Read Online Tackling Summer by Kayla Dawn Thomas - Free Book Online

over the area to deter flies. By the time she was in middle school, she was giving shots and inserting fly tags, but she was practicing her roping skills on the sidelines. In high school she was heading, heeling, and taking turns on the ground crew, wrestling the struggling calves to the ground.
    Maddox eased the heavy barbeque off the tailgate of the pickup, and Jessi slithered up to his side. Tied in a knot in the front, her tank top was revealing a good chunk of her belly.  
    “So, anyway, yeah, it’s gorgeous out here at night. I love taking the horses out for a ride in the dark,” the girl said twirling a finger in her long ponytail.
    Smashing her lips into a thin line, Chanel stalked over to her cousin. With a flick of her wrist she freed the knot in the stretchy fabric and tugged it over Jessi’s flat tummy.
    “Hey!” Jessi said grabbing the spot.  
    “Go find something to do.”
    Jessi rolled her eyes and stomped off toward the corral.  
    “You’re kind of hard on her,” Maddox said.
    “Really. So I should continue to let my seventeen-year-old cousin pitch herself at you? I suppose you just see her as easy pickings.”
    “No, actually she drives me kinda nuts, but I just ignore her. She’s young and trying stuff out. Whatever. She’s a good kid. I have an older cousin, played for Arizona. I thought he was so cool, but he always treated me like a baby. He wasn’t that much older than me. It was demoralizing.”
    Chanel laughed. It pissed her off when Maddox sounded like the adult in the conversation. “That’s an awfully big word, Jockstrap.”
    Maddox stepped toward her, leaned down until they were nose to nose. His voice was low but filled with venom. “What’s your problem? You don’t know everything about everything, so back the hell off. I’m not interested in high school girls. Give me a little credit.”
      Christine rounded the truck and reached into the bed for a large cooler. “I talked to Craig and Bea just before we left. They’re driving in and bringing their boys. They’ll get a kick out of working with Maddox.” She paused and took in the scene. “Did I interrupt something?”
    “Nope,” Chanel replied, and before she could say anything more, the braying of a mule erupted nearby. “Sounds like Theo’s here.”
    A black mule trotted across the flat. An older man rode straight in his saddle with a slightly squished cowboy hat on his head.
      “Is he riding a donkey?”  
    Chanel laughed, her bad mood melting at the sight of her old friend. “A mule. The father is a donkey, the mother a horse. That’s Theo Sansberg. He’s ridden a mule ever since I’ve known him, says they’re smoother and safer on rough terrain than horses. He even roped from a mule, back when he could still throw a loop.”  
    Theo and his mule trundled up to the group. “Shellie, you’re back!” Theo was the only person allowed to call Chanel Shellie. He’d mispronounced her name the first time he met her as a baby, and the nickname stuck. The old man slid down from the mule’s back, making a slow landing. Then patted its neck. “Good girl, Matilda.”  
    Theo’s movements were stiffer than the previous summer. Chanel came forward to meet him with a hug. “You look great, Shellie,” he said into her ear. Chanel squeezed him a little harder. Theo had been like a grandfather to Chanel and her cousins. His wife, Janet, had died young, before they had children. He continued to live on his remote homestead with a few head of cattle, his mules, and what were left of his dogs.
    “You too, Theo,” Chanel said. She stepped back and took in the lined face with the twinkling pale blue eyes shaded by his dirty straw cowboy hat. “You ready to make some steers out there?” Theo had been in charge of castrating the young bulls since he’d retired his rope. She hoped he could still maneuver quick enough to dodge people, horses, and calves in the tight quarters of the corral.
    The old man winked