Train Me Daddy

“You can’t be lazy. You own the ranch, and there’ll be no rest for you. I’ll tell Dan to give you all the dirty jobs.”

“Ha, I’m his boss now, not you?” I move on top of Isaac, because he’s trying to wind me up and it’s not working. Maybe I’ll tempt him into staying in bed.

“You’re in a great mood this morning. Well, I have a lot to be thankful for, don’t you agree. Neil signed over the ranch, but he didn’t have to do that. I never asked him to.”

“Neither did I. But he wanted to leave. He hated staying here alone and he thought that three’s a crowd.”

I shrug, “Not really, you spend just as much time in the office as you do here. So, I could do with the company.”

He laughs, “Not when you have Autumn.”

I ignore his comment and ask, “Are you not fixing breakfast before you go?

“Maybe?”

I move off him and say, “Well I’ll like some scrambled eggs and toast please?” I kiss him on the cheek and head into the shower.

I missed the ranch when I moved out, that must be the most heartbreaking part of living in the city. The crazy part was when I was here, I used to dream about leaving. I used to think about living in the city. When I had the opportunity to do it. I hated it. Despised it with a passion.

As soon as I finish in the shower. I hear Isaac in the kitchen and decide to pop to the barn to see Autumn. I walk across the lawn toward the barn. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Neil gave me the ranch and moved out. Having lived with him here for years, I know how much he loves the ranch.

I know I shouldn’t forgive Neil, but I can’t hold a grudge against him. I care for him too much. I take in a deep breathe as I enter the barn and let the smell of horses and hay percolate throughout my body. I know that if I had been forced to stay away from the ranch, a part of my soul would have withered, so much had I became a part of the ranch.

Autumn has her head out the stall looking for me as I approach. It’s funny how she always seems to know when I’m approaching her stall. “I missed you,” I tell her as I hug her neck. She nudges my pocket to see if I have brought her an apple. “No, I didn’t bring anything for you. Just me. I wish I could take time and give you a good brushing, but Isaac has to get back to the office.” I talk to her as though she’s a person. Well, to me maybe she is. When Neil and I lived on the ranch I used to spend so much time coming here and talking to her, especially whenever I felt lonely.

My phone’s vibrating in my back pocket I pick it up as I kiss Autumn on the forehead. “I’ve got to run,” I say as I walk away. I know that only one person would be calling me on my cell right now and that’s Isaac. Most likely to tell me that breakfast is ready.

As soon as I enter the kitchen I can smell toast and eggs. I glance at Isaac thinking that he’s really learning to cook and not feel the need to always go out to eat,“See that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“You’re just lucky I didn’t burn the toast. Did you look in on Buckskin?”

“No, I thought that you would do that before, you go to the office. His head’s outside the stall looking for you. When’s the last time you rode him?”

“Too long. After I get things settled in the office I want to do some riding.”

We both sit down to eat and both of us are avoiding looking at the chair. The one chair that Neil always sits in whenever he eats at the table is empty and it pulls a chord in my heart. Maybe I should just tell him that I don’t want this place?

Isaac eats so fast as if his life depends on it. I know that there’s no room for a conversation, let alone a discussion about Neil.

“Need to go,” he says as he pops the last bit of toast in his mouth.

I nod my head and then I walk behind him as he rushes to his car and then his car pulls out of the driveway, I found myself already missing the ranch. I really didn’t want to return to Houston, but it was necessary. I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell what was going to become of Isaac and I.

When I first started working for the company I grew to enjoy the challenge of working for Isaac. You’d think that when his employees found out I was the boss’s girlfriend, they would cut me some slack. They were different from people around me. They didn’t care and no one battered an eyelash about our relationship in and out of the office.

The time I'd spent in the office was fun while it lasted. I proved to myself that I'm capable of doing more than just running a stable. It felt good to have issues and not run to Isaac, every time I faced a problem.

I loved going to lunch with the other secretaries. They would invite me, and we would sit and gossip. Everyone wanted to know what it was like with Isaac.

“We can't believe that he's found happiness again after..”

No one wanted to say her name. It was as if there would be a cloud of darkness at the

mention of her name.

“Dede. I know about her, and he's come a long way from it all. He's healed, and he's moving on from what happened in his past.”

“Good,” they would smile, but I wondered if part of them were disappointed that there wasn’t any gossip about our relationship or even more about the boss. Even if our friendships weren’t real, they had treated me better than some of the people in town that I’ve known my whole life.