"If you gents will excuse me, I have some cleaning to do." Rachel said, heading into the bunkhouse.
"As odd as it sounds Teaspoon, neither of us were scheduled for a run today." Noah told him.
"Why?" Cody asked.
" 'Cause I need one of you to take a note to Ed Zeamer in Cottonwood explaining the situation and our need for backup riders." Teaspoon explained.
"Now wait a minute, Teapoon! You ain't planning on telling them boys about Lou being a girl are you?" Cody exclaimed.
"As soon as the company catches wind that Lou's really a she, she'll be out of a job faster than you could apologize." Noah added.
"Will the two of you stop that cackling for a damn minute and let me talk! Iffen either of you had any sense you'd know I'd never do anything like that to Lou! I'm just going to tell them that we got a rider missing and that we need some backup riders while some of ours is looking for the missing one." Teaspoon told them heatedly.
Relief flooded through Noah and Cody as Teaspoon continued in a more civilized tone. "Now, which one of you is going to make the run?"
Noah and Cody exchanged looks. Neither rider relished the idea of giving up their only day off in weeks. Even for such an important run as this one. Teaspoon caught the looks passing between the two riders and realized that they were silently arguing with each other over who was going to go.
He let out a long suffering sigh and said," Just for once I wish you boys could agree to do something for me without arguing about it first. Since you can't make a decision yourselves and I don't have the patience to listen to you argue it out, you boys are going to flip for it."
He dug into his pocket and pulled a nickel out. Balancing the coin between his thumb and forefinger Teaspoon said," Call it Cody."
"Heads." Cody said.
Teaspoon flicked the coin into the air. All the three men watched as the coin flew into the air and flipped over before landing back in Teaspoon's open palm. He slapped the coin onto his arm and lifted up his hand. The tail end of a buffalo looked up at them.
Noah groaned and Cody let out a loud "whoop."
"Best get your horse saddled, Noah, while I go write the note." Teaspoon told the black rider as he headed into the bunkhouse.
"I'm right on it." Noah muttered.
"I'll be sure to think about you Noah, while I'm taking a leisurely swim out at the swimming hole." Cody said jokingly, slapping Noah on the back.
"Shut up Cody." Noah said, stalking off the porch in the direction of the barn.
"Geez, some people just don't have a sense of humor." Cody said, shrugging his shoulders as he turned to head into the bunkhouse.
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