Chapter 1
Natalie
“You’re excited, huh?” I ask my son, Elijah.
It’s a pointless question, though, because I know exactly how excited he is right now. This field trip is all he’s talked about for weeks, and he’s practically bouncing in his seat. “Yeah, Mom. It will be fun.” His eyes get big and his smile wider. “Do you think they’ll let us ride a horse?”
He sounds excited, so I try to refrain from flinching. I keep my thoughts to myself on that one because I hope they don’t plan on letting the kids ride. Considering the town of Whiskey Valley is a big ranching community, I’m sure a lot of the other kids have been on horses before, and their parents wouldn’t think anything of it. But not Elijah. We’re new to Whiskey Valley, and I can definitely say that neither he nor I have ever been on a horse.
I’m not even sure where this fascination with ranching has come from, but from the second we stepped into Whiskey Valley and stopped at the Sunset Diner for dinner, Elijah has talked of nothing else. It’s probably because the booth next to us had three cowboys eating dinner. And I’m talking real live cowboys, with the hat, belt, and boots.
Since then, he’s picked up every book he can find on “cowboying,” as he calls it.
“I’m not sure if they will or not, E. But I’m sure you’re going to learn a lot today and...” I pause for effect. “You’re going to be on a real live ranch.”
He looks at me with so much seriousness, and I’m pretty sure he’s holding his breath until he can’t hold it anymore. “I can’t wait,” he exclaims as if he may just burst from the anticipation.
He turns to look out the window, and I continue driving from our apartment over to the school. I know it was hard for Levi, my boss at the Sunset Diner, to give me this morning off, but when he hired me, I told him that I wasn’t going to miss any field trips. One, I know that E is not going to be young forever, and the time he wants his mom along is dwindling, so I need to be there when I can. Second, I hate for him to be out without me. It’s one thing if he’s at school and I know there’s a school resource officer there, but out on his own, in unknown territory, well, I worry. I know I’m being way overprotective, but until I know that my husband hasn’t found us, I can’t relax. Not yet.
I pull into the school and see the school bus that is taking us on the field trip already parked to the side of the building. I park in the lot and walk inside with E. He runs ahead with a few of his friends, and after I check in at the office, I walk down to his homeroom.
As soon as I open the door, it’s full-on chaos. The kids are all sitting in their seats, and there are parents, almost all moms, lined up along the walls. “Uh....” I stop, surprised to see so many faces. I’ve been on every field trip, and there’s never been this many chaperones.
The teacher comes to stand by me and mutters under her breath, “Well, at least I know you’re here to help. Do you care to take roll? We’re supposed to be on the bus in five minutes.”
“Sure,” I tell her, not understanding her comment about helping. Aren’t all these moms here to help? I take the paper from her and start calling roll and marking off names as I go. I do the tally and then tell her how many kids.
She goes into her field trip spiel of safety and behavior, and I swear the kids and I have heard it so many times, some of them are repeating it right along with her. There are a few boys with E, and they’re dressed in their jeans and have cowboy hats on their heads. I can see my son looking at them, and I wish I’d thought to get him something like that, but almost immediately I shake my head. We don’t have the extra money right now to buy things we don’t really need. I take a deep breath. Someday... someday I’m going to get him a hat and some boots.
The teacher has the students go first and the parents follow behind. As soon as all the kids are on the bus, I climb in and take my seat in the front, and Miss Olivia sits down next to me with a huff. The bus is buzzing with excitement, but I can tell that Olivia is overwhelmed. “You okay?”
She nods. “Yeah, just a little annoyed. Don’t get me wrong; I love parents that are involved. You know that.”