“On his way out. Is that what you said?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see him now, so he must’ve been.”
“What did he look like?”
“I couldn’t tell you.”
?
??I see.”
“I’m sorry, Tee-Tee. I’ll pay for the broken dishes.”
She walked away without another word.
She’d told me earlier that once I brought the remaining dirty dishes to the kitchen—the ones that the ranch hands were supposed to bus themselves—I could take a break. We had an hour before we needed to start on prep for the midday meal, which was very little work, considering how few of the cowboys came in for lunch.
As soon as I took the dishes into the kitchen, I took off out the back door, wanting to get as far away from other human beings as I could.
What I really wanted to do was go for a ride, but I’d never ask. Edge had mentioned it briefly at some point. Had that been yesterday? Maybe it was the day before.
I walked through the field, and when I came to a big boulder, I sat down and put my head in my hands. Up until that night at the Long Branch, I would’ve told you my life was boring. All I’d wanted to do then was get the hell out of Barton Creek and live my life anywhere else. Now, I just wanted to live my life.
I’d give anything to be able to go back to those simple days when I got up and went to work, got off, and went home. I’d hated my life then, but now it was so much worse. How many times had I heard my grandfather tell me to be careful what I wished for? Now I wished I’d listened.
While it wasn’t what I’d call hot out, the sun felt warm enough that I closed my eyes and let its rays beat down on my face.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s sittin’ out here all by her lonesome.”
I shielded my eyes and looked up at the same cowboy who’d threatened me earlier. I stood to go back inside, but he grabbed my arm.
“You tell anyone about this, and it isn’t just you who’s gonna get hurt.”
“What does that mean?”
“Figure it out, Mija.”
18
Edge
I gripped the phone so tightly I expected it might crack. “Where is she now?” I asked Tee-Tee after I answered her call and she told me what had happened in the dining hall.
“Sitting out back. Pobre niñita.”
“You think she’s lying.”
“I do, Edge. I think there was something more to it than her bumping into someone. She said he must have left. Does that sound like anyone who works on the ranch?”
It sure as hell didn’t. And if someone had seen what went down, whoever the guy was would’ve been fired and escorted off the property. Not for bumping into Rebel, but for walking away and leaving her to clean up the mess. It wasn’t the way the Alexanders did things around here.
“No idea who it was?”
“I didn’t see him, but I thought I should call you.”
“You did the right thing. I’ll be right there.” I ended the call. “Where’s Decker?” I asked Grinder.
He pointed, looking at me like I was daft.