“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.