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“I didn’t call her that to her face.” And Reba thought she should be given a fucking medal for that.
“She’s pretty steamed at you.”
“She’s got her panties in a wad because the renal feed is double the cost of the crap feed they’ve been giving Starshine.”
“Starshine?”
“I didn’t name the horse,” Reba said, rubbing the head of the heifer as it came to greet her.
Diane let out a huge sigh. “I need you to apologize.”
“I’m sorry,” Reba droned.
“To Vanessa, not to me.”
“I don’t have time for this shit.” Reba didn’t mind apologizing when she did something wrong, but being made to dance for the whim of another entitled jerk was not helpful to her recovery—at least that was what her therapist kept trying to hammer into her. “She was an entitled bitch.”
Reba’s job at the UPRC was to make sure that all the bulls, horses, and other livestock remained healthy during the rodeos. It wasn’t supposed to be catering to the wives of the rodeo cowboys. She loved this job and was so thankful that she was able to be a vet without having to go back to the office environment. She just hated when the real world—and the Karens—tried to muscle in on her happiness. What was worse, her boss would take Karen’s side. But Reba should be used to that by now.
Nowadays, Reba kept to the background during the events, content to let her bull-riding, bronc-busting baby sister, LeAnn, get all the attention. Her other younger sister, Dolly, was also front and center at the rodeo. Dolly was a marketing genius and a social media influencer queen who gathered up all the social media frenzy and directed it to the rodeo’s “Next Big Thing.” Luckily, that was never Reba or any of the other people running the rodeo behind the scenes. And that was just how she liked it.
“Reba,” Diane warned.
“Look, how about I get Dolly to comp her a VIP package and a bucket of beer?” Reba’s sister Dolly worked public relations for the UPRC, so that shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience.
“I suppose that will be all right. I’ll have Vanessa pick up the passes at the announcer’s booth in an hour.”
“Great.” Reba would owe Dolly one, but that was worth not having to see Vanessa/Karen’s superior look of triumph. Reba hated people who didn’t look after their animals properly. It was even worse if they had the money to do so, but they cheaped out instead. Maybe she’d ask Dolly to put a dead bug in the beer. Or even better, a live one.
“Also, Lou Porter and Shane Calland have just checked in.”
“Already?” Reba frowned. Their bulls weren’t due for testing until ten a.m. It was a little after eight now.
Lou Porter owned a herd of bulls that the men’s rodeo organization had used before the merger. He was part of her family, sort of. He was Dylan—LeAnn’s husband’s—uncle. He was a good guy who took care of his animals. Reba had never had a problem with any of his stock.
Shane Calland and the Viking Ranch, however, were brand new on this circuit. The only thing she knew about Shane was his reputation. About five years ago, he had been a champion bull rider and bronc buster. He had been hot shit, both on and off the circuit. Everything she had heard about him pretty much guaranteed that they weren’t going to get along. With any luck, he wouldn’t even notice her as anything more than an inconvenience to his day. She wasn’t a stacked buckle bunny. She wasn’t a rodeo princess. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, and she had absolutely zero patience with a man who thought he was God’s gift to women just because he could go eight seconds on a bull.
“Yeah,” Diane said. “I figured you’d want to get a jump on the exams and have the rest of the morning free.”
That didn’t sound so bad. It would give her some time to check in with LeAnn and her horse, Garth. “All right. I’ll head over to the bullpens now.”
Being from Paris, Texas, she knew her way around the fairgrounds. When they were kids, she and her sisters had looked forward to this event all year. It was Christmas, summer vacation, and their birthdays all rolled up into one. Reba would be involved with her 4-H projects. Even back then, she preferred animals to humans. Loretta would be hoping for a blue ribbon for her painted landscapes or photos she had taken of the rodeo. Dolly would be doing interviews for her podcast with anyone who would talk with her. And, of course, LeAnn would be barrel racing.
As Reba made her way to the bullpens, she recognized a few faces, but kept her head down and avoided getting close to them. She hated small talk. Reba never knew what to say to acquaintances or people who didn’t want to know the real answer to the question, How are y’all doing?
Reba had been better, but she had also been worse. When she had been worse, no one had wanted to hear about it. So, she had kept her mouth shut and carried on. Eventually, it had gotten better, but she had never forgotten her so-called friends who didn’t want to hear about how she hated when she heard loud voices or still flinched when someone dropped a plate in a restaurant because of what had gone down at her last job.
It also wasn’t out of the question that someone from Kilgore Veterinary Services might be around, and she definitely did not want to stroll down that particular memory lane. This was the hometown rodeo and town fair weekend, so they were bound to be here. Still, they’d be with the small animals being judged for blue ribbons and best in fair, rather than with the animal athletes that the UPRC hired for the shows.
So when she approached the pens where the bulls were waiting for testing, Reba froze in her tracks when she saw Dr. Kilgore leaning against the fence post talking to Lou. Why was Lou hanging around with a jerk like Dr. Kilgore?
Unfortunately, Kilgore turned to see her just as she was about to make her escape.
His face opened in a bright smile, and he said, “Reba Keller, is that you?” As he stepped forward, Reba took three quick steps back and slammed into a hard object.
Whirling with her hands up, ready to defend herself, she was surprised to see she had crashed into Shane Calland. Where the hell had he come from? She was usually much better at noticing her surroundings.
“Easy there, girl,” Shane said.
