It took two hours with everyone looking, but Bo finally got a call from Toby and Austin, saying they'd found her. She was lost, but not hurt, and would follow them back to the barn. Bo thanked them and called the rest of the men. He thanked them all and told them they could call it a day and enjoy their supper.
He and Coy were the furthest from the house and main barn, so they were the last to get back. After taking Midnight's saddle off and brushing him down, he went in for supper. He washed up and joined Wyatt at the table. “Where's Alicia?”
Wyatt sighed. “She said she had to wash her hands and would be right back down. That was fifteen minutes ago. Maybe I better go check on her.”
Just then they heard someone talking and turned to look. Alicia was standing in the doorway, with her back to them, a cell phone to her ear. She continued talking to someone both men assumed was a friend, laughing and talking loudly. After a few minutes Wyatt cleared his throat. “Alicia, we've been holding supper, waiting for you.”
She turned just far enough to hold a finger up, telling him to wait.
A couple minutes later Bo looked at Wyatt, who was obviously upset. “She really does need someone to take her in hand, doesn't she?”
Wyatt nodded. “I think you're just the man for the job, Bo.”
Bo looked over at her and shook his head. “I don't know.” When she was still talking on her phone two more minutes later, he stood. “I might be at that.” He walked over to her quietly, and since she still had her back to them she wasn't aware he was standing behind her. He reached over, easily took the phone from her hand and put it to his ear. “I'm sorry, she's going to have to call you back. It may not be until tomorrow.” He hung up and slipped the phone into his shirt pocket.
She whirled around to face him. “Who the hell do you think—” She looked at him and froze.
Bo interrupted her tirade. “Watch your lang—” He met her eyes and froze, as well. After they stared at each other several seconds, Bo was the first to find his voice. “Darn it, Garnet.”
Alicia's eyes narrowed. “Very funny, Bojangles. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I work here. What are you doing here?”
Wyatt came over to the two of them. “You two know each other?”
Bo nodded. “We went to school together.”
Alicia started laughing, loudly, as she looked at Bo. “Remember that time in fourth grade?”
Bo scowled. “I'm not likely to ever forget that.”
Wyatt looked from one of them to the other. There was obviously some history between them, but he didn't think it was good. “Let's go sit down and have supper. You two can fill me in on how you know each other.”
Bo held Alicia's chair for her as she sat down for supper. The men sat down and Maria was in right away with their food. No one said a word until the food was passed and plates were full. Wyatt looked from one to the other, noticing neither was looking at the other. “So, you said you two went to school together?”
The two younger people looked up and their eyes met for a moment, until Bo looked away. Wyatt thought he looked hurt. Or maybe angry. He was still trying to figure it out when she spoke up. “Yes, we did. He never did like me, and I never knew why. He was mean to me the whole way through school.”
Bo's head flew up and his eyes met hers. “I can't believe you said that, Garnet. I never was mean to you. Can you say the same? You know perfectly well why I was angry with you.”
“You're still upset over that one little misunderstanding? It was actually kind of funny.”
“Not from my point of view.”
She turned to Wyatt and grinned. “He's upset about a little misunderstanding in fourth grade. Don't you think he needs to get over it pretty soon? Talk about holding a grudge!”
“The little misunderstanding, as you refer to it, got me into all kinds of trouble. It would have been much easier to take if I had in fact done what I was accused of doing. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Garnet?”
Wyatt's head turned from one to the other, trying to decipher what in fact had happened. Finally, he got their attention when he asked, “Garnet?”
Both turned to look at him. Bo nodded. “Yeah, that's a good question. What's up with this Alicia business? What happened to Garnet?”
“Very funny, Bojangles.” Alicia glared at Bo.
“And why did you do that? I wasn't the one you should have been attacking for that.”
“Do you think I liked being called Darn It? Well, I didn't.”
“And I never liked being called Bojangles, either. But I never called you Darn It. You, however, are the one that started Bojangles. But you still want to blame everything on me and say you don't know why I would be upset with you? Seriously?”
“That's not the way I heard it, Bojangles. I heard you were the one behind the whole Darn It fiasco, just like when you tried to get me in trouble for stealing that science test. You and some of the others kept telling the teacher I stole it and he should paddle me so my ass was red and matched my name. You don't think that was mean?”
Bo paused and cocked his head, looking at her. “What test? And I never told the teacher he should paddle your ass. I may have thought it, but I never said it. And I don't understand what you mean, so your ass matches your name? What are you talking about?”
“I'm talking about that science test. The teacher knew someone stole it, and you said it was me.”
“What science test are you talking about?” Bo thought several moments. “That science test was in like third grade. And you said I hold a grudge?”
Alicia looked so upset Wyatt was afraid she might explode. He pounded his fist on the table and stood up. “Who is Garnet?”
They both jumped at the sudden noise, and looked at the generally quiet, mild-mannered Wyatt. He sat back down. “That's better. Now, one at a time. I have some questions. For starters, who is Garnet?”
“Me,” Alicia said meekly. “Didn't you know my full name is Garnet Alicia?”
“No, I didn't. I never heard you called anything but Alicia.”
“I've never heard her called anything but Garnet,” Bo said.
Alicia sighed. “Mom named me Garnet after my grandmother. I hated the name because it's a grandma name. Apparently Mom and Dad thought that, too, because they always called me Alicia. But then when I started school, they go by your actual first name unless your parents say they want you called something different. Mom didn't see that on the form, so they had me registered as Garnet. She said maybe it would be better in the long run to go by your real first name, so they started calling me Garnet, even though I hated it. When I went off to college, I dumped that real quick and went back to Alicia.”
Wyatt shook his head. “I never heard anyone call you anything other than Alicia.”
“I hated being called Garnet in school. Everyone called me Red, until this dipstick called me Darn It.”
“That's not true. I didn't start that. In fact, I never called you Darn It. Calling people names is one thing my parents would not allow, under any circumstances.”
“You did, too, start it. We were playing softball in gym class one day and I kept bothering you when you were up to bat. You struck out and you looked at me, upset for messing with you, and said, Darn it. Someone else said, darn it, Garnet, and they all started laughing. So they all called me Darn It Garnet for a little while, until they shortened it to Darn It. It was all your fault.”
Bo was quiet. “I didn't know that's what started it, Garnet. I really didn't, but I still never called you that. But you're the one that started calling me Bojangles.”
“Because thanks to you they were calling me Darn It. Plus, I was still mad at you for that test, telling the teacher to paddle my ass so it matched my name.”
“What does that even mean? I never said it, by the way.”
“You're the one that said I stole the test. Freddie told the teacher he should paddle my ass, and you two were laughing. Everyon
e started saying my name was red, my ass should match it.”
Bo was getting angry. “First off, I never said ass in school. That would have gotten you in big trouble.”
“Okay, so you said he should paddle my butt. The point is, you guys told the teacher to paddle me so my butt matched my name, meaning Red.”
“I never said that.”
“I heard you say I must have been the one that stole the test.”
“After the test, he said he knew someone stole it because there was a copy missing. He said it made sense that it would be someone who got a 100% on it. The only people that did that were you and me. I knew I didn't take it, so I said you must have. What else was I supposed to say? Why did you get so upset about it? You acted like you were scared.”
“Because I was scared. I took the test and was afraid he'd find that out.”
“So he should have paddled your little butt,” Bo said with a grin. “How did you get it?”
“When he sent me down to the office the morning before with the attendance report. When I went to leave, I saw a stack of papers lying there with his name on it. When I looked closer it was easy to see what it was. No one was around, so I took one of them and folded it up and stuck it in my pocket. I never looked at it until I got home that night.”
“When you looked at it, did you know the answers or did you look them up?”
“I knew most of them, but I looked up a few answers.”
“Did you feel guilty?”
She thought a bit. “I don't think I felt guilty, but I was scared. I was so afraid he was somehow going to know that I took it. Then when you said I took it and he should paddle me, I was terrified.”
“Good. You should have been terrified.” Her eyes opened wide, then narrowed, anger setting in. “You should have been paddled.”
Both men watched as her anger grew. She turned to Wyatt. “He was upset with me the whole time we went to school, for no reason. He really got upset in fourth grade, though. He got in trouble and got upset with me.”
“Because you blamed me for something you did! You would have been upset, too,” Bo insisted.
“He was really mad. He got paddled at school, and boy, was he mad.”
“Well, let's talk about that a minute, shall we, Garnet? John challenged you at recess, saying he could hit a target with a peashooter better than you. You accepted his challenge, and the two of you were aiming at trees and stuff and someone was keeping score of how many times you each hit the target. One of you missed and hit a teacher, and everyone went running. The next thing I know that teacher was in our classroom telling our teacher that someone hit her with a peashooter. No one would admit doing it, so she started looking in our desks. Imagine my shock when she opened my desk and found a peashooter!”
Alicia was laughing, but Bo wasn't as amused. “How did you get it in there that quick, without me even knowing?”
“We had those desks that open at the top and you keep your books inside. The top is kind of angled down. If you don't like it on an angle there was a little arm you could put up and it held the top of your desk level, which left the front of the desk open about an inch. When I ran in from recess I saw your desk open that inch, which was plenty of room to slip the peashooter in when I went past it going to my desk. I wanted to get rid of it just in case that teacher complained. I sure didn't want to get caught with it.”
Bo looked angry, so Wyatt stepped in again. “Alicia, are you saying they found the peashooter in his desk and you allowed him to be paddled, when you're the one that put it there?”
Bo's eyebrows rose as he looked at her, waiting to hear her answer. He was surprised when she actually stomped her foot. “Well, I couldn't say anything. Do you know how much trouble I would have been in? Not only for hitting that teacher, but running away, denying it when they asked who did it, and then hiding it in his desk. They were sending whoever did it to the principal to be paddled. He would have killed me!”
“He didn't go easy on me, for those same reasons. Only I didn't do it! Plus they called my parents and told them what they thought happened, and when I got home Dad spanked me again.”
Alicia started laughing again.
Seeing the anger rising again on Bo's face, Wyatt made an observation. “It sounds to me, Alicia, like you owe Bo a long overdue apology.”
She stopped laughing and looked at Wyatt. She looked at Bo, and sighed. “Yeah, I guess I probably do,” she finally admitted. “I'm sorry, Bo. I really didn't mean to get you in that much trouble. I had no idea your father would spank you again at home.”
Bo looked at her and frowned. “You don't apologize much, do you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why do you say that?”
“You need some practice. That wasn't much of an apology.”
“Well, Mr. Bojangles, I don't hear you apologizing for anything.”
Again Wyatt jumped in, trying to keep peace at the table. “Okay, okay. Right now, if you two think you can be civil long enough, Alicia, or Garnet, or whoever you are today—”
“Alicia. I never wanted to be called Garnet. I always hated it. I'm Alicia.”
“Okay. Right now, Alicia, Bo and I have a couple things we need to talk to you about. First off, do you know how to handle a gun?”
“No, of course not. When would I have learned that? I don't even like guns.”
Wyatt again tried to calm her down. “Do you remember when you came here, I told you you could explore the ranch a little, but I didn't want you going very far from the house?”
“I assumed you meant the first day or two, until I got my bearings.”
“And you're saying you have your bearings now? We've just spent over twenty man-hours looking for you. Are you saying we wouldn't have needed to do that, because you have your bearings now?”
“Okay, so I admit the ranch is a little bigger and a little easier to get lost on than I thought. I'll be more careful the next time.”
Wyatt looked at Bo and shrugged. He looked back to Alicia. “There are a few rules you'll have to follow while you're here. Bo and I have talked about them.”
“You talked to him about rules you're saying I have to follow? He doesn't have anything to do with what I do here.”
“There's where you're wrong. What you do here is very much Bo's business. He's my foreman, and I've given him the authority to basically run the ranch. That makes anything that goes on here his business. You will answer to him while you're here. He was concerned about your safety before he even knew who you were. He came to me and talked about it. These rules are for your safety, Alicia. I'm going to let him tell you about them.”
“I have to answer to him?”
“Yes, you do,” Wyatt said in a matter-of-fact way. “I understand you two have a history of sorts, but it seems to me that was a long time ago and you both need to put that in the past. I've gotten to know Bo, and he's a good man, very fair. The rules he's going to tell you about are all good rules, there for a reason, and you need to follow them. He's free to enforce them in any way he sees fit. You better be careful; if you don't follow his rules he may decide to do what your old teacher didn't, but apparently should have.”
“Wyatt,” Alicia exclaimed. “He wouldn't dare!”
Wyatt chuckled. “He might. From what I've heard it sounds as though he owes you. Anyway, like I said, how he enforces the rules is up to him, but I will back him. He wants to keep you safe while you're here, and so do I. Now, if you two will excuse me, I have a meeting this evening.” Before she had time to argue, he left the room, smiling. What he wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during this conversation.
Bo didn't want her upset before they even started their talk, so he made a suggestion. “Let's take our coffee and go into the living room.” She nodded, and he followed her in. Once they were seated in chairs across from each other he began. “First off, I want to call you Garnet, but you prefer Alicia, so I'll try to remember that. I may as well apologize in advance, becau
se I'm sure I'll forget at least once or twice.”
“Thank you.”
“I had no idea you normally went by Alicia. Why didn't you tell us?”
“My mom told me I had to go by my real name in school. By the time I was old enough to know I could have gone by Alicia, it would have been a big thing, so I figured then it was better left alone.”
“You were probably right about that. Kids can be cruel.”
“Yes.” She paused a moment and looked upset, fidgeting. “Bo, I'm sorry I got everyone to call you Bojangles. I thought you were the reason everyone called me Darn It.”
“I think Wyatt's right; all that was in the past. Maybe we should put it behind us and go forward from here.” He waited until she smiled and nodded her head before going on. “Wyatt says you're not familiar with living on a ranch, so let me explain a little bit about it before I give you the rules we need you to follow. I think the rules will make more sense then and it'll be easier to follow them if you know why they're there.”
“Okay.”
“A ranch is a great place to live, but it can be dangerous, too.” He went on to explain more about some of the possible dangers. “One thing we feel strongly about is that you don't wander too far from the house by yourself. If either of us is with you, that's fine, but don't go far when you're alone. There are wild animals out there, and it's too easy to get turned around and before you know it you're lost. Another thing we want you to do is anytime you do go out, take your phone with you and make sure it's charged. If you do run into any kind of problem you can call us.”
“Okay.”
“The only other thing I want to tell you about now is what to do if you come across someone roaming on the ranch. Occasionally people cross the ranch, either on a horse or a four-wheeler, or on foot. Usually they're just passing through and don't cause any trouble, but occasionally you have someone that's up to no good, and they can be dangerous. If you're ever out alone and see someone you don't recognize, carefully try to hide yourself so they won't see you, and call me right away so I know where you are. Never approach them.”
Life at the Ranch Page 3