But this one had thirty, a big tack room, a big feed room and a hayloft complete with the pulley outside and double doors with criss-cross white boards on them that led to it.
I loved it because it looked awesome, because my man built it with his own hands, because I got to watch him do that and because, with it being there, it was easier to forget how the old one ceased to be.
And last, because Gray and I had broken in the hayloft by repeating history, kind of, as this time, he got his own treat.
It was awesome.
* * * * *
The peach crop came in and Gray taught me to hire and I helped him manage the dozen workers who worked right alongside Gray and me. It was mindless work, hours of it, but with the smell of peaches all around, the summer sun kissing your skin at times, the shade of the trees offering relief at others and cheerful banter (though most of it was in Spanish, a language I didn’t know, still, it was cheerful), there were worse things to do. Gray had replanted the lost trees but it would be awhile before they bore fruit and his new growth also wasn’t there. Still, his crop earned a load, so much I was surprised. Then again, he had a huge orchard so I supposed I shouldn’t be.
It was fun when it began but I was happy when it was over.
* * * * *
Gray contacted the Bureau of Land Management who manages the wild mustang herds and he adopted ten more mustangs.
Yes, ten, putting our number over twenty straight to twenty-three.
Shim, Roan and Whit went with him to go get them and they all worked to help him break them and train them. It was fascinating and slightly scary to sit on our porch swing, eyes pointed to the corral where the boys did this. But if I didn’t know already, what with watching my man jump bareback on a horse and control the thing without any reins, this proved irrevocably he was all cowboy mostly because he got thrown often (the scary part), didn’t seem to mind a bit and the best part, he wore chaps.
No joke.
Chaps.
It.
Was.
Hot.
Seriously.
Until I saw Gray wearing them, I would have told you I was not a girl to get turned on by a man in chaps.
Then I saw Gray wearing them.
Suffice it to say, after day one of watching Gray working the horses wearing chaps, I didn’t care he’d spent hours being bucked off the backs of those beings. That night, I worked Gray and it was clear he didn’t mind being ridden hard after a day of riding.
He didn’t mind it a bit.
* * * * *
After the Brothers Cody got their shit together and got their asses to the retirement home, saw their Mom, the state she was in but the care she was being given, Gray got a welcome surprise and that surprise was not prompted by me (directly, unless, of course, you counted my rant).
This started with Olly who was clearly driven to do it by Macy and I knew this because her eyes mentally whipped his ass straight into our kitchen where he presented Gray with a check for fifty thousand dollars. It wasn’t what I thought he owed but it was something. Frank followed a week later with the same.
Charlie was still a holdout mainly because, in Frank’s words, “He’s a piss-ant. Always was, always will be.” Though I knew Olly, Frank and Macy were working him to do the same or at least offer something.
Gray took them and paid them directly on the note which more than halved what he owed. When my year was up on what I paid on the loan, we’d again face his hefty payment but it would take half as long to pay it off. Further, Frank informed Gray that if Grandma Miriam’s stay went beyond what I’d paid, the Brothers Cody would be seeing to it from there on in.
So that was all good.
* * * * *
And the other good was that there were no more fires, no more poisoned horses and no more diseased trees.
There was nothing, not from Buddy or Cecily.
Not just for Gray and me but for everyone in Mustang. Buddy and Cecily had their home outside Mustang but they lived their lives mostly in the next county and did their business in Elk. Gray and I had seen them and their daughters (who were very cute) at the cinema but other than that, I’d not seen them and others didn’t either. They didn’t go to Plack’s, the diner, The Rambler, The Alibi, Jenkins, Hayes, the pharmacy, nothing.
Courtney, too, had disappeared and she’d one-upped the Sharps by moving to Denver. When it all went down with Gray’s barn and then her participation was leaked by (my guess) Norrie, she’d been in the throes of a nasty divorce to a guy the town actually liked. He got the town, she, when everyone found out what a true bitch she was, got the hell out of it.
It would seem that having “horse murderer” painted on their house and threatening notes left on their doorstep did the trick for Buddy and Cecily.
I was breathing easier but Gray was not. He’d had this since junior high and he didn’t believe Buddy was going to go down at all. This didn’t mean that, as the days passed into weeks then months, he didn’t sleep easier but he was on the alert. He didn’t mind me going to town or to visit Grandma Miriam at the home by myself but it was rare he left me at the house alone and, when he did, it was when whatever business he had didn’t take him long. If it was going to, he took me.
I didn’t mind.
If it gave him peace of mind, what did I care?
* * * * *
That meant, him being in town that day for awhile was surprising, especially seeing as it was my birthday.
But it did give me the opportunity to take my time getting all done up.
Even though Jenkins was fancy for Mustang, it was not Vegas fancy. Still, I had on one of my dresses that I used to wear at Lash’s club. It was red with a deep dip that exposed most of my back, short spaghetti straps that held it up near to the points of my shoulders and it was short and clingy. I was wearing Lash’s rubies and a pair of strappy, red, high-heeled sandals with rhinestones (also from Lash). I had a lot of hair, a lot of makeup and several sprays of my favorite, and most expensive, perfume.
But regardless of Gray’s late afternoon absence, the day had been great. First, I started it with Gray. Second, he made me breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes and my man was a master at pancakes). Third, a FedEx package came with a pair of exquisite, eight hundred dollar designer pumps (a gift from Lash) and a bottle of the aforementioned expensive perfume (a gift from Brutus) which was followed by me talking to them on the phone (Lash, for an hour, Brutus for five minutes, not unusual, either of them).
Apparently, I’d continue to be stocked up on the finer things in life even when that life was on a ranch. I talked to them often, Lash several times a week. Brutus, less frequently but I checked in and so did he. I should have known they’d be generous, it was who they were and the loved me, but still, it was a pleasant surprise.