“I know we don’t know how long you’ll be here for. But if you’re here for six more months, I’d kick myself for not putting you in charge; these other guys are hard workers, but they just can’t see the big picture.”
“What if I get called up tomorrow?”
I desperately hoped that I didn’t get pulled away from the ranch the next day or anytime soon. I wanted to stay for a while longer. I needed to stay. Not just for Sarah though; I wanted to stay for myself. Through my time on the ranch I had grown and felt like I was recognizing where I had gone wrong in my life.
The ranch gave me time to think while I was working and I thought about more than I could have done in the city. My mind had all the time in the world to explore different changes I wanted to make in my life when I got back home.
“Then you’ll have had at least one night sleep in a real bed,” Sid said as he threw me a set of keys. “You also get Forest’s small cabin.”
Not once, since I had been on the ranch, had I thought about what it would be like to have my own cabin. I was happy in the bunkhouse. I was happy with my job. I didn’t feel the drive to be better than anyone else, and I actually liked hanging out with the guys in our large bunk room before bed. We got to know each other and shared stories about our lives; except mine were made up to match the made-up back-story from my life. But with the keys in my hand, the idea of sleeping in an actual bed was feeling pretty damn exciting.
“My own cabin,” I said quietly. “Thanks, Sid.”
“You’ve earned it. I don’t go handing out jobs like this to just anyone. You’re a hard worker and don’t complain, I like that. And thanks for taking Sarah out to the river for the photos. She’s got it in her head that she can make me millions out there and I don’t have the heart to tell her that the land is pretty useless and won’t sell for nearly as much as she thinks.”
“It was my pleasure. I was happy to do it. The land is very beautiful. Thanks again for the promotion,” I said as I shook Sid’s hand and started to walk out of the office. “I won’t disappoint you.”
“Don’t get too excited; the cabin is a mess and there’s no one around to clean it up.”
“It’s fine, I don’t mind a little cleaning.”
I hurried off to grab my things from the bunkhouse and brought them over to my new cabin. It was a mess inside, just like Sid had said. Forest certainly hadn’t been a man who enjoyed a clean home, but I didn’t care at all. It was mine, my very own, tiny little cabin and I was so excited.
I felt more excited for the promotion I had just received than I had when I bought my last plane for my company. Before coming to the ranch my life had been so sheltered from what real hard labor was. I pretended to bond with my employees over the long hours they worked, but I didn’t have a clue about what it was they were really doing. My head was clearing up on the ranch though and I had been taking notes of the changes I wanted to make in my organization when I returned home.
I was more excited to move my backpack full of things into the small cabin than I had been when I bought my first mansion. It was funny how my perspective was changing simply from living and working on the ranch. I didn’t need a mansion. I didn’t need fancy cars to be happy; I felt happiness pouring out of my skin as I sat down at my little kitchen table and looked around my one room cabin.
There were still jobs to do for the day, but I couldn’t leave my new home a total disaster so I decided to take a few minutes to clean the place up. I grabbed a garbage bag and started throwing everything away. I tossed old magazines, food, and everything from the cabinets. I wanted it to be my home and I was happy to spend some of my salary to buy new things at the store if I wanted them.
As I started to do a load of dishes, there was a knock at the door. With my wet and soapy hands, I went to the door but couldn’t get it opened. For that brief moment in my life, it was fun and novel that I was washing dishes in my own little cabin far away from anyone who knew who I really was.
“Come in,” I said through a laugh. “My hands are too soapy to turn the knob.”
“Oh, mister big wig can’t even turn his own door knob,” Sarah teased me as she walked into the cabin. “Well, Forest certainly wasn’t a neat freak.”
There was a knob joke somewhere in the back of my brain but I couldn’t remember it. It was disappointing though because I desperately wanted to see Sarah laugh and smile again. It had become one of my favorite things to do; making Sarah laugh made me feel energized and excited.
“I’ll be right back to work; I just wanted to get started on some of this.”
“Here are some clean sheets. I’ll pull those old ones off for you,” Sarah said.
She didn’t wait for me and went right to work on the bed. I dried my hands off and helped her spread the sheets on the bed. We started with the fitted sheet and then the flat one. Each of us took turns tucking the corners in and then grabbed a pillow each and put the covers over them. Our little domestic collaboration was perfect and I let my mind wonder briefly to what it would be like to live with Sarah.
Sarah was strong-willed and certain
ly tried to hide her true feelings. She seemed to have a little bit of a lighthearted side to her, although she kept it very well guarded. It dawned on me that a relationship with Sarah, or a woman like her, would be a partnership. I hadn’t dated a woman that I felt was a partner to me. It was a novel idea that I only allowed for a small moment before I pushed it out of my mind.
It was going to feel amazing to sleep in that bed. I couldn’t resist and pulled my boots off quickly and fell face first onto the bed. The crisp, clean sheets brushed against my skin and I closed my eyes and let myself rest for just a moment. If I hadn’t had a ton of work still left to do for that day, I certainly would have fallen asleep right there without a second thought.
“Okay, is this some sort of weird man ritual that I don’t know about?” she laughed.
“I just love the feeling of fresh sheets. Come here, feel them. It’s so amazing. I just want to get naked and take a nap in them right now,” I joked.
Before I knew what was happening, Sarah had fallen face first into the bed with me and she was moving her hands around the sheets like I was. If she hadn’t known the pleasure of having fresh sheets, she did at that moment.
I watched as she took in a deep breath from the sheets and closed her eyes too. She was taking in the scent and touch of the sheets just like I was. It was a little bit of a bonding moment for the two of us and I tried to keep it as nonsexual as I could. Although all I could think about was having her naked in that bed and laying under the covers together.
“You’re right. There’s absolutely nothing like the feeling of freshly cleaned sheets on a bed. Especially if you’re naked.”