16 Chapter 16

I followed the dirt road to the house and parked behind several other trucks. One I recognized as Colten’s Ranger.

Sure enough, Colten emerged from the house, covered in mud. He waved and smiled, and my heart skipped a beat.

I got out of the car and approached him.

“Sorry about the mud,” he said as he shook my hand. “One of the sheep got its leg stuck in the fence and I had to get on the ground to free it. Their wool helps them once winter comes, but it sure does get stuck in a lot of things.”

“How many do you have total?”

He motioned with his hand and I followed. We walked to the fence on the right, the one where the sheep were kept. “We have twenty-four now. We doubled our flock.”

Colten lifted a metal latch and swung a gate into the pen. We went through and he closed it quickly behind us.