I wasn’t being a dick, she really did get in the way. The whole time we were riding out, she’d been talking about something she’d watched on TV or things her friends posted on social media. Because she wasn’t paying attention to what was ahead of her, she’d brought her horse in front of mine and then almost broken her neck when her horse had jumped over a fence she’d forgotten about. Then she’d ignored the pile of leaves and crap blocking the gutter we’d installed to help drain the water away from the barns and down to the stream, and when one of the guys had pointed it out to her, she’d just shrugged. It’d been one thing after another, and by the time I got home, my head was thumping.
Pulling open the door to the office, I was surprised when I saw Remy sitting behind his desk, glaring at his computer screen.
“I don’t know what you were thinking, man, but we need to tell Jayden his sister isn’t suited to the ranch,” I said, not even bothering to greet him.
He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know.”
“We’re all fixing her fuck ups, and it’s making more work for us all. When’s he back?”
We’d gone to school with Jayden, and when he’d called us three months ago, asking if we had a vacancy for Marni on the ranch because she was getting into trouble with her friends back home, we’d agreed to help out. He was in the Army and was being deployed, and we’d wanted to take some of the worry off his and his family’s shoulders. We also remembered the little girl Marni used to be, not once thinking of the almost twenty-year-old she’d turned into—the one who wasn’t just in trouble but who’d been cautioned and then arrested recently.
Dumb move, but we thought we were helping out. In all honesty, we were doing that, just not for ourselves, and now it was becoming too much.
“Not a fucking clue,” Remy sighed, looking exhausted. “I caught her giving Santana shit last week and had it out with her. I assumed she’d learned, but she’s got a huge issue with your girl, too. I caught her giving her attitude when Addy came up to apologize to you the other day.”
“That’s why I asked Santana to take care of her this morning and didn’t send Marni back after the first time she cut in front of me while we were riding this morning. I didn’t trust her not to say something to Addy.”
“Probably the best plan. They got along well, and Santana even opened up to her.”
Leaning back in my desk chair, I stretched my arms over my head, hoping to get rid of some of the tension in my shoulders. It worked, but only for the few seconds I did it for.
“How are things going with Santana?”
My friend’s eyes cut from his monitor to me. “What do you mean?”
I didn’t justify the stupid question with an answer and just waited on him to talk while I unlocked my computer and went through my emails. We’d been friends for long enough for me to know the best way to deal with Remy.
“Shit,” he finally hissed. “Santana’s nice, okay? She doesn’t talk a lot or ask stupid questions, and she seems to intuitively know when something needs doing.”
Santana had also been here a matter of months, but in that time, she’d slotted into the ranch perfectly. She was also from Kissimmee and was the daughter of a family friend who’d wanted to become a veterinary nurse, but she had an affinity with horses that was useful, so I’d offered her a job. Technically, she was also getting experience by assisting our on-call vet, but she helped out with the day-to-day stuff on the ranch, too, and she was good at all of it.
“You don’t exactly sound too happy about that, man.”
Glaring at me, he ground his teeth together before answering. “Do you think she’s safe in that cabin? It’s near the trees, and it’s also near the main bunkhouse. What if something happens? And are we giving her too much to do?”
I considered the questions carefully, looking at how valid they were and trying to figure out where they were coming from.
“We looked over the cabin before she moved into it, but if you’re worried, get Stevens out here to do a full report on it. If something happens, she’s got her phone, a radio, and the guys will hear her yelling for them. They also like her, so they’re not going to let anything happen to Santana, Remy. As for your last question, I’ve already asked her that, and she says she prefers to be busy. Again, though, you can always ask her yourself.” Leaning forward, I added seriously, “Nicely.”