Kelly
So far so good.
This investigation is winding up to be one of the ranch hands stealing from the owner. And for what? Because he needs more for his own habits. Those are the types of things that make people turn left when they should’ve turned right.
Decisions. We all have them to make and good or bad, right or wrong, they are ours to own in the end. A few people have made a way out for themselves, but most don’t get that lucky and get into a trap that they can’t get themselves out of without help.
Take this slug, for example. Had a great wife, did good work for his boss, but then one day, someone introduces him to a high that he can’t get from anything else. Now, because of his decision, his wife is gone, he’s stealing from his boss to pay for his own trap.
I’ll help him out. He’s going to go to jail now and maybe he’ll straighten the fuck up then. I don’t like being an ass to people, but sometimes, my job makes it easier for me to be so. I hope my employees don’t take cues from me though.
Completely awash with my new career, I’ve had to hire some people to help because the work has grown beyond my capacity. Which is an awesome thing in my book. I’m my own boss, and I’m working from home. No more trips to the office, no more sniveling coworkers staring at my ass.
Nope.
The only two that look at my ass now are my two hubbys. I can’t be sure about the fact that no one else looks at my ass, but if either Trent or Owen see anyone doing so, they’ll gut them from the rooter to the tooter in a heartbeat.
Smiling, I close my laptop after making some notes and head out of my office. I turn to the girl with freckled cheeks and red hair behind the desk next to my office. “Missy, I’m going to take Flower out and stretch her legs for a bit. Keep an eye on the phone for me?”
“Sure thing, Kelly,” she answers. Missy is one of the ranch hands’ daughters and she just turned sixteen. I made an offer to her to work for me by answering phones, filing forms and creating invoices and reports. She does an amazing job and is super personable.
Going out to the stable, I cover Flower in a blanket and saddle her up for a ride up the hill and to the back of the field. Flower is our newest horse and I got her for me. She’s not a working horse at all, just mine for the joy of riding.
The guys made the attempt to help me learn to saddle a horse and ride alongside them. I want to share in every aspect of our life together and this is the first step. Flower is a black and tan Haflinger that I fell for at the auction where Trent and Owen bought the bulk of our new machinery. As young as she is, she’s grown alongside the other paint horses that live and work here on our ranch.
The two quarter horses are Trent’s and Owens, used for wrangling and steering the cattle. Which aren’t here in the stable. Where and how did those two sneak off? I get her ready and climb on, riding her up the hill toward the back. As I ride up, I see both Trent and Owen’s horses tied to the posts by where we had the stakeout.
Since it became a favorite spot for us over the year to come and visit, Trent made it into a small cabin, not big, but enough to have a bed, small kitchen and some electricity. It has a small porch on it overlooking the ravine with some chairs and a chiminea for those cooler nights. I really love it here. The memories. The love.
And I totally love my guys.
In a world where I didn’t know any better, I thought my life was just fine, never thinking for one moment that I would need someone to love and then to return that love. I had a great job, a nice place and good friends. I thought I was living the life. But nothing like what I have now.
What I share with these two has overtaken my life like a tornado, shuffling what I thought important with what is important. What I thought to be important is quickly evolving from status and success to living life and truly loving. I didn’t really live before now. Or love.
I pull Flower up beside Trent and Owen’s horses, and tie her off on the post. After giving her an apple, I head inside the small cabin, looking for the guys. I find them down in the ravine tossing mud around and goofing off.
The creek running through the ravine has almost tripled its size since last year with all of the rain that has come through. Trent wades through with it up to his knees, smiling as he crosses. “How’d you find us?”
Owen throws some mud at his chest, laughing as he moves. He slips from a rock after he throws it, losing his balance and riding down a small waterfall of sorts. He sits there in the water, splashing around as Trent comes to help him up.
“You two goofballs, I figured I’d find you up here,” I say sarcastically. “Good thing we have ranch hands to do something around here.”
“Oh! Now you’re going to get it!” They both start tossing mud at me as I run into the small cabin, closing the door behind me. I go outside, waiting for them to come up from the ravine and have a seat beside me in the taller grass. I lay back, soaking in the rays of the late afternoon sun.
As Owen lays on one side and Trent on the other, I find that nothing else in the world matters but this moment. I’m completely and utterly ecstatic, lost in the love and the living of life.