Free The Sweet Spot by Laura Drake

wouldn’t allow it. He was afraid Jimmy would take advantage of
     me.
    “The solution he came up with was pretty clever. He gave Jimmy the bulls, and I get
     the semen.”
    Bella made a face. “Isn’t that messy?”
    Char let out a surprised bark of laughter. “You are such a city girl.” She shook her
     head. “We take the bulls to the vet, to have them ‘collected.’ When someone buys it,
     the office ships it to them, to artificially inseminate a cow.
    “Jimmy earns a fee, taking the bulls to PBR events, and makes even more if they win.
     What’s more important is them bucking well and gaining a reputation. If they’re a
     desirable sire, it drives up the price of semen and the value of their calves.”
    Bella held her nose as the bulls paraded by, a safe distance away. “Wow, they are
     ripe.”
    Char smiled. “My daddy says that’s the smell of money.”
    Bella cocked her head, watching the bulls. “How do they, you know, ‘collect’ it?”
    Char colored. “Trust me, New York, you don’t want to know.”
    Junior stood at a back corral of the feedlot, watching a trailer of cattle being unloaded.
     JB took off his hat and strode to the fence. The hammered sun on Junior’s features
     highlighted the years that had passed since JB’d last worked here. Crow’s-feet furrowed
     the fat around his small eyes, and his jowls swung when his head turned.
    “Well, if it isn’t the big man.”
    Oh, this is going to be fun.
“Junior.” JB leaned his forearms on the fence, fingering the brim of his hat. “Could
     I talk to you?”
    Junior perused the cattle. “Air’s free, last I checked.”
    JB’s stomach muscles tightened. “You need any help out here?”
    “
You
looking for a job?”
    “Yeah, part time. I’ve got two households to support now and—”
    “That tends to happen when you hang your wash on someone else’s line.” Junior glanced
     over his shoulder.
    “Okay, I get it.” JB straightened from the fence. “And I deserve that. But goddamn
     it, Junior, I lost a lot too.” When he didn’t answer, JB followed Junior’s gaze, to
     see his ex-father-in-law disappear into the shade of the barn. Shame burned in the
     blood that rushed to his face. “And I lost him too.”
    “Yeah. You did.” The porcine little man stared him down.
    “Never mind about the job, Junior. I should know by now that you can’t go back.” JB
     wanted to pound something. Instead, he slammed his hat on his head and walked away.
    Maybe they needed help down at the Stop-n-Go off the interstate.
    “Hey, Big Man.”
    JB spun back. “What?” It came out as a snarl, and he didn’t care. He was done getting
     whipped. He stood his ground, jaw tight, shoulders tense.
    “I may have something,” Junior’s canny eyes roamed over him. “In fact, it’s right
     up your alley.”
    An hour later, JB whistled as he drove home, one arm draped over the wheel. The wind
     from the open window messed his hair, but it felt so sweet and fresh, he didn’t mind.
     Junior had come through with a better job than he’d hoped for: part-time manager of
     the feedlot and sale barn. Seems he’d been thinking about partial retirement but hadn’t
     found anyone he trusted with his operation.
    Junior even agreed to let JB serve as auctioneer on the Saturdays he was in town.
     Oh, sure, he’d warned that the job wasn’t all glamour, but that didn’t bother JB.
     He’d been working since he was big enough to tote a water bucket, and sweat never
     drowned anybody.
    The sun shone warm on the arm he draped on the window ledge. Maybe the dark days of
     last winter were finally behind him.
    He smiled. His new beginning would break with tomorrow’s sunrise.

CHAPTER
7
    The Stage 5 Alzheimer’s Patient: Will require an assistant to complete daily tasks: dressing, cooking, reading. At
     this stage, personal information may be forgotten, such as address or phone number.
     A major gap in memory can be detected. The names of children or