“Why don’t you start by telling me something, then?” Her head was cocked slightly in an I-don’t-believe-you kind of way.
I had nothing. I opened my mouth to try once again, but she beat me to it.
“He didn’t tell you.” She scoffed loudly before she turned and began running toward the front steps. I followed after her, a new bounce in my steps.
“Oh, I heard everything!” I called after her.
“No, you didn’t. You would have made fun of me way before now.”
“It’s never too late to start.”
When she opened the front door, she yanked the suitcase from my hands and backed into her cabin. “They were nice dates, and everything went perfectly, and I didn’t embarrass myself at all.”
I laughed, but before I could stick my foot in the doorway, she closed the door in my face.
“You still owe me a milkshake!” I called after her, giving her door a quick bang before whistling to myself as I strode over to my cabin.
The next night,my old and new boss, Layne Marten, held a campfire at the ranch to officially welcome Shelby and me onto the crew. The dude ranch would open its doors for the season this coming Monday. The crew consisted of Carl and Betty Barnes, an older couple in their seventies, who would run the front desk and oversee the guests and bookings. And Darla Goodwin, who was in charge of the kitchen and food prep. There were other hired hands and assistants whose names I couldn’t remember just yet.
Layne stood in front of the campfire as everyone spread out across picnic tables and chairs around the fire.
“Thanks for coming, everybody. I know most of us are just here for the gourmet food”—he nodded toward the table ofhot dogs to the side of the fire before continuing—“but I still appreciate you coming.”
There were a few chuckles in the crowd. I was sitting on top of a picnic table, with Sophie in my lap. Logan sat next to me with Tessa sitting below him, between his legs. Kelsey and Cade were in camp chairs and attempting to keep their twin five-year-old tornados, Luke and Wyatt, out of the fire, and Briggs had settled himself in a folding chair next to Shelby.
The past few days of being here, Cade and Layne had been showing me the ropes of taking care of the animals on the ranch property, as well as the two hundred head of cattle we had spread out all over the mountainside to the west of us. This required me to be sitting on a horse, roaming the mountainside through sagebrush and pine trees, checking cattle. Even for me, it had been hard looking like a tough cowboy with the smile dripping off my face, riding Jimmy through the range.
Now, with the dude ranch opening in a couple of days, I’d be in charge of taking the guests out on an excursion once a day and letting them try their hand at feeding and taking care of the cattle.
“Every week will be the same,” Layne said. “New guests arrive every Monday. We won’t have any scheduled excursions that day. But Tuesday through Friday, the guests will have opportunities to help with chores, do trail rides, fly fishing, rope and riding lessons, skeet shooting competitions…and whatever else Jake dreams up. Heaven help us all.”
The group laughed and darted glances at me in agreement. I only smiled and nodded my head.
“And just so you newbies know,” Layne continued, looking at Shelby and me, “the lodge provides breakfast and lunch. For dinners, guests will all be getting vouchers to use for The Grub Shack in town. Saturday morning, they pack up and move out.Housekeeping will be here by Saturday afternoon to clean all the rooms.”
He pointed at Shelby. “Your job is to take pictures of everything you can on the ranch. My kids are telling me the website needs an update with better pictures.”
Tessa leaned forward. “We were also thinking that it might be a good idea for Shelby to go on lots of excursions with Jake too.” Tessa darted a glance at Kelsey before adding. “I mean, I know she was planning on doing a few, but I think we should take advantage of her being here and get a lot of pictures to use over the years.”
Layne looked at Shelby. “Does that work for you? Or do you have a healthy fear of Jake and the things he’s capable of, like the rest of us?”
Shelby smiled. “I can handle him. It would be good for Jake to learn a thing or two about fishing while I’m here.”
I laughed in good humor but was too busy watching Kelsey’s and Tessa’s pointed looks to have any comeback. But my awareness was heightened.
Layne went on, but for a minute, I stared around the fire at all these people around me. It was hard to believe that I was back in Eugene. After working for Layne throughout high school, the Marten home became a refuge. Logan and Cade were like brothers to me. I had been lucky to be on the receiving end of Layne Marten’s phone call while living in Washington, stuck in a job at a factory I hated, just trying to keep Sophie and myself afloat. He could have asked me to pick rocks for him all summer, and I would have come running. It almost felt like he’d created this job specifically for me, and if that were true, I hoped I never knew because I would probably cry like a baby.
After a dinner of hot dogs, salad, and s’mores, the kids wandered toward the small playground, the excited squeals and laughter on the swings and old metal merry-go-round providingthe perfect backdrop for a group meeting. After another bout of teasing and visiting, Layne and his wife, Peggy, headed home. The sun had set, leaving a streak of purple and pink clouds stretched near the horizon.
My eyes wandered curiously over to Shelby and Briggs. It had been obvious that he found her attractive when he saw her tonight. It was the way he watched her when she was looking somewhere else. My curiosity was piqued, watching him trying to talk to her but getting interrupted by Kelsey and Tessa. Bringing up her hair. Her clothes. Glances toward me.
As subtle as a freight train.
They meant well, but I looked away, quietly resenting the way they fawned over Shelby like a newborn kitten.
Shelby had always been pretty. Nothing had changed there. A woman could wear her hair a thousand different ways, put makeup on or take it off, have one eyebrow or two, but underneath it all, that face stayed the same.
She’d been a looker her whole life; she just never believed it.