In Bed With My Ex's Brother-in-Law novel · Chapter 12 of 32
Chapter 12: Branding Day
Rance drove to Casper anyway.
He was back by noon with his hat in his hand and his jaw set.
"Front desk," he said. "Locked unit. Noreen has guardianship papers on file, and my name's on a list at the nurses' station. Bridger, do not admit."
"Did you see him?"
"I saw a window on the second floor." He tossed his hat on the table. "I stood in the parking lot and looked at it like a fool."
Gran put a sandwich in front of him.
"Eat," she said. "Then go brand calves. The calves don't care about Noreen Jessup."
The Bridgers branded their late calves the old way.
Mostly on foot.
Two young wolves would wrestle a calf down in the dirt, and a third would run the iron from the fire, and everybody ended up covered in manure by ten in the morning.
"No horses?" I said.
"Old Pete," said the youngest hand, whose name I still kept forgetting to ask. "But he only drags if you say please."
I looked at Rance.
He looked at the grulla in the round pen.
"No," he said.
"You roped at the National Finals."
"I rode broncs at the National Finals. I roped calves at a county jackpot when I was fourteen."
"Then you're out of practice. Get on your horse."
He got on his horse.
The first loop he threw went over the calf's back and hung on the fence.
The hands cheered.
"Swing slower," I called from the rail. "You're throwing it like you're mad at it."
"I am mad at it."
"She can feel that. Loosen your shoulders."
He loosened his shoulders.
The second loop hit the dirt.
The third one caught a calf by one ear and slid off.
The grulla stood through all of it with her eyes half shut.
The fourth loop dropped around a black calf's neck clean as a bracelet.
Rance dallied, and the grulla sat back on her haunches all by herself, and the calf flipped around at the end of the rope.
The whole branding crew whooped.
Rance turned in the saddle and looked at me with his hat pushed back.
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