"Alright, let them go." Swayde shouted over the noise of lowing cattle, wiping a hand over his sweaty forehead as he walked to the prep table beside the chutes. 

        "I still can't believe I let you talk me into this." Renne complained teasingly, letting the ten heifers through the chute, careful to watch when she had to close the head gate when the next group was led in. 

        "Yeah, Swayde, usually it's the other way around. Usually she's the one convincing you to drop everything and help her out." Swayde's good friend, Kyle, interjected, on the back of his horse. Kyle owns one of the largest cattle ranches in the state, with over 90,000 acres and many thousands of heads of cattle; him and Swayde tend to pitch in on each other's ranches whenever they need the help. Today, Kyle was out riding herd, helping sort the large group of heifers, filtering in smaller groups into the holding pen. 

         "Oh alright you two." Swayde shook his head, grinning as he walked back over to the next group of heifers with the de-wormer applicator. 

          The trio had been out on Swayde's ranch for hours working cattle, and they were only about halfway done. Swayde, seeing how tired Renne was becoming in the scorching heat, offered for them to take breaks, or switch places so she could be the one in the covered, shaded area, applying the de-wormer, but Renne refused. 

        "Not that I'm complaining about comin' here and workin' with you again, but I'm just sayin' that I am surprised you were able to talk me into it for a second day in a row." Renne smiled when Swayde walked over to apply the liquid to the back of the first heifer. 

        "Dang straight. Plus, if we get done soon enough, I'm takin' you on a date." Swayde made his way down the alley, quickly squeezing out the dewormer down the back of each heifer. He grinned at Renne over his shoulder. 

          "Oh you are now, are you?" Renne opened the head gate, whistling to the heifers to get them moving. When the first one refused to move, Renne reached her arm through the slats on the chute, grabbing the heifer's tail, twisting it up and pushing on her rump, trying to make her move forward. Instead of giving into the push, the heifer pushed back, unloading a large bowel movement all over Renne's arm. Retreating her poop covered arm, Renne quickly exclaimed, walking over to the prep table. "Are you serious right now?!" She frantically grabbed several paper towels off the roll, attempting to tear off the stiff paper with just one hand. Instead of ripping, the paper towel roll fell off the table, rolling onto the dirt. With a frustrated groan, Renne bent down to pick it up with her clean hand, but just as she did so, she heard Swayde shout something behind her. 

        "Reagan, the chute!" Swayde jumped off the alley deck, trying to get to the head gate in time so no other untreated heifers made it through. 

        Renne spun around, seeing the heifers trudging out of the open chute, several of them having already escaped to their freedom of endless green grass. Sprinting to the chute, Renne pulled the lever, quickly shutting the head gate, preventing any more heifers from running out. Looking at the next heifer in line, she saw that she had already been applied with the medicine. Thankful that none of the heifers that hadn't been worked yet got out, Renne continued her task of cleaning off her soiled arm. 

      "What on earth happened to you?" Swayde whistled, taking in Renne's appearance. 

      Looking up into those starry blue eyes of Swayde's as she stood up from picking up the roll of paper towels, Renne commented, "That dang heifer gave me a thank you present for trynna make her get out of the chute." 

        "You still look beautiful." Swayde grinned, sweat beads on his forehead from the hot late June heat. 

        Teasingly, Renne rolled her eyes. "Can you please give me a hand?" She held out the roll of paper towels to Swayde, who accepted them, ripping off several and helping Renne clean the manure off her arm. As he did so, he began to chuckle. "What? Why are you laughin' at me?!" Renne exclaimed. 

         "Nothin', it's just..." Swayde could not contain his chuckle; it must have been the heat. "This could only happen to you, you do know that, right?"

        "You are so mean, Swayde McAllister!" Renne joined in on laughing at herself. "I have seen it happen to you, too, so you can't say much, y'know." 

       "True, but I mean you did it good!" He motioned a hand up and down her mud and manure splattered outfit. 

       Renne shot Swayde a glare, not amused at the situation. She could already smell the manure on her clothing, even though it was completely cleaned off her arm. As if she didn't think she could get any stinkier because of the sweat, life proved her wrong. 

       Swayde, picking up on Renne's lack of amusement, cleared his throat, turning serious. "You know, in all seriousness, it really isn't all that funny. I'm sorry you got pooped on." He reached his hands out, resting them on the only clean spot on Renne's shoulders. "Is there anything that I can do to help? Do you want to wear my shirt so you can change out of your soiled one?" 

      Renne glanced down at the shirt in question, seeing it was dotted with sweat. With a grin, Renne replied, "I think I will keep mine. Thank you though. Besides, if you gave me your shirt, you would be too much of a distraction to me shirtless." With a wink, she turned away from Swayde, walking back to her spot at the head chute.

      Behind her, Renne could hear Swayde chuckling, saying something cute about her to Kyle. With a grin, Renne continued on with her work. She could not remember the last time that she had enjoyed working with cattle this much, despite the smelly situation that she had found herself in. It was certainly a fact that her and Swayde made a great team; sure, working cattle certainly had its moments resulting in Renne and Swayde getting testy with each other, but overall, they worked exceedingly well together. 

          Not even two hours later, the trio was finally finished with their work with the heifers. After bidding Kyle goodbye, profusely thanking him for all of his help, Swayde and Renne hopped into Swayde's truck. The second Swayde's key was in the ignition, Renne cranked the air conditioner fan as high as it would go, removing her cowboy hat, and leaning close to the vent, the cold air blowing on her hot face.

       With a chuckle, Swayde reached over to Renne's side, resting a hand on her thigh as he drove through the bumpy pastures, back to his house. 

       "I had no idea it was fixin' to get this hot today. It's pretty bad." Renne commented, sitting back in her seat, resting her hand on top of Swayde's on her leg. 

        "Well, you certainly make it a lot hotter." He shot his shotgun rider a wink.

        "You are certainly in a flirty mood today." She observed, grinning at Swayde. 

         "I'm just excited to take you on a date tonight. And before you even think to ask where we are goin' or what we are doin', don't because I won't tell you." 

         "I wasn't goin' to ask because I know you wouldn't tell me anyways. But, are we seriously still goin' out?"

        Swayde slowed his truck down some so the front bumper didn't bottom out as he drove over a large dip in the pasture. "Well, I'm not sure that the place we are goin' will appreciate us smellin' like cow manure, so maybe we should postpone it..." Swayde couldn't help but to tease.

        "Oh, you just think you're so funny." Renne shook her head, watching the scenery roll by out of her window. "Wait, Swayde, stop." She shot up in her seat, accidentally freaking out Swayde. 

         "What, what's wrong?!" He slammed his foot onto the brake, stopping his truck, turning to face Renne, making sure she was okay.

         "Hand me my camera, please." She held out her hand behind her, not taking her eyes off of the view outside of her window. 

        "Here, what do you see?" Swayde handed Renne her old camera, leaning closer, hoping to see whatever her eye had caught.

        Raising the lens to her eye, Renne shot several pictures, adjusting the focus, momentarily forgetting about Swayde's question. Ever so carefully, she rolled down her window, moving herself so she was sitting on the sill, hanging out of the truck, snapping even more pictures. Finally, after taking nearly fifty pictures, Renne pulled herself back into the cab of Swayde's truck, plopping back down into her seat. 

       Pulling up one of the pictures she had just taken, Renne showed the screen to Swayde. "A bald eagle." She couldn't contain her smile as she answered. Taking pictures was something that she had always enjoyed, but she had really taken an interest in it after she graduated high school. Pictures had always meant a lot to her, especially since pictures were now the only memory she had of her parents, considering they passed away in a tragic drunk driver car accident when Renne was only seven years old.

       Having been raised by her grandparents, and older sister, after her parents passed away, there were infinite questions she had about her parents. Pictures were the one thing that Mamaw and Papaw, Renne's grandparents, had that gave Renne the feeling that her parents were still with her. 

        Sadly, just about a month or so ago, Renne's older sister, Mallory passed away after a long, hard battle with cancer. She was the one who had really began to encourage Renne to begin taking pictures, well beside Swayde, of course. Ever since then, taking photographs has always been an escape for Renne. Granted, after she left Wyoming almost six years ago, hoping to start her life over, she had gotten so wrapped up in her new career, and her relationship, that photography had taken a back burner. Being back in Wyoming now had rekindled that love and passion for photography. 

         The reminder of her leaving Swayde, Wyoming and her family behind six years ago had struck a cord in Renne's heart when she thought about why it was that she had left. Renne had found out the hard way that her grandparents, Mallory, and Swayde, were keeping a huge secret about the death of her parents. Years after the accident, Renne found out that it was Swayde's brother that was the drunk driver of the car that hit, and killed, both of Renne's parents. To this day, she could vividly remember the moment she found out the truth about the accident. It seemed like just yesterday...