Chapter One
"But, Andy, it's only a small dog," I told Drew's father.
Drew shot me a grateful grin.
"He's small now, Chris, because he's a puppy." Andy Diamond treated me almost like a daughter, since Drew and I had grown up together on the ranch. My dad was the foreman of the Double Diamond, and Andy was the owner. "But how do you know how big he's going to get? You don't know who the father is."
"We know the mother," Drew said. "Willy says she's a real nice dog, and she's not too big, only medium."
We sat on our horses, watching the cows and their calves graze in the pasture, surrounded by the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. I was on my chestnut mare, Belle, the prettiest horse I'd ever seen, and you see a lot when you live on a dude ranch.
It was late afternoon. Drew and I had left Maggie, the head wrangler, to guide the trail ride the rest of the way home, then we cut across country to find Andy. We knew the best time to talk to him was out on the range. Back at the house he spent most of his time dealing with business stuff or socializing with the guests.
Andy took off his hat and scratched his head. "I'd call a Labrador retriever on the big side of medium. They're pretty hefty dogs."
"Please, Dad," Drew said. "Won't you even come into town with me and look at the puppies?"
"This is the busy season, son. It's hard to get away. Maybe later."
I shrugged and gave Drew the "Let's go" sign with my thumb. I knew a losing argument when I saw one.
We wheeled our horse around and headed for our favorite pond, where we were going to meet Serena Chang. She and her family had recently moved to the Lazy B, a ranch halfway down the mountain. We were in the same class, both of us going into sixth grade, and she was turning into a good friend.
"I don't get it, Chris," Drew said as we jogged through the pink trees. "This ranch is huge, big enough for any size dog. Why does Dad care?"
"Sounds like a wobbly excuse to me," I said. "Most ranches have two or three dogs, but we haven't had one since Shep died."
"Dad loved Shep. Why has he turned antidog all of a sudden?"
"I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to figure out how a grown-up thinks." Sweat trickled down my neck, and I swiped at it. "Why now, Drew? How come all of a sudden you want a puppy? You've never asked for one before."
"I didn't have to," he said. "They were always around when we were little. Remember Brownie, and Lulu, and Pepper? After they were gone, we still had Shep, even if he was really Dad's dog."
"But he'd play with us sometimes, too."
"Anyway, it's not so much that I want a dog. It's just this one puppy. I saw him when I was at Willy's house last week, and, Chris, he's really something. There're seven in the litter, but this one took to me right away. He was only five weeks old then, but you could see how smart, how super he is…"
He went on raving about this one pup, and I half listened while I wiped away the sweat. In midsummer the Colorado sun can be fierce.
We rode past the mares and foals in their pasture. Aside from being ranch foreman, my dad was in charge of breeding the horses, and he said this year's crop of colts and fillies was the best ever. Watching them kick up their heels as they played in the bright sunshine, I had to agree with him.
We turned left at the fork in the path. I touched my heels to Belle, and we loped up to the top of the ridge overlooking the pond.
Drew pulled up beside me, and we looked down at the big, clear pool surrounded by aspen trees. Serena's shiny dark hair cut a wake through the calm water. "She's already here," he said.
"I see her. Let's go. It's hot enough to fry a sausage in your hat today. I can't wait to get wet."
Belle and Steamboat carried us down the hill at a good pace. We'd been out on the trail all day with the ranch guests, and the horses knew they'd have a nice long break in the shady grove while we went swimming.
Serena waved as we dismounted under the trees and tied up next to Sneakers, the gentle white gelding she'd been riding. She had been afraid of horses until recently, but she was turning out to be pretty good in the saddle. Of course, I was keeping her on mounts like old Sneakers to build up her confidence, but she'd be ready for a more challenging horse before long.
"Serena, did you ride up here alone?" I asked as I peeled down to the one-piece bathing suit I wore under my jeans and shirt.
"No. Your new wrangler, Jamie, came with me until the path forked," she said, swimming over to the edge of the pond. "Then I walked Sneakers the rest of the way."
I nodded. "Good." I was glad to see she wasn't getting too sure of herself too soon. That happened sometimes. After a couple of days in the saddle, a guest sometimes decided he'd turned into a rodeo rider, and he'd start taking foolish chances. Even though Drew and I were only junior wranglers, we always kept an eye out for overnight cowboys.
"What do you think of our new wrangler? Jamie only arrived yesterday." I stepped out on the rock that overhung the pool. I always dove in from there, enjoying the shock of hitting the cold water in one fierce, shuddering splash.
"Jamie? He's awfully handsome," she said, rolling her almond-shaped eyes. "He and Maggie would make a cute couple, wouldn't they? They're both so blond and tall."
I backed up a few paces to get a running start. "One, two, three!" I hit the water in a perfect cannonball, sending up spray that was still falling when my head shot to the surface. "Whoa! That's cold!"
The only way to warm up was to swim fast. Half a dozen laps across did it. The pond was five times the size of the artificial pool at the ranch and ten times nicer to swim in. Once you got used to the temperature of barely melted snow.
Drew was halfway through his wade-in routine. Inch by inch, he'd work his way in deeper and deeper. I called that slow torture. He called my system just plain loco.
"Yeah, Jamie's good-looking enough." I swam over to where Serena floated on her back and picked up the conversation. "But don't go pairing him up with Maggie. He's much older—-he must be at least twenty-five—and she's only twenty-one and still has to earn her way through two more years of college. Besides, she's head wrangler, so she's his boss."
"But I think she likes him," Serena said. "Have you noticed the way she looks at him, kind of dreamylike?"
"Dreamy? Maggie?" I stared at her. Maggie was a pure no-nonsense type of person. "She's too smart for that silly love stuff."
"Maybe…" She didn't argue the point.
We floated a while in peaceful silence. That was one thing I liked about Serena. She didn't feel a need to plug up the quiet with words all the time.
I was enjoying the hot feel of the sun on my face when something grabbed my foot and pulled me under. Startled, I sucked in a good gulp of water before I realized what was up.
"You just cut that out, Drew Diamond!" I yelled as soon as my head reached air.
He bobbed up beside me, grinning. "Gotcha!"
"No, you didn't. I knew it was you all the time. Who else would pull a dumb trick like that?"
"Hah! I had my eyes open, watching you. You looked plenty surprised to me." He splashed water in my face.
Naturally, I splashed him back, then Serena got in on it. Pretty soon we were all half-drowned, so I shouted, "Race you across to Turtle Rock!"
Drew won, but that was only because he was a year older than us. He'd be going into seventh grade in the fall. That had caused a few problems early in the summer, but his attitude had improved now.
We hauled ourselves out on Turtle Rock. It was shaped like a giant guess-what?
"Drew, did you get a chance to ask your Dad about taking one of Willy's puppies?" Serena tipped her face to the sun.
"Yeah, but he won't even go look at them with me." He shook his head. "I don't get it. He keeps making excuses, but that's all they are. It's been three months since Shep died. How could Dad suddenly start not liking dogs?"
"Did he like Shep?" she asked.
"‘Like' doesn't begin to say it," I answered. "You saw one, you saw the other. Shep was never more than a few feet from Andy's heels, except when he was rounding up cattle at Andy's signal. He was a border collie, smart as a whip and quick as a deer."
"Then maybe you should get another border collie," Serena suggested.
"Dad won't even talk about it," Drew said. "Mom brought it up a couple of times, and Dad just walked out of the room."
"It sounds like he misses Shep too much to think about another dog," Serena said.
Drew and I looked at each other. I said, I"ll bet that's it."
He frowned. "I was wondering if that was the reason. But even if it is, I'm not talking about a dog for him. I want a dog for me."
"And Willy's puppies won't look anything like Shep," I added. "The mother's a Lab, and even if they have no idea who the father is, he's sure not to be a border collie."
"How do you know?" Serena asked.
"There aren't any in town. Willy's dog, Cinders, broke through a screen door one night and took off, but they found her a few blocks away, so she didn't get far. Besides, Drew says none of the puppies have a white ruff."
"I'd love to see them," she said. "Could I come along when you go down into town next time?"
"Sure '," Drew said. "We'll stop by and pick you up."
"How old are they?" she asked.
"Six weeks now," I said. "They'll be ready for new homes in a couple of weeks."
"How many puppies are there?"
"Seven," Drew said, sounding like pure gloom. "And four are already spoken for. But Willy's trying to keep Star set aside for me. You should see him, Serena. He's black and fuzzy, with this white blaze on his forehead. That's why I call him Star. He took a real liking to me, and I just know he wants to be my dog."
The sun dipped behind a mountain peak and I shivered. "Time to get home, I guess. Last one in is a stinky skunk." I dove into the water and swam a fast crawl across the pond, Serena right behind me, Drew trailing slowly.
On the ride back to the ranch, Serena practiced sitting a jog. She had a natural feel for it, and I decided maybe she was ready for an easy lope next. It was hard to believe she was too scared to go near a horse only a short time ago.
At the Double Diamond, Serena's brother, Tommy, was waiting to drive her home, and my dad wanted Drew to take a message down to the bunkhouse, so I unsaddled Belle, Sneakers, and Steamboat, then turned them out into the pasture.
When I went to put away Drew's saddle in the tack room, I found the number-twenty-one saddle in his number-twelve spot. I moved twenty-one to the proper place, hung up all three of ours, then checked the rest of the saddles. They were fine.
It wasn't a big mistake. Drew would know his own saddle no matter where it was put, but since Maggie happened to come in just then, I told her what I'd found.
"Oh, we were all so rushed." Her long blond hair was escaping its ponytail, and there was a smear of dirt on her chin. She'd been working for us, Summers, for a long time, starting out as a stable girl. When she decided to take a year off to earn money to finish up college, Dad and Andy agreed she'd make the best head wrangler. She was younger than the others but had the grit needed for the job.
She tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Your dad took Hank and Bill to help him fix a section of loose fence in the foals' pasture, so Nora, Jamie, and I had to do all the horses. One of us got careless with the saddles, I guess."
Now, I knew Maggie didn't make mistakes, and Nora was just as fussy about keeping apple-pie order as she was. That left Jamie, and it was plain that Maggie knew it.
But she was the boss, and if she wasn't going to fret, why should I? It was only a small mistake anyway.
As I headed for the cabin Dad and I shared, I passed Jamie taking his ease out behind the bunkhouse while waiting for the supper gong to ring. The sinking sun turned his hair to pure gold, and he gave me a big wave and a smile.
Besides handsome, Jamie was a friendly guy who'd livened up the chores with jokes and songs. He had a real nice voice and seemed to know every country-western hit ever played on the radio.
Yup, he was a good addition to our wrangler staff.
Then why was I feeling a sudden sense of worry?
Copyright © 1998 by Louise Ladd
