Apparently when you traveled with novices and children, a whole lot more was brought along. I noticed tents were being set up, and that surprised me. We weren’t anywhere near where we were supposed to be for the night, and I glanced at Rand.
“Don’t get me started,” he grumbled.
“So how many tents are they gonna pitch just for…what is this we’re doing?”
“This is supper we’re having.”
I stopped walking and stared at him, and he shook his head.
“Rand, we’ll be out here for a week at this pace.”
“Don’t I know it.”
I squinted at him. “We’re not anywhere near the Lone Pine.”
“Yeah, I know. We’ll be riding at least until midnight, and we’ll need to have the guys in front and behind with lights.”
It was a pain in the ass to mount lights to a saddle. They weren’t heavy, but they got hot, so it was important to make sure they didn’t touch the horse.
“The only good news where you’re concerned is that the first-aid tent is already up,” Rand informed me, “and there’s a cot to lie down on.”
“Well, that’ll be nice not to have to drop trou to get a shot of penicillin leaning up against my horse.”
“You’re such a smartass.”
I shrugged, trailing after him, and once we were in the tent, he shoved me forward. Dropping onto the cot, I lay down on my side.
“Oh, for crissakes, Glenn, you bled through your flannel.”
I loosened my belt, unfastened the button fly, and then tried to shove my jeans to my thighs. I was surprised at the feeling of being stabbed. “Fuck.” The T-shirt I’d pressed there earlier didn’t just drop to the ground; it was instead sticking fast to the wound.
“Okay.” Rand sighed. “This isn’t gonna work.”
Groaning, I told him to just yank everything off the wound.
“Oh, I’m gonna have to do that too, but you need stitches.”
“No, I—”
“It’s too deep and too wide.”
I really couldn’t think of anything worse at the moment than Rand taking needle and thread to my skin. “Just—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he ordered. “It needs cleaning and stitches, and if you could see it, you’d agree with me.”
“I can see it.” I had forgotten this part of driving stock, the part where pain factored in. “Tape’ll do just fine.”
“It’s too deep for—fuck,” he grumbled before using the big jug of water near him to wash his hands, then scrubbed them a second time.
“Rand, you don’t have to be that clean to take care of me.”
“Shut up,” he repeated irritably.
“You’re making a big deal outta nothing.”
“I’m gonna give you a local anesthetic,” he said, ignoring my comment.
“How do you have that?”
“I just got through telling you that I have a doctor on my ranch.”
I was done talking to him.
He gave me the first shot, the painkiller, in my left hip, and then the second, the antibiotic, in the other.
“Gonna brand me next?” I teased.
“We don’t brand nothin’ on the Red no more, ain’t ya heard?” He sounded exasperated, so I made a point of not answering him. “Glenn?”
“Stop talking. I’m bleeding here.”
His noise of disgust was not lost on me.
“I think I need a nap.”
“Among other things, I would say so,” he agreed. “You need a week at the Red just eatin’ and sleepin’.”
“Like that would happen. You’d put me to work in no time.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I wouldn’t, though. You could just be.”
It was possibly the weirdest conversation I’d ever had with him, and I didn’t realize I was dozing until I was poked with something. “Can you feel that?”
“I can feel pressure, but it don’t hurt none.”
“Good, ’cause I’m poking you with a needle.”