Sarah woke up with sunlight streaming in through her window. The warmth gave her skin a rosy glow. She yawned, stretched and curled back under the covers. Not having to get up for work was nothing short of heavenly.
Slowly, very slowly, an eye reopened and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. Eight o’clock? It’s eight o’clock? She’d never slept that late in her life. First there was school, then college, her first job, Grandfather’s endless campaign breakfasts, and lastly her job with Joe the Tyrant. Sleeping in late had never been on the menu in Sarah’s life. But it was now.
Boy, did this feel good.
She finally roused herself to get into the shower. She had to share shower facilities with a few women on her side of the building, but that was all right… Just another part of the experience… She laughed to see a sleepy Tess walking towards her in pajamas with a towel and a bar of soap. Sarah laughed just seeing Tess’s auburn hair sticking up every which way.
“Nice hair. Have it done recently?”
“Oh, ha. Yours doesn’t look spectacular this a.m. either.”
“What a grouch. Up for a ride after breakfast?”
“Yeah, but let’s make it a small breakfast. I ate so much dinner that I’m not that hungry.”
Sarah laughed. “I hear you. A few months here and my jeans would never fit.”
Both women showered, got dressed, fastened ponytails, and were ready to eat. After a quick breakfast and telling Dale she’d help him at lunch, Sarah and Tess hurried out to the barn. Walking out, Sarah showed Tess her list.
“Look, Mr. Walker gave me a list of animals that it might be possible to see around here.”
“Cool. Let me see – Hummingbirds, owls, hawks… Neat. Let’s go.”
They headed into the barn to get two horses and bumped into Richie and Matt just coming out. Richie’s smile was big and kept spreading.
“Mornin’, ladies.” He tipped his hat at them, as did Matt.
“Mornin’,” said Matt.
“Good morning,” said Tess raising one eyebrow. “How are you two this fine morning?”
“Morning,” said Sarah looking at Richie. Her good mood had dissipated.
Richie glanced at Matt.
“Very well, thanks. We’re about to go sort cattle. A cowboy’s work is never done,” he sighed.
“Would you like to see how sorting is done?” added Matt looking from Tess to Sarah. His gaze lingered on Sarah.
“… That sounds interesting…” began Tess.
“… But we already have plans. Thanks all the same,” finished Sarah heading into the barn.
Richie and Tess both shrugged their shoulders, while Matt called after her, “Doing what?”
“We’re going for a ride,” yelled Sarah from inside the barn.
“Want some company?” he yelled back. Richie blinked his eyes in surprise.
“That would be great,” said Tess. “We’d love some.” She’d decided that Tyler really was too shy to talk to women, so talkative Richie might do after all. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
“Well, let’s get the horses saddled.”
Richie and Matt headed into the barn with Tess following. Sarah stood in the center frowning with hands on her hips.
“I thought you were needed for the sorting, whatever that is.”
“We can do it later,” said Matt cheerfully as he got a saddle down for her.
Sarah didn’t want the men to come along, especially Matt. She’d liked him at first until he embarrassed her when he caught her sleeping in the meadow. And then his nosy comment about a boyfriend really set her off. She didn’t want him along, but she’d been brought up to be polite.
“We want to look for various animals on this list Mr. Walker gave me.” She tried again. “I’m sure this will not be interesting to you guys.”
“Let’s see that list.” Matt walked over and read the list in her hand. He stood too close – Was that his aftershave? Wow… She handed him the list and moved away. Matt noticed.
So did Richie.
So did Tess.
Everyone’s senses were on high alert. It was obvious that nice Sarah was pissed off. And at Matt ... This could, indeed, be interesting. Richie wasn’t going to miss this for the world. Tess either.
“Right. Well, let’s get those horses saddled.” Richie decided to move things along, so they didn’t fall apart here in the barn. Sarah didn’t look happy and Richie, nosy guy that he was, wanted to learn the reason. And fun-loving Tess had her own reasons for wanting the guys to come along.
“Riding into those low hills, we should probably see a couple of those animals on your list,” offered Matt. He took off his hat to run a hand through his wavy hair. Then he readjusted the hat back on his head.
“That so?” Tess grinned at him. She glanced at Sarah who’d set her lips in a thin line. Apparently, her mouth was too tight to talk and she almost laughed at her. Then Tess thought of something. “Any sage grouse around here?”
Sarah perked up. She really wanted to see a beautiful sage grouse, more than anything, which Tess knew. She’d read up about them and they were interesting birds found primarily in the West.
“Sage grouse?”
Matt picked up on her interest. “They feed on sagebrush which we have a lot of on several parts of the property.” He waited for her response.
“Really?”
“I think I have binoculars in my saddlebag as well.”
That seemed to settle things. Matt saddled her horse, and gave her the reins.
“Tess,” she said happily. “I’ve got Thunder again. He’s the nicest horse.”
Richie, as well as Matt, was breathing a small sigh of relief. Tess almost laughed at their reactions.
“Good. Who have I got, Richie?”
“That’s Strawberry. He’s a good boy too.”
They rode along together in comfortable silence for a spell. Richie glanced at Matt who nodded, so Richie walked his horse a little faster to catch up with Tess. Matt slowed his horse to ride with Sarah -- Then they were riding in pairs. Richie began explaining what sorting cattle meant to a beaming Tess. She was all ears… Sarah looked out into the hills as she and Matt rode along together.
“Are you going to forgive me? Ever?”
Pause…
“Do you really care if I do or not?”
“… Yes.”
“Why?”
“Can I tell you later?”
“Okay.”
Her eyes slid over to meet his questioning ones.
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Answering my question with another question. What gives with you anyway?”
Matt laughed. He wasn’t too sure how to respond.
“I’m not sure how to answer that without asking another question.”
“You need to give out more information then.”
“What would you like to know, Sarah?”
“Were you really just concerned when you saw me in the meadow?”
“Absolutely. I wasn’t stalking you.”
“Your attitude or something has changed since I first saw you at the hotel.”
“How so?”
“You seemed curious about me then.”
“Maybe that’s because you’re interesting.” Matt looked over at her but she didn’t meet his eyes.
“When we danced, you were nice. But the next day, you wouldn’t speak to me. You seem full of contradictions.”
He smiled. “Observant… I am, but so are you.”
“My turn,” she smiled. “… How so?”
“You arrive an Easterner and in two days become a Westerner. I might throw the ‘What gives’ question back at you.”
Another pause.
“I think we’d need a much longer ride for that conversation.”
“It’s a few hours until lunch. We have the time.”
“Can I tell you later?”<
br />
“Sure.” He reached over his hand. “Friends?”
She laughed while reaching to shake his. “Yes.”
His eyes held hers and slight smiles appeared on their faces. “It’s good to have friends, you know.”
“… I’ve heard that.”
Richie’s voice shook them out of their gazes.
“Look lively, folks. Coming into sagebrush territory. Let’s tie our horses over by that bush and proceed on foot.”
They approached the area that Richie pointed out, got down and tied up their horses. Matt took the binoculars from his saddlebag.
“We don’t want to get too close. This is mating season and we shouldn’t bother them,” said Matt.
“Mating season?”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s an interesting sight to see.”
“I’ll bet,” murmured Tess.
They crept up on a hill that overlooked an immense plains area. Peering down, the area was alive with sage grouse strutting around. Richie had reached for Tess’ hand to show her a good place from which to watch the birds. She smiled and went where he beckoned. They lay down on the hill to watch the sage grouse activity.
Matt had taken Sarah a little further down the hill, closer to the birds. “Here,” he said handing her the binoculars, “take a look.” They lay down on their stomachs in the grass and Sarah propped up on her elbows to use the binoculars. It was quite a sight.
“Look at them! They’re so beautiful!” Sarah gushed quietly.
“The ones with their tail feathers all pointy in the back and huge white breasts are the males. The ones with no white on them are the females.”
“Of course, they are.” Sarah rolled her eyes. “Why is it, in the animal kingdom, that the males are always prettier than the females?”
“To attract a mate, of course,” smiled Matt. “But you know that’s not true with humans. Take you, for instance.”
Sarah put down her binoculars, gaping at him. “What about me?”
“You’re much more attractive than I am.”
“Says who?”
“Me.”
“That’s not true from where I sit,” countered Sarah. She put the binoculars to her eyes again. Matt grinned at her.
“Does that mean you think I’m attractive?”
She exhaled audibly.
“… I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. We’re supposed to be looking at birds.”
“You started it.” She put the binoculars down.
“No, I didn’t…”
“Yes, you did when you remarked about…”
Richie spoke quietly from where he and Tess were situated.
“Would you two pipe down over there?”
“Yes,” smirked Tess. “You’re missing all the action.”
Sarah refrained from rolling her eyes again, but she blushed looking at Matt. His eyes held hers for a moment and then she quickly looked in the binoculars again.
“There’s so many strutting around. They seem like chickens, in a way.”
“Cousins.”
“Why are there more males than females?”
“… Just the way it is. Since there’s competition, they’re trying to look their best to attract the female. Listen to the warbling sounds they make.”
Silence then and lots of warbling noises.
“Look how the male walks and rolls his chest forward. Why does he do that?”
“He’s putting on a show for her.”
“… Beautiful... Look at the black feathers down the back of his head. And the dotted feathers behind his tail.”
Matt wasn’t watching the sage grouse anymore. He was watching how engrossed Sarah was. He couldn’t believe how mesmerized she was by these birds… How she was adapting so incredibly fast to everything Western. What was her story? Why was she really here? Suddenly, Matt was full of questions, but this wasn’t the place for them.
Glancing over at Richie, he and Tess had gotten pretty friendly and weren’t watching the birds much either. Apparently, only Sarah was really interested. He looked up at the sun.
“It’s probably getting close to noon. We’d better head back.” He asked around. “Everyone seen enough?” He got “No” from Richie and Tess, and then a “No” from Sarah, hunkered down with the binoculars.
He laughed. “Sorry, folks. We need to get going.”
They quietly backed down the hill toward the horses. When everyone was astride, they started back to the ranch house. All of a sudden, going by some rocks, there was a rattling noise and Tess’ horse reared back, knocking her off into the grass.
Matt reached out to grab her horse’s reins, as Richie jumped down to help Tess up.
“What happened?”
“Move you two,” warned Matt pointing toward a rock. “… Rattlesnake.”
Richie grabbed Tess’ arm and towed her quickly in the other direction. Sarah only caught part of the action, having ridden a ways up already.
“What’s happening?”
“Snake spooked Tess’ horse.”
“My God, Tess. Are you all right?” Sarah was all concern.
From Richie’s arms, Tess smiled, “Yeah, I’m good.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows at them. Matt just smiled – Richie was a fast mover, all right…
He got Tess back on her horse and they all rode off for the ranch house. This time they made it, uneventfully, back to the barn. Sarah and Matt dismounted first. He took her horse and she looked up at him.
“Thank you. That was wonderful.”
“You’re welcome, Sarah. Glad I could be of service.”
She smiled at him. “Guess I’d better go. Duty calls.”
“… Duty?”
“I promised Dale I’d help him with lunch today.”
Matt’s lips parted and his eyes widened. “You’re going to cook? With Dale?”
“Sure,” she shrugged. “Something wrong with cooking?”
He shook his head. “Apparently not. I just thought you were a guest here – Not an employee.”
“Just helping out a bit.” She looked over at Tess. “You coming?”
“No, I’ll catch up with you later.” She was still dangerously close to Richie.
Sarah laughed and walked happily up to the ranch house, her ponytail swinging. Matt grinned at her departing back and thought she was something else… And someone he wanted to get to know better.
* * *
CHAPTER TWELVE