Johnny grinned and raised his hand to the sky. “I’m telling you the truth. She totally had the hots for you.”

“What has Julia been up to?”

“Pretty much taking care of Joe and Bessie, now that they’re older. What do you think about my proposition?”

“I’d need to know a lot more about it before I decide,” Kerney answered. “What kind of technical assistance would you have me do?”

The main course arrived, and Johnny asked for a glass of expensive red wine before cutting into his steak. “Cop stuff,” he said. “You’d make sure anything to do with law enforcement is accurate. The story pits a rancher against agents of the Bureau of Land Management. When he decides to move his cattle illegally across public land, federal agents and the local sheriff try to stop him. The chase turns into a stampede when the cops try to turn back the rancher and his neighbors who are driving the herd across BLM land.”

Kerney’s lamb came served on a bed of polenta. It looked perfect. “It doesn’t sound like there would be much for me to do,” he said.

Johnny chuckled. “Now you’re thinking straight. It would be a working vacation, Hollywood style. Besides that, when was the last time you went on a real cattle drive? I’m not talking about moving stock from pasture to pasture, or gathering cows for shipment. But a real cattle drive, pushing three hundred and fifty head across a mountain range.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever done that,” Kerney said.

“Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Johnny asked.

“Yeah, it does.”

“You think about it,” Johnny said, fork poised at his mouth. “Talk to Dale. Talk to your wife. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to do something we used to dream about back when we were kids.”