One Step Over the Border (32 page)

While Hap slipped out of the saddle to check Luke’s left rear hoof, Laramie quietly studied the much-creased note Annamarie
had slipped into his hand as she kissed him good-bye in Del Rio. His eyes fell on the words, “I need time to understand my
feelings. I have to be convinced that I truly can love you with the same depth and intensity that I had for Nate. You deserve
nothing less…” Laramie knew he would be thrilled with any amount of depth and intensity of affection that Annamarie offered.
Whatever she could spare would far exceed anything he had experienced.

Hap swung back up in the saddle. “You studyin’ the map?”

Laramie quickly folded the note and stuck it back in his pocket. “We should be getting close to the south fence, but the major
didn’t seem like he knew exactly what was in here.”

Hap surveyed the harsh west Texas desert. “He did know about the bomb fragments. I take it they fly over this military reserve,
rather than march across it.”

“I noticed he didn’t tell us, ‘Don’t touch anything that looks like a bomb,’ until after we signed the contract on this job.”

“It was comfortin’ to learn they didn’t plant land mines in here.” Hap yanked out his bandanna and sopped off his face. “But
an unexploded bomb is the same as a land mine, ain’t it?”

Laramie nodded at the cavvy. “We’ll follow them close. If they don’t trip explosives, neither will we. That’s the theory,
anyway.”

As soon as the stallion broke for the next rise, the mares and foals thundered after him. Laramie and Hap spurred their horses
and cantered down to the muddy spring, then up the other side. At the top of the hill, they spied the band as they dodged
in and out of the scattered mesquite trees and creosote bushes. When the horses paused to graze and mill, the stallion positioned
himself between the mares and the cowboys.

“He’s ready to take us on,” Laramie said.

“I don’t reckon he feels challenged too often. He’s a big boy.”

“He’s a fine horse and fast. Those mares have to gallop to catch up and it looks like he’s at a lope. I’ll tell you what,
Hap. After we pen him, I’ll buy him from the army and you saddle break him for me.”

Hap stood in the stirrups and stretched his legs. “If you want him, you break him.”

“I’m not crazy enough to crawl on a horse that mean.”

“So you’re lookin’ for some dumb cowboy to do the hard part?”

“No, I hoped for a brave, reckless bronc buster to consider it a matter of cowboy pride that ‘there never was a horse that
couldn’t be rode.’ I surmised he’d view this challenge as a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate his superior horsemanship
and mental, not to mention physical, toughness.”

“I ain’t bustin’ my butt breakin’ your horses,” Hap declared. He swung to the ground and pulled a rag from his saddlebag.
He loosened the cinch and wiped down Luke’s back. “You know, summer is probably not the best time to be down along the border.
Why didn’t we do this in the spring or fall?”

“Because we have real jobs in spring and fall.”

“This feels like a real job.”

“Well, the pay’s good and the expectations low. You can’t beat that.”

Hap tightened the cinch, pulled himself back up in the saddle, and tossed the rag to Laramie. “We get one thousand dollars
each and all we have to do is try to round up as many mustangs as possible. If we can’t corner any at all, that’s okay. They
just need us out here so they can take some satellite photos to prove to the public that they tried to save the wild horses
before they practiced their bombing. That the way you see it?”

“That’s pretty much it.” Laramie combed his fingers through his hatless, curly brown hair. “Don’t you love government jobs?”

“I wonder, why didn’t the local cowboys jump at this good money?”

Laramie stepped down to the ground, loosened the cinch on his saddle, then wiped his horse with the towel. “I think it has
something to do with the other part of the instructions.”

“Ahh, when we had to sign the indemnity waiver and then the major said, ‘Don’t go out there and get your fool head blown off
like our last wrangler’?”

“It does somewhat dampen the thrill of it all.” Laramie finished toweling his horse, then checked his hooves.

“You don’t figure it’s your destiny to get Laramie bits scattered across a west Texas desert?”

“I’d rather die an old man surrounded by a loving wife, kids, and grandkids.”

“Which, at the moment, don’t appear too likely.”

“There’s a certain nurse who gives me renewed hope.” Laramie tightened the cinch, remounted, and handed the towel back to
Hap.

“Oh my, Laramie’s pinin’ after Annamarie Buchett again.”

“Some dreams are too sweet to let go.”

“Don’t I know it? But at some point you try to turn loose of the dream and realize the dream won’t turn loose of you.”

Although the clouds stacked up all afternoon, the late August thundershower didn’t hit until Laramie and Hap had the remuda
penned in the brush corral near the highway. They tried to rub down Luke and Tully in the rain, but finally trailered them
grained and unsaddled.

Hap jumped in the truck and started the engine.

Laramie slid into the passenger’s side. “We aren’t leaving before the major gets here, are we?”

“Nope, but it’s raining too hard to roll down the window and way too hot not to have the air-conditioner on.”

“After a week of sleepin’ on the ground in a bombing range, I didn’t know you were that particular.”

“I reckon I’m gettin’ soft in my old age.”

“Well, I won’t mind a shower and a motel bed tonight.”

“I need to phone Rosa and see what she found out from her aunt Paula.”

“Hap, I don’t think there are many gals like Rosa who would help you find your Juanita.”

“I was ponderin’ that this afternoon when we was pushin’ that cavvy of wild horses. If a man gets one truly good friend in
his life, it’s a blessing. That’s you, partner. Your loyalty is legendary. And now, Rosa comes along and offers a similar
kind of friendship.”

“Yeah, but she’s cuter than me.”

Hap laughed. “That’s true, but you’re taller. About a foot taller. Anyway, it just seems a privilege to have three good friends
I can count on.”

“Three?”

“Ol’ Lukey, of course. A man’s horse is about as close a friend as he can have.”

“Luke’s a pal… but my Tully’s an adversary. Every day is a contest to come out on top. But I know what you mean.”

As heavy drops of rain slammed the pickup, Laramie thought about the day he had bought Tully for four hundred dollars. He
hadn’t intended to buy a horse. He stopped by the sale yard to sell six feeder calves for Mr. Averill. But when he witnessed
a drunken cowboy bust a two-by-four over the blaze-faced bay’s nose, he knew he had to do something. He bought the horse on
the spot and shoved the bills in the man’s hand before the two-by-four dropped to the dirt. It took him months to gain Tully’s
confidence and a year to train him to yield to commands. He proved to be a tall, proud, stubborn, independent horse with memories
of pain and grief. In some ways, Laramie figured he and Tully were a lot alike.

When the thunderstorm blew over, Hap killed the engine and rolled down the windows. “I reckon that’s as long as we can go
cooped up with each other without a shower.”

“The sun’s about down. How long will we sit here waiting for the major?”

“Since we don’t get paid until he shows up, I reckon as long as it takes.”

With headlight beams on high, neither Laramie nor Hap could tell who occupied the car that pulled up next to them.

“You think that’s the major?” Hap asked as he pushed open the door.

“I don’t think he drives a white Oldsmobile sedan.”

“Hey… it’s Rosa!”

Wearing jeans, tennies, and a purple T-shirt, Rosa moseyed over to the truck. “Hi, guys… I hoped I’d find you here.”

“Is somethin’ wrong?” Hap asked.

“No, but there’s a change in plans.” She flipped her wavy black bangs off her forehead.

Hap piled out of the rig. “Did your aunt Paula get back from Lordsburg?”

“She decided to stay there a few more days. I’m at her house with my cousin, but that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
She glanced at Laramie and raised her eyebrows.

“Hey, you probably don’t need to talk to me,” he replied. “I, eh… I’m going to go check on the horses. We put them up wet
and they might need to be toweled down again.”

Rosa squeezed his elbow. “Thanks, Laramie. You’re a pal.”

“So I hear.” Laramie sauntered to the back of the trailer as Hap and Rosa leaned against the hood of the Oldsmobile. He led
the two horses out of the trailer and tied the lead ropes to the tall, chainlink fence that surrounded the bombing range.
Luke stood quietly, like a trail horse for toddlers, as Laramie wiped off the remnants of sweat and rain.

“Now, Luke, I know I’m not Hap. But your compadre is up there talking about Juanitas with the nicest gal he’s ever met. Don’t
ask me to explain it. Like you, I just came along for the ride. Even Hap doesn’t understand why he does what he does. But
I can tell you one thing… he’s the only person on the planet, besides my mother, who would take a bullet for me.” He patted
the black gelding’s neck. “And he’d take one for you, too… but I know you’d do the same for him.”

Laramie ambled to the back of the trailer and in the evening shadows reached in for a handful of whole oats. Then he lounged
by the fence while Luke’s slobbery lips and tongue lapped up each one of the treats.

Tully stretched around and tried to bite his shoulder when he stepped over to towel down the bay horse. Laramie threw both
arms around the gelding’s neck and hugged him tight until the long-legged horse gave up the protest.

“A little jealous, are you? I know, I know… that was a love bite. You’re a mess, big boy. If you were human, you’d be on a
psychologist’s couch three times a week.”

Tully shuffled his hooves and snorted.

“Yeah, you’re right. If I was a horse, I’d be as neurotic as you. What a team.”

When he finished rubbing him down, Laramie retrieved another handful of oats. Tully bit at his fingers and palm until all
the oats were consumed or fell to the ground.

In the dark, Laramie could still hear Hap’s and Rosa’s low voices, even after he loaded the horses. He shuffled over to the
brush corral to scan the band of nervous, milling wild mustangs, each apprehensive about what would happen next. The buckskin
stallion charged at him, then held up and snorted.

“I know how you feel, big guy… that’s the way I’ve started many days… penned in, and waiting for something bad to happen.”

He was wandering back toward the rigs when he heard the Oldsmobile start up and saw the headlights flip on. The ten-foot chainlink
and barbed-wire fence that surrounded the bombing range was supposed to be secure enough to keep people from entering. But
Laramie had seen several foot trails across the military reserve and wondered how many illegal aliens had hiked across it
to jobs in El Paso. To him, it spoke volumes that for many the dangerous journey merited the risk, considering the rewards
up ahead. The thought occurred to him that life itself was like hiking through a mine field. Now, with images of Annamarie
Buchett, he felt he had a purpose that made such risks worthwhile. But like the illegals who trekked through the bombing range,
he knew there was a good chance he’d never reach that goal.

Laramie had pulled on clean jeans and dried his hair on a white towel before Hap popped back into the motel room. “The front
desk said they didn’t have the funds to cash these checks. But Rosa’s got some relatives that run a dry cleaner’s on the other
side of town. She figures they might have the cash. We got to go over that direction anyway. There’s a Juanita she wants me
to meet.”

“Give me the plan again. I couldn’t hear everything from the shower.”

“We’re goin’ out to supper at some trendy restaurant that a college roommate of Rosa’s operates.”

“You and me in a trendy club?” Laramie tossed the towel on the white-tiled bathroom floor.

“Yeah, we’ll probably be as out of place as a salmon at a grizzly bear convention. You ready to go eat?”