Authors: Claire Adams
Operating
a ranch had been a very lucrative endeavor as I was growing up, or so it seemed
from where I was looking in on things. We always had a bustling group of ranch
hands and even two or three men who had stayed on for many years. In his prime,
my father had managed the men himself, but in recent years, he had the man with
the most seniority in charge of the other men.
Currently
we only had one supervisor over the ranch hands, Walter, and one assistant to
him, Forest. Walter was getting ready to leave and I didn’t know much about
Forest at all. He was relatively new to me. I had heard of him, but he hadn’t
been at the ranch when I came home over Christmas. But that was how things were
going lately: the good guys ended up leaving and moving on to larger ranches
that were operated by big conglomerates. The larger ranches typically had
better hours for about the same pay, so I couldn’t blame them for wanting to
move on.
I
grabbed the reins of Buckjoy and the horse instantly started to buck with
irritation. I could see how he had gotten his name. The horse didn’t scare me
though; I saw the fear in his eyes and I knew I just had to step a few steps
backward and away from him to get him to calm a little. As I moved toward the
door of the barn, I saw the horse start to calm.
“He’s
not used to having a woman around,” said a man from the other side of the barn.
“Ah,
Garrett, this is my daughter, Sarah,” my Dad said as he motioned for Garrett to
come join us.
Suddenly
I remembered that I was supposed to have saved some food from breakfast for
Garrett. But then again, he hadn’t shown up by the time I cleaned up, so he was
out of luck. Any man who couldn’t be bothered to get up at breakfast time
wasn’t going to last long around the ranch anyways.
The
men that my father kept around on the ranch were hard workers. They weren’t the
kind of men who let others do work for them while they sat and watched. Usually
when a guy arrived on the ranch, he had already worked at several other places
and knew what it was going to be like. They knew how to wake themselves up in
the morning, and most of all, they knew that if you didn’t eat breakfast, it
was going to make for a really exhausting day. Obviously this Garrett guy had a
few lessons he needed to learn still.
“It’s
nice to meet you,” Garrett said as he reached his hand out to shake mine. “Do
you mind?” He asked and then grabbed the reins from me, without waiting for me
to answer.
“I
guess not,” I muttered.
“Garrett
has been working with the horses for the last couple of weeks. He’s new at it
though, so he’ll need your guidance. But Buckjoy seems to like him. It’s a good
sign, I think.”
It
was true; I watched as Garrett gently moved his hand down the main of Buckjoy
and the horse instantly calmed. I tried not to take it personally, but a little
piece of me was pissed off that the horse favored this stranger. Well, he was a
stranger to me at least and as I stood there watching Garrett and my father
interact, I realized my father really did like the guy.
My
father always tended to like the strangest ranch hands. Sometimes he would even
favor guys who looked like they had just gotten off a bus directly from New
York City without a single shred of experience on a ranch.
Once,
I had confronted my father on his favoritism. There had been a man who came to
us in the middle of the night and literally didn’t even know what a pair of
cowboy boots were. He was an arrogant asshole and refused to work at all. My
father let him stay with us in the house for a whole week before the man
finally moved on. When I confronted him about it, my father had told me that
everyone needed a helping hand at some point in their life. It baffled me and angered
me, but mostly because I felt like there was much more to the story than he was
letting on.
“You’re
not experienced with horses?” I questioned. He certainly seemed to know what he
was doing as he had Buckjoy practically purring like a kitten in front of him.
“Never
even seen a horse until I got here a couple of weeks ago.”
“Beginners
luck,” I said softly under my breath.
“Sarah,
he’s a hard worker. Be nice to him and teach him what he needs to know about
the horses, please.”
My
father didn’t look impressed with my snarky attitude toward the stranger and I
instantly changed it. I knew better than to make my father angry. There was one
thing in the world that I always knew for a fact: my father knew a good man
from a bad one. Over the years, my father had worked with thousands of men, and
even a few women, at the ranch; he had always been able to tell the hard
workers from the wannabes. Even when he said a man was a good man and let him
stay for a week without working, I knew deep down that my father had to have
some sort of reasoning for this.
“What
have you learned so far?” I asked Garrett.
“Oh,
pretty much just how to shovel shit,” he laughed.
Both
my father and I laughed with him. It was true, the first few weeks a ranch hand
was at our place, my father typically had them shoveling poop. It was a great
way to test the character of a man. Some of the men would refuse out of pride
or whatever else was going on and that just baffled me. Cleaning up after the
animals was just as important as any other job on the ranch. The men who
understood this did much better and lasted much longer on the ranch.
I
get it, shoveling shit isn’t the most glamorous of jobs. But if horses walked
around in their own shit all the time, they were more likely to get infections
and become ill. That cost the ranch money, not to mention it was gross. Being a
rancher wasn’t just about playing with piglets and selling cattle. It was about
caring for the animals in every aspect.
“And
sleeping in?” I joked.
“God,
I don’t know how they do it. Everyone insists I’ll be able to adjust and get up
when everyone else does, but apparently I just haven’t learned yet. I think
there’s some sort of trick to it that no one is telling me. But I’m up for a
little hazing if that’s what’s going on.”
Garrett
smiled and seemed very easy going. I couldn’t help but like him a little bit
more than I had when he had taken Buckjoy from me. His bright, blue eyes were
mesmerizing as he looked at me and I felt like a bit of a schoolgirl with a
crush. Of course I wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. I didn’t have time for
men in my life. I needed to make some big career and life decisions and having
a man around was just going to fuzzy up the process.
“I’m
sorry, I forgot to save some breakfast for you this morning; I’ll remember for
tomorrow.”
“You’re
making breakfast tomorrow? Maybe that’s the motivation I need to get my ass up
in the morning,” Garrett said as he winked at me.
“I’ll
leave you two to work. See you at dinner, dear,” my father said with a quick
peck to my cheek. “Garrett, remember that fox I killed last week that was
running around the hen house?”
“Yes,
sir,” Garrett laughed.
“I
bet you can imagine what I’d do if there was a fox around my daughter,” my
father laughed as he slapped Garrett on the back and walked away.
“Oh,
Dad, don’t be so dramatic.”
Garrett
was laughing, but I could tell he was leery about even being near me after what
my father had said. He and my father seemed to get along well though and that
was a huge plus for Garrett. My father didn’t take many people under his wing
like he was doing with Garrett, so if he already liked the man, I knew he was
just being a jokester about Garrett hanging around me.
“I
better get back to shoveling,” Garrett said and handed me the reins.
“You
know he was kidding, right?”
“Oh,
yeah, but I do have lots to do still.”
Garrett
made his way back to the first stall in the barn and I watched him every step
of the way. He was much handsomer than the ranch hands we normally had. His
tall, muscular frame should make the work easier on him, but even a man who
thought he was in great shape was typically surprised by the amount of work
that ranch hands actually put in each day.
Garrett
looked more like a preppy businessman who was pretending to be a ranch hand,
but sometimes that happened around our ranch, too. Young men would get sick and
tired of the life they were leading and up and decide they wanted to be free as
they took off on a trip around the country. Sooner or later, they would run out
of their money and have to find work in order to sustain their new roadie
lifestyle, and that’s when they would come to us.
I
wasn’t sure that was what was going on with Garrett though. He really seemed to
be new to everything farm related and didn’t even look like he was comfortable
wearing his cowboy boots and jeans. I would have to make an effort to get to
know him a little and see what had brought him to our ranch.
I
watched as his blond hair bobbed up and down in the horse stall while he
shoveled it clean. His hair was shaggy and looked like it had been
professionally cut recently, which surprised me because most the men who showed
up to work on the ranch had been drifting around for awhile before they landed
with us. They certainly weren’t paying money to get their hair cut.
“Do
you have gloves?” I asked as I put Buckjoy in his spot and walked over to
Garrett.
“Who
needs gloves?” Garrett joked as he held up his hands that were full of
blisters. “These are the hands of a highly skilled shit shoveler.”
“Oh,
God. Have you never worked at all? Those are horrible,” I laughed, but then
felt bad. His hands were indeed in very bad shape.
“I’m
more of a supervisor than a worker bee normally, but I’ll manage.”
“Here,
let me get you some gloves. Those need to be drained and cleaned too. Come see
me at lunchtime and I’ll fix you up,” I said.
Garrett
flashed a smile at me and my knees went weak; it caught me off guard and I
grabbed onto the side of the barn to stabilize myself. I certainly wasn’t used
to a good looking ranch hand being around me and was even less comfortable with
him flirting with me. If that was what he was doing? I hadn’t been flirted with
in a long time, so I wasn’t even sure I knew it when a man was doing it.
Quickly
I turned toward the cabinets on the other end of the building and grabbed him a
pair of leather gloves. They were my father’s, but it was clear that Garrett
needed them more than anyone.
“Put
these on,” I ordered.
“Yes,
ma’am,” Garrett said as he snatched them from the air when I threw them. “Do
you always give the order around here?”
His
voice was light hearted and his smile brilliantly white. I knew he was teasing
me, but I wasn’t sure I was able to handle it. My life was in ruins and I had
only come home to gather the pieces; I really didn’t have time for flirting;
even if he was one of the most delicious men I had ever laid eyes on.
“I
do have to give orders from time to time,” I said as I grinned back at him.
“I’ll see you at lunch.”
I
didn’t wait for his response and quickly left the building. My heart pounded
with excitement at the interaction I had just had. There was something about
Garrett that drew me to him. Maybe it was his smile, or his handsome good
looks; or maybe it was just that my father seemed to like him. I wasn’t exactly
sure, but I knew I was going to enjoy having him around this summer.
Chapter 3
Garrett
My
isolation at the Miller ranch was suddenly looking up quite a bit. I hadn’t
actually seen a woman in weeks, besides Mrs. Miller, and Sarah Miller was just
the woman I needed to take my mind off the torturous work I was doing.
My
mind was filled with all sorts of ideas about what I could do while I was at
the ranch. How I could continue to build my company, better myself, plan out my
testimony. But instead of being able to concentrate on any of the things I had
wanted to, I was physically exhausted. My body hurt more in the few weeks I had
been on the ranch than it had hurt after I ran a marathon just out of college.
Before
coming to the ranch, I had imagined what it would be like to work all day and
thought I could handle it. I was used to working hard at my company, but my
work allowed me the opportunity to do much of it from behind a desk. Physical
labor wasn’t something I had ever been afraid of and hard work was comfortable
to me, but the past few weeks had felt more like a concentration camp than a
place of work. I couldn’t imagine how anyone would willingly choose this as
their job. The physical exhaustion was taking its toll on me.
Not
only were my hands torn up and bloodied, but my whole body felt like I was only
moments away from collapsing. Every night when I crawled into bed, I couldn’t
imagine being able to wake up and actually move my body. I couldn’t read a book
and I could barely write my ideas down in my journal before the sleep took
over. Yet, day after day, I was up and working again in the horse stables. I
was proud of myself for not complaining and trying to fit in with everyone.
My
job there was temporary and I knew that. I had a court hearing coming up and if
I could just get through a few weeks of working, then I’d be able to get back
to my normal life. Although, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t ever be
able to get back to any sort of normal life. Frank Gordano wanted me dead, even
if I testified against him and he got sent away to jail, I wasn’t sure I would
ever really be safe. It was one of many thoughts that rolled through my mind as
I fell asleep at night.
Sarah
was much more beautiful than the picture I had seen in the main house. She had
been wearing jeans that were tight enough for me to see every last curve of her
beautiful body. And boy, did she have some fabulous curves. I wasn’t sure if I
lusted after her so much because I hadn’t seen a woman in such a long time at
the ranch, or if it was because I was actually attracted to her. But from where
I stood, either option was perfectly fine. I wasn’t going to be able to go
after her though; I knew that Sid had been joking with me, but I also knew that
I could be pulled away from the ranch at any moment. But Sarah was going to
make for some great fantasies when I was alone in my bed at night—if I could
manage to stay awake long enough to think about her.
When
lunchtime came, I hurried over to the gathering room and was one of the first
men there to get lunch. Missing breakfast was my normal routine back at home,
but sitting at a desk all morning hadn’t made me nearly as hungry as shoveling
horse excrement did. I was famished and scooped the food into my mouth as fast
as I could.
“Careful,
youngin’; you’re going to give yourself a stomach ache.”
“Forest,
I can’t go any slower. I swear I’m starving to death,” I said between bites.
“It’s like I haven’t eaten for a week or something.”
“That’s
what happens when you skip breakfast.”
Forest
knew I had missed breakfast every single day I had been on the ranch so far. It
felt like some sort of hazing that the guys were doing to me and I didn’t want
to give in. From what I knew about hazing, it was important for me to keep my
head up and keep pushing forward to prove I could withstand anything they put
me through. I imagined they were getting up very quietly in the morning so they
wouldn’t wake me up. Yet, I couldn’t imagine how they all woke up on time at
all. It was a mystery.
Most
of the men slept in the bunkhouse with me, but there were a few who had their
own small cabins just outside the edge of the main house. Forest, who had a
beautiful cabin out that way, as well as Walter—although I hadn’t seen Walter
in a while.
“What
happened to Walter?” I asked as I chewed my food.
“Oh,
he moved on.”
Forest
said it in such a matter-of-fact way that I almost didn’t want to ask any more
questions. Sid had told me that there was pretty quick turnover in the ranch,
but I hadn’t really thought it would happen so quickly.
“So
you’re in charge now?”
“Yep.”
“Oh,
I better get back to work then,” I joked. “How long have you been on the
ranch?”
“Long
enough.”
Forest
was a man of very few words. He was about my age, although he looked much older
than me. I could tell the hard work and time in the sun had worn down his body
over the years. Yet, Forest worked harder than I did every single day and
barely looked tired by the time we wrapped up dinner. It was a little
depressing to realize just how out of shape I really was.
Over
the last few weeks, I had felt weaker than I had my entire life. Sure, I went
to the gym several times a week back home and even had my personal trainer; but
nothing had prepared me for 12-to-15-hour days of physical labor. The physical
work was much different than workouts at the gym and my body wasn’t taking too
well to the changes. Although, I did feel like I had started to bulk up a
little in my upper body. Maybe I would even come to enjoy my long days of
physical labor.
“Man,
if I could figure out how the hell to wake up in the morning, I would do it in
and instant. Do you guys have some sort of trick or something?”
Forest
just laughed at me and then went back to eating his meal. His red hair was
dirty from working in the field that day. It was longer than mine and Forest
had a red beard to go along with the long hair. Most of the men on the ranch
had longer hair and beards, which I suspected was simply because they couldn’t
find the time to get to a barber. The mornings and evenings were busy and I had
struggled to find time to shave when I first arrived. But then I started doing
it while I was in the shower to save time; that seemed to be working well for
me. Although, I was the only one who kept a consistently clean shaven face.
“You’ll
figure it out,” Forest answered me.
“I
don’t think I will.”
“I’m
going into town tomorrow if you want to get yourself a watch,” Forest said as
he looked up at me.
“Nah,
that’s okay, I don’t really care what time it is. I just work until you guys
tell me to stop,” I laughed.
It
was the truth; I didn’t really care about the time. I didn’t have any place to
be and I certainly couldn’t go into town. So working, eating, and sleeping were
all I had to keep myself busy. What I needed was an alarm clock, but since none
of the other men had blaring alarms going off in the morning, I didn’t think it
was a good idea. I just had to figure out how the hell they silently woke
themselves up each and every morning. It was a baffling mystery to me.
“Suit
yourself.”
“Thanks
though,” I said as I finished off the last of my lunch. “Do you know if Sarah
is back there? I’m supposed to have her look at my hands.”
I
held up my hands and watched Forest flinch at the sight of them. I had gotten
used to the oozing and puss that was coming out of the blisters, but they
didn’t look very appealing to have around food. I pulled them back and placed
them on my lap again.
“Come
on man, I’m trying to eat here,” he said then looked away. “She’s usually
around back. Go that way,” he pointed toward the west.
“Thanks.”
My
hands had hurt a lot when I first started getting blisters on them. But over
the last few days, they were pretty much numb and I couldn’t feel them much at
all. No one else used gloves unless they were loading large items or pulling
the ropes. I hadn’t wanted to seem like a pussy so I had avoided using gloves
as well, which was obviously a huge mistake. My hands weren’t used to the kind
of work I was doing all the time and I finally decided the gloves Sarah had
given me were worth using to avoid totally damaging the skin on my hands for
the rest of my life.
“So
you’re the local nurse too,” I said as I came into the back room and saw Sarah
pulling out some first aid equipment.
“I’m
anything I need to be,” she replied flatly.
Sarah
was busy; I hated to take up her time, but I obviously didn’t know how to take
care of the blisters I was getting. I needed her to do what had to be done and
I promised myself I wouldn’t distract her too much so she could get back to
work. Although, she was extremely distracting to me to even be near.
Just
standing in the same room with her I couldn’t help but imagine what she would
look like naked and sprawled across a bed. My mind drifted to the way I would
caress her skin and how my lips would take in every inch of her. I certainly
wouldn’t let her leave my bed without being totally satisfied.
I
loved women. It wasn’t a surprise to most people who knew me that I loved
everything about women. But I wasn’t one of those guys who said he loved women
but then secretly didn’t respect them in the office or workforce. I
whole-heartedly loved women. The female perspective on things was always
different and innovative compared to how I viewed a project. I cherished the
insights of the women who worked in my company, although I didn’t have nearly
enough women there.
Working
with airplanes didn’t appear to be a job many women enjoyed very much. I only
had one female pilot and a few office employees. I also had one woman that was
in charge of my marketing and sales. She was blonde and beautiful and the rich
men she pandered to had a very hard time resisting her sales pitch. But I
honestly hadn’t hired her because of her looks; I hired her because she sold me
on her abilities and that was why I loved women in the workplace.
As
far as Sarah and the ranch were turning out, I could already see that both
Sarah and her mother Meredith contributed greatly to the running of the ranch.
It was their ideas and hard work combined with Sid’s that made the ranch
operate as well as it had been going. But I also suspected that Sid wasn’t
bringing in the kind of money that he needed to bring in. A ranch had to be a
very expensive business to operate and I didn’t see where Sid was optimizing
the opportunities at all. He only sold his cows and some smaller livestock but
he had thousands of acres of land. There had to be something more useful he
could be doing with all that land.
“Sit
down and tell me why your hands are gentler than a newborn baby’s,” Sarah said
and then started to laugh.
“I
guess I’ve just got baby hands.”
“Have
you ever worked on a ranch before? Have you ever even worked at all? These
hands are absolutely pitiful.”
“No,”
I laughed, but then I quickly became aware that I was supposed to be Garrett
Reynolds and I had a complete back story that I needed to stick to. “Well, a
little, but not this much,” I added. “Your Dad has gotten more work out of me
here than I think I did throughout my entire years in college.”
I
was joking, but it was probably pretty close to being true. Working hard was
relative to me. In my real life, I worked hard to build my company and I
probably worked twice as much as other people who had normal jobs, but I did my
work whenever I wanted. I didn’t have to sit at my desk all day and I certainly
wasn’t getting blisters from shoveling horse crap.
“Where
are you from?”
My
mind hesitated as I tried to remember the history of Garrett. I hadn’t actually
had to tell the story to anyone yet. I had successfully avoided any deep and
meaningful conversations with people since I had arrived on the ranch. It
probably wasn’t the best way to get to know my fellow workers, but I just
couldn’t risk messing up the story that I was supposed to know about my own
past.
I
also had stayed pretty quiet because I was afraid of getting confused and
telling people different stories about my past. If I started talking to anyone,
I needed to be one hundred percent sure of my story so I wouldn’t look like a
liar when I told people bits and pieces about my past.
“Originally
from Wyoming, was on my way to Washington, but decided to stay and work for the
summer.”
“What’s
in Washington?”
“A
job.”
“Not
one where you use your hands I hope?” Sarah laughed.
Her
laugh brightened the room as her smile took over her face. I was sure that any
man who had ever laid eyes on that smile had probably tried to land her as his
woman. My body even reacted with a stiff hard on as she grabbed one of my hands
and started to work on draining the blisters and bandaging me up. I had to
resist from flirting with her though, as sweet as she was; there were men who
wanted to kill me and flirting with a rancher’s daughter wouldn’t help me in
any way.