Free Adrienne deWolfe - [Wild Texas Nights 03] by Texas Wildcat

things that kept her own troubles in perspective and staved off tears.
    "Mac?" she called, stacking her pail on a shelf inside the musty clutter of her foreman's favorite haunt, the toolshed.
    "Out here, lass."
    She spied him through the shed's open rear door. He was out in back, bending over the lamb wagon's broken rear axle. Beyond the fallen wagon bed, a plumelike tail waved, and a handful of geese waddled past, honking indignantly at the owner of the dainty white paws trotting after them. Bailey recognized the work of Pris, and she chuckled to herself. The herding instinct was strong in Border collies.
    "Can it be fixed?" she called, wading through assorted ranching implements to get to Mac and Pris.
    "Aye," Mac said. "But I'm thinking I'll need to be hammering out this wheel first. Would ye mind bringing the hammer to me, lass?"
    Secretly glad for an excuse to delay her questions, she obliged.
    Boo, meanwhile, galloped off to join the goose parade and scattered the flock, much to Pris's dismay. The two dogs wrestled and romped, biting and barking and having a tail-wagging good time. Bailey smiled at their camaraderie. When they weren't working, Pris and Boo were inseparable.
    "Did you talk to Benito about the tequila?" she asked, handing her daddy's hammer to his oldest and dearest friend. Patrick McShane had often said he would have gone stark raving mad herding sheep in the Scottish Highlands if Iain McTavish hadn't introduced him to the poetry of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns.
    In return, Patrick had sailed to America and saved enough money to pay for Mac's sea passage. He'd offered to do the same for Mac's sister if Mac would agree to oversee the ranch.
    "Aye, I talked to him." Tugging the pipe stem from his mouth, Mac straightened, his beefy frame not more than three inches taller than hers. "Benito admitted he'd been drinking and lost control of the wagon. Wept like a bairn, he did, over the lamb that got crushed." Mac pushed back his plaid cap—he only wore Stetsons on the range—and scratched his balding auburn head. "Offered to bring you the twins his best ewe birthed last month."
    Bailey sighed. As added incentive to watch over her sheep, she farmed ewes out on shares to her pastores, who were required to return twenty head to her each year per the one hundred sheep she advanced them. This partido system allowed the pastores to work toward their dream of someday owning their own herds. Unfortunately, Benito Vasquez's lambs were Mexican chaurros, and their wool would bring little value on the market.
    "Tell him he owes me his first Merino crossbreed."
    Mac smiled, the apples of his cheeks as ruddy as their namesake. "He'll be beholdin' to you, lass, knowing he's not out of his job."
    Bailey nodded. She was, unfortunately, the only thing standing between the Vasquez family and starvation. That was why she insisted all her herders learn to read English.
    Squatting beside Mac, she prepared to help him, the way she had when she was a child. "How's... your sister Maggie?" she asked awkwardly, still reluctant to broach the real reason behind her visit.
    Mac chuckled, shaking his head. "Still lovin' her Basque, so she says. Enrique scraped together enough money to buy himself a Rambouillet stud, and now he's got himself a fine crop of spring lambs frolicking in the Rio Grande Valley."
    Bailey caught her breath. Rambouillet wool was considered coarser and more uniform than merino wool, and the mutton was of greater value too. "They must have sold everything they own to pay for that ram."
    "Aye." Mac's warm, smoke-colored eyes met hers, and he winked. "Imagine Aunt Maggie selling her silver and her linens to buy her man a smelly sheep. I reckon running off with that Frenchman was the best thing that ever happened to her."
    Bailey fidgeted at Mac's unfortunate choice of words. Aunt Maggie hadn't run off, she'd eloped. It was Bailey's own mother who'd run off. Spoiled and willful, Lucinda Bailey had insisted she must