The Rancher's Untamed Heart (23 page)

“Ouch, Sarah,” I said. “Way to make me feel good about myself.”

“Hey, I’m not here for that. You and I, we’re cogs in the government machine. That’s okay, the government machine needs a lot of cogs and tries to do the right things,” she said. “You’re not the only cog that could inspect ranches, though, with a little shaping. This is getting away from me, you totally know what I mean, right?”

I reached out and stole a green grape off of her plate.

“You’re not saying that any schmuck off the street could do my job, you’re saying that any shmuck with organizational skills and the right knowledge could do my job. Not an unlimited number of replacements, but always some,” I said.

She popped another grape into her mouth and nodded.

“You’re right,” I said. “My position is important, but I’m not critical. The earth will keep on spinning if I stay at home with babies instead.”

“Yeah,” she said, “But if you don’t want to, it would suck way too much.”

“So, what are you telling me?” I asked. “Plan to keep my job? Plan to leave it and have a ton of babies?”

Sarah laughed out loud.

“I’m telling you that you haven’t even known this guy for six months. You need to talk to him. You need to ask him all of these questions. Can he afford to support a wife who is a stay-at-home mother? Would he only want to marry you if you were one? Would he be okay if you two only had one kid? Does he even want to marry you? You don’t know the answer to nearly enough of these questions,” she said.

“Ugh, you’re right,” I said.

I stole another grape.

"I suppose this means that I have to have an actual conversation with him about this like an adult," I said.

"Yep," she said, drawing the word out.

"With feelings," I said.

"Yep," she said, making it even longer.

"And personal questions about money and stuff," I said.

"Yep," Sarah said. This time she drew out the word so long that when she smacked the 'p,' Katie pulled herself off of Sarah's chest and started to cry a little.

I jumped in my chair, but Sarah only smiled down at her baby and tucked her clothing back together, pulling her infant daughter up onto her other shoulder, where a burp cloth waited, and patting her back.

"It's time for a nap," she explained. "Want to come see?"

We went up to her little nursery, and Sarah rocked and sang to the baby in the dark little room as Katie's cries stopped and her little arms started to stretch as she yawned.

When her eyes fluttered shut and stayed closed for a few seconds, my friend gently set the baby down in her crib and we both held our breath.

Katie only grumbled in her sleep and shifted on the mattress, and Sarah nodded at me. We both slipped out of the room and padded down the carpeted stairs.

"Where's that husband of yours, by the way?" I asked.

"Oh, Neil is getting some time away from the baby," she said. "When you said you were coming over I texted him and told him to hit the gym or read a book or something, he's going to be so happy when he comes back."

"Cool, how is he taking to fatherhood?" I asked.

"Suspiciously well," she said. "I keep expecting him to have some sort of panicked meltdown, but he's been pretty calm about things so far. Diapers, feedings, burping, nothing has phased him yet."

"Good!" I said.

We turned the topic to Neil's job at the software engineering company and gossip about our own coworkers. After half an hour or so of this, Sarah yawned slightly behind her hand and I took the hint.

"It was great to see you," I said. "I'll try and keep that in mind. I'm a good cog, but I'm not the only cog."

She nodded.

"You're a damn fine cog, Naomi, but if you decide you want to leave the USDA, don't worry about the government machine. Worry about yourself and this handsome man who wants you," she said.

"What's this about handsome men? I was trying to be so sneaky, but you heard me come home," Neil said. He poked his head around the door to the kitchen and we both jumped. “I know you had to have been talking about me, right?”

"What the hell were you doing?" Sarah asked. "Trying to give me a heart attack so I'll stop putting the baby in outfits you hate?"

Neil smiled adoringly at his wife and came over to kiss her head.

"Nope," he said. "Trying not to wake the baby in her ugly outfits."

He looked over at me.

"Hey, Naomi. How are things? You have a handsome man?" he asked.

"I do," I said. "Trying to figure out what that means."

"I'll give you all the gory details soon," Sarah said, grinning at us both. Neil and I exchanged a look. I had no doubt that his wife would do just that. She was a chatty one, but I trusted her to only share my secrets with her husband.

The next time I walked into Clint’s office, I found him cursing over a pile of paperwork. Again.

Well, not really cursing. Clint doesn’t do what I would call real cursing, but he can sure talk his way around the matter until the paper should probably burst into flames out of sheer shame.

As I stood there, he continued.

“I would do better to just shove this whole pile into the sheep’s food, at least when it came out the other end, it’d be useful,” he said, glaring at me over the stack. “Only thing that stops me is it’d probably give them indigestion.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Clint. This has to stop.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, a challenge in his voice.

“Nuh-uh, no sir,” I said, “None of that real-men-do-their-own-paperwork crap. Don’t even start, I don’t want to hear it. Real men know that it’s better to get help than to work yourself to death doing a lousy job at something you’re not good at.”

He winced. “Not gonna pull any punches today, are you?”

“Never, it’s for your own good,” I said. “The sensible thing to do as a ranch owner is to put the right man on every job. You’re not the right man for this job.”

“I always get it correct in the end,” he grumbled.

“That’s right,” I agreed, “But while you’re getting it right, you’re not checking fences, dealing with the hands, talking to buyers, or making decisions. You know, the things you’re good at. The things like making decisions that
only
you can do.”

“What are you driving at, woman?” he asked. “You look like you have a plan.”

“Of course I have a plan,” I said. “It’s as plain as the nose on your face. Come on.”

I marched out of the office without waiting to see if he’d follow, but I definitely crossed my fingers while I walked towards what I’d seen earlier.

Clint’s long legs caught up to mine easily, but he didn’t ask where we were going.

We stopped by a big enclosure full of men and sheep, milling around, the men checking the sheep for mites. It was a tedious job that required a lot of wrestling and sending sheep from one pen to another, but it was better than letting mites take over.

I smiled and nodded at the men, but turned to Clint.

“Look at Will,” I said. “He’s doing okay, but, hell, Johnny does better with the sheep, and Johnny is barely sixteen and scrawny. Will is competent, but he’ll never be great like you or Clint, and he knows it. He was great at his last job, and he’s middle of the pack here, he doesn’t get to use his brain like he used to and he’s bored and miserable.”

Clint grunted.

“You told me once that you paid Will to be smart,” I insisted. “Let Will be smart for you. Do right by him, because he hates this, and Brandon loves him. You’ll lose them both in another couple of years.”

He turned away from the fence and headed slowly back to his office. I followed, and when we got halfway back, he stopped.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to tell me how to run my ranch,” he said, quietly.

“I’m not telling you as a USDA inspector. I’m not even telling you this as a know-it-all agriculture major. I’m telling you this as your girlfriend, because I want you and Brandon and Will to be happy, and I want you to have more time to spend with me and less time sitting at your desk getting mad,” I said.

He nodded and turned on his heel, heading back towards the enclosure.

“Will,” he called. “Get outta there and come to my office.”

I started back towards the house, but Clint said “Oh, no, Naomi. You started this, you’re going to stick by me and see it through, aren’t you?”

I winced and nodded.

Hoping that I hadn’t put my foot in it completely, I walked back to the ranch office with a silent Clint and confused Will.

When we got back to the small room, Clint gestured each of us to a chair and sat behind the desk.

He stared at us both for a minute.

“What’s up, Clint?” Will asked. He was starting to look a little concerned.

“Naomi tells me that you’re miserable, because you’ll never be better than average as a hand, and you’re used to being outstanding,” Clint said. “She said you were bored and you were going to leave the ranch and Brandon would follow you, and I’d be all alone with a pile of paperwork and too many sheep.”

I winced again.

“Thanks, Clint,” I muttered. I turned to look at Will. “Sorry, I did phrase it much more tactfully than that.”

Will shrugged.

“No,” he said, “That’s about right. I am definitely bored and I know I don’t want to wrestle sheep for the rest of my damn life.”

Clint nodded. “You ever do spreadsheets?” he asked.

The other man frowned at him. “I worked at a bank for a few years before I did reporting, and I’m a neat freak,” he said. “I make spreadsheets to pack for vacation.”

“Good,” Clint said, and stood up. Will and I stood up, too. Clint walked around the desk and took Will by the shoulder, giving him a gentle shove towards the larger chair behind the desk. Clint’s chair.

Clint sat in the chair Will had just vacated, and grinned.

“I think I like this side of the desk,” he said. “Will, you want to take a turn at that side? Get out of the sun and do some of that blasted paperwork?”

Will eyed the ranch owner suspiciously.

“What’s your plan here, Clint?” he asked.

“I hate paperwork. You hate ranch work. You need something you don’t hate, or you’ll leave, and Brandon will go with you, and without the two of you, I’ll irritate everyone into leaving the ranch until it’s just me and fifteen sheep and a bottle of Jack,” Clint said.

“I don’t hate ranch work,” Will started, and Clint and I both looked at him, eyebrows raised.

“Fine, I can’t stand it. I’m sick to death of sheep, all day, every day. Sheep and fences, sheep and fences. I don’t know how you and Brandon can go out there every day with a smile on your faces. A little bit is okay, but Jesus Christ, not six days a week,” he said.

Clint laughed out loud.

“You’d really rather be stuck in here and deal with all of this,” he wave his hands over the desk, “nonsense?”

“Clint,” I cut in, “You can say ‘bullshit’ in front of me, you know.”

He reddened slightly. “I can
not,
you are a lady,” he said.

“Paperwork is bullshit,” Will said cheerfully, “But it’s better than wrestling with a goddamn sheep. Smells less.”

“So, you’d like to do it?” Clint asked. “Take over all of this for me?”

Will hesitated.

“What’s the pay?” he asked.

“What you make now, with a bonus. We’ll negotiate that later,” Clint said.

“I’ll talk it over with Brandon,” Will said.

Clint eyed him. “Do you really think this would make you happier?” he asked. “You know I want you and Brandon to stick around.”

Will grew very serious.

“I don’t know if it will be enough, but it will be a start,” he said. “If I do this, I don’t want to be your secretary, I want to be your business partner. I don’t want to file papers, I want to work on plans and strategies with you and have a say in what happens around here. Still your ranch, your call, but if I hear about an opportunity or new thing to do that I think would help this place, I want you to sit down with me and take me seriously.”

“I can’t promise you my full attention at every minute, things come up,” Clint grumbled.

“All right, regular meetings. One hour of your time, three days a week, nine sharp,” Will said immediately.

Clint groaned.

“This is…” he caught my eye - “nonsense,” he said.

Will stretched, luxuriously. “I don’t know, this chair is a hell of a lot better on my back than that stupid sheep.”

“I guess I’d better go take over for you out there,” Clint said, standing.

I watched through the window as Clint did exactly that, walking over to the pen and slipping right into the thick of things.

“He didn’t say anything about what was happening to anybody, did he?” I asked.

“I highly doubt it,” Will said. “Brandon’ll come track me down and figure it out soon enough.”

He eyed me even more suspiciously than he had eyed Clint. There was a glint of humor in his eyes, but they were as hard as flint.

“I think I detect your meddling hand in this development,” he said, gesturing at the desk.

“Is that so wrong?” I challenged.

“I don’t think so, but if he doesn’t like what I do here, you might have fucked everything up pretty royally,” Will said. “This change occurred to me and Brandon years back, but we had serious qualms about changing this status quo. You seem pretty confident that this will be better. Do you know better than we do?”

I squirmed in my seat.

“I heard you and Brandon fighting a few days ago,” I admitted. “I thought it was time to make a push. I’m sorry, maybe I should have talked to you or Brandon before Clint.”

“You were in the barn?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I won’t deny that I’m bored as hell here,” he said. “I don’t think you did wrong, or I wouldn’t have accepted Clint’s offer, but I’m pretty interested in why you suggested it.”

“I want things on this ranch to go as well as possible, for… well, forever,” I said.

“You’re set on sticking around?” he asked.

I nodded, sharply.

“Good,” he said. “Come help me figure out what the hell Clint has been doing with mail.”