by Claire Adams
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 go
od 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 mysel
f 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.