“I thought you weren’t interested? Hmmm?”
“I’m not. But Dad wants me to teach him about the horses so I was just wondering if you knew anything about him.”
“You probably know more than I do. I’ve only had a couple conversations with him. He seems like a good kid, from Wyoming, I think. Not sure how your father found him or how he ended up working here. I can see you took care of his blistered hands for him.”
“Oh, yeah, they were the worst I have ever seen. But the strange thing was that he wasn’t even complaining about them. He was going to just keep working. It actually was pretty impressive. Remember that one guy who got blisters and stopped working by noon each day? Oh man, that was hilarious.”
My mother stopped to think for a moment as she looked up into the air. My mother was a beautiful and kind woman. Over the years, we had taken in many men who just weren’t cut out for working on a ranch. But she was always kind to them and always did her best to help them out. Even my father would pull the men aside and work with them to teach them what they needed to know to get by. It had always been strange to me that some men would just show up at our ranch and think that the work was going to be easy. Within a day or two, they were obviously in over their heads; it was quite funny to watch.
“Oh, yes, that poor guy. I remember father ended up teaching him how to use the tractor mower and having him mow for us and feed the animals.”
“That guy certainly didn’t earn his paycheck. I remember he’d always be reading books before anyone else had even finished their jobs. Why did father let him stay for so long?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he felt bad for the guy. You know your father; he’s always trying to help people out.”
“Yeah, he needs to start being a little more selfish.”
As the men started to line up for their plates, I noticed Garrett as he walked into the building. Damn he was a good-looking guy. His chiseled jaw and brilliant, blue eyes were embedded into my mind and I couldn’t get them out of it. Garrett Reynolds was much too good-looking to be a ranch hand.
I could see Garrett as a model or business man, certainly not a ranch hand. I was going to have to work hard to get his story out of him though, because he wasn’t willingly going to share it.
“He is handsome, I’ll give him that,” my mother said as she noticed me looking at Garrett. “But you need to stay away from him. Let him do his job and you do yours. You said you wanted to come home to get your mind straight, I don’t think anything about that man will help you plan for your future.”
“I know.”
“Do you really?”
“Yes, mother. I’ll stay away from him.”
“Your father said one of the guys he’s hired just got out of prison. I don’t know which one it is, but you need to keep your wits about you. A handsome man can still be a bad one.”
My mother cracked me up. She was so kind to everyone who came through our doors yet she was trying to warn me away from Garrett. I knew that she wasn’t afraid of him anymore than I was. She had a good eye for people just like my father did, even the ones who recently got out of prison.
That was a big lesson I had learned at a young age; just because people did something bad in their past didn’t mean they were bad people. And just because they didn’t have a criminal record didn’t mean people were automatically good either. People were complicated characters and I felt like I was constantly learning and trying to understand them.
“Mom, I seriously doubt Garrett is a killer. The man looks like a fraternity boy who got lost on a camping trip.”
We both laughed as Garrett stood in front of us with his plate held out for his breakfast. He grinned and looked between my mother and me before moving down the line. I swear I held my breath every moment he was standing there.
Garrett had charisma and I liked that. His thick muscles made him a joy to look at and that was all I planned on doing. Like the fancy merchandise in the stores, I was going to look and not touch. Well, I might touch a little, but I wasn’t going to fall in love with the guy. A quick, summer fling before he took off on the road, that’s the most I would do: nothing more. I had to think about my own future and the plans I wanted to start working on for Garrett and myself would certainly distract me from those plans.
“You know, you two could be sisters,” he as he walked back past us and just before heading to his table.
“Mr. Reynolds, it’s nice to see that you were able to wake up this morning and eat some breakfast. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow morning,” my mother said.
S
he was horrible at taking a compliment and Garrett was a little too cheesy with his. Although, I had heard people say my mother and I looked a lot alike and some had even tried the sisters line before. But my mother had aged a lot over the last few years. The sun, work, and money stressors were taking their toll on her.
“I will be here tomorrow morning,” Garrett responded confidently as he sat down next to Forest.
“Do you think Forest has told him how everyone manages to wake up in the mornings?” I asked my mother.
“Well, he was up this morning, so maybe.”
I wasn’t about to tell my mother that I had woken Garrett up on my own. She certainly wouldn’t have been happy with me and I liked when my mother was happy. My mom could get pretty wild when she was angry. There had only been a few times in my life that I had witness her truly upset with me and I didn’t plan on repeating that experience anytime soon.
“Yeah, he must have told him.”