“I hear you, brother.” Jesse backed the truck up close to the barn. “Let’s get this stuff loaded. Mia can help us put up the pens tomorrow after we do chores. Stevie has come up with a good idea here. Who would have ever thought we’d have to do this in our part of Texas?”

“That’s the truth.” Cody got out of the truck, sunk down to the top of his boots in snow, and growled.

Cody slipped his phone from his hip pocket. “I’m going to check on Stevie and get her opinion on the cows.”

“Kind of nice having a vet on the property.” Jesse picked up a panel and carried it to the truck.

“Huh, her phone is going straight to voice mail,” Cody answered.

“Probably lost service if she’s at the back side of the forty,” Jesse said. Y’all ever get around to having that talk? Seems like she’s not as prickly as she was when I rescued you.”

“We decided that we might be friends,” Cody said and then frowned. “We’ve never had service problems anywhere in the pasture. I called Mia yesterday to ask her to look up a cow’s number for us and had no trouble getting through, remember?”

“Maybe Stevie’s having second thoughts about the idea of friendship and she’s flown the coop,” Jesse chuckled. “Hey, Mia told us at the breakfast table this morning that she’s going to invite Beau Martin to Sunday dinner when we dig out from under all this mess. Seems she’s been talking and texting him for a few weeks, and they even went on a couple of drives through the country together.”

Cody had heard that name, but he couldn’t put a face with it. Was it someone he had treated in the last six months? No, but Martin rang a bell. A visual of a little lady with gray in her hair came to his mind, and then he remembered Vernon Martin’s wife.

“Libby Martin of the Bois D’Arc Ranch?” he questioned.

“That would be his grandmother. Vernon is his grandpa. He works at the feed store part-time and helps Vernon run the ranch since Libby passed away. Seems like a good kid,” Jesse answered.

“I met him just before Libby died,” Cody said as he helped load up the panels. “His grandparents seem like good people.”

“And that boy likes ranching?” Cody asked.

“I guess he does, or he wouldn’t be down here helping Vernon and working two days a week at the feed store, plus taking online agribusiness courses,” Jesse answered.

“I bet Vernon is happy that he’s finally got a family member interested in ranching,” Cody said.