The Cowboy Who Lost His Ranch to a Size 20 City Girl novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Fire Line

"Mama, the yellow phone," I said. "Lottie's book is in the top drawer. Call every name with a ranch."

My mother was already out of the rocker.

"What do I say?"

"Fire, south pasture, bring trucks and water."

"In what voice?"

"The one you used on the bank."

She nodded once and went inside, and I heard her dial before the screen door finished banging.

Jace was already running to the barn.

I ran after him.

He threw a saddle blanket at me, then two burlap sacks, then the keys to the old water truck.

It was a flatbed with a five-hundred-gallon tank and a gas pump bolted behind the cab.

It had sat behind the machine shed for as long as anyone could remember.

"Can you drive it?" he said.

"I've driven a thirty-foot banquet van through Chicago in January."

"Good enough."

"Where do I go?"

"Along the south fence line. Fill at the creek. Wet the burlap, wet the line, don't stop."

He grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me hard.

"Don't get in front of it," he said. "Ever."

"I won't."

"Promise."

"I promise."

The water truck stank of diesel and wet rust and shook my teeth loose.

I took it down the track to the creek with the headlights jumping.

Chet was already there.

He had hauled himself out of his own truck and down the bank, a bowlegged shape in the dark, and he was working the pump.

"Come on, girl!" he shouted over the engine. "Ten minutes to fill!"

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