“So you two knew each other.” I didn’t phrase it as a question because I could tell it was true.
“Yeah, we used to know each other.” She let out a mirthless laugh. “I guess he had to run hard and far to make it all the way up to Montana.”
At first, I didn’t know how to respond, but then said, “Look, I can tell something happened between you and Ben. You don’t have to tell me what it was if you don’t want to. I’d never pressure you to tell me. But, if you want my two cents, I think it’s probably better that you know now so it isn’t a surprise.”
“You’re definitely right about that,” she replied.
We remained quiet for a few minutes before Jada said, “You haven’t told me about yourself yet, Seki.”
“Hm,” I said, thinking about it. Why was it always so difficult to tell someone about yourself? “Well, I guess I’m something of a non-conformist, though I can be a bit traditional in other ways.”
Jada looked surprised when my eyes veered her way. “I guess I’m going to just have to wait and see what you mean by that, huh?”
“I guess so,” I said, laughing.
My eyes glanced down to her lips. They were a lovely shade of pink and so full and kissable. A beauty like her, I knew it wouldn’t be long before one of the guys hit on her. I just wondered who would first.
Hank
The pile of paperwork before me seemed to grow each time I looked up at it. It seemed as if, with each thing I got done, two more folders or invoices or forms to fill out took its place. It was maddening.
But, when I bought the ranch, I knew it was going to be a lot of work. Still, nothing can quite prepare you for just how much work it would be. No matter how many long days I worked in a row, I loved the hell out of each minute of it.
The stars must have been in alignment that day I realized I was going to be able to buy my own ranch in my twenties. I always saw myself working at someone else’s ranch while I scrimped and saved for a couple decades. Even now, a few years later, I was still awed by my luck and more grateful than I could ever express.
My luck had come at a cost, though. A tragic one.
I’d inherited a bit of money from my mom when she passed away when I was just twenty-one and used my own savings I’d earned while going to school and working full time, along with bank loans to cover the rest. Thankfully, it was all enough to cover the cattle I had to buy, equipment, to pay for labor, and everything else a startup ranch needed until it started turning a profit.
I didn’t even know my mom had any substantial savings put away. My aunt was the one who’d told me mom began putting a little bit of money away for me from each paycheck she earned. Growing up, money had always been tight though Mom was good at making it stretch as far as possible so I’d never wanted for anything.
My other lucky break occurred when I discovered I’d inherited the land that had been in my family for generations when my grandparents passed away. The land used to be a ranch until hard times hit and my grandparents had been forced to sell all the cattle when my mom was young. I was proud to be able to restore the land to its former glory.
I snapped myself out of my musings and looked back down at the forms in front of me. They’d never get done if I kept spacing out. But then my mind wandered to Jada, the newest addition to our little family.
During her interview, she’d seemed like a warm, kind person, but it was hard to say who she was in real life. We had a lot of personalities on the ranch and you could never tell until people were actually thrust together and forced to work in close proximity with one another.
It wasn’t long before I heard a car drive down the ranch’s long driveway. Seki and Jada were here.
Though I wanted to race out there and meet her, I’d told Seki to bring her to the office when she got here because we had contracts to sign and needed to get her direct deposit set up so she could get paid.
So I kept my butt planted and stared at the papers I’d been working on. My eyes began to blur and closed them, rubbing at them with the palms of my hands.
I heard a knock on my office door a moment later. “It’s open,” I called, snapping to attention.