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“Yeah, he has his moments. They’re rare, but they’re there.”
Sawyer laughed at her teasing his brother instead of getting offended, so that was good too, she guessed. He had the same sense of humor as her and that was half the battle of being able to work well with somebody. As Sawyer stood up from gazing over the cattle’s legs, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started typing away with a look of concentration.
“Sorry, am I boring you?” Josie said, eyeing his phone with a raised eyebrow, feeling like a school teacher all of a sudden, which maybe wasn’t the best way to be talking to someone she’d just met.
“I’m taking notes, not texting. Keep your hair on.” He said it with a grin and a wink.
“Well, look at you being all responsible,” she said. The way Luke had talked, and Sandy too, she was expecting some guy whowas as dumb as a brick and twice as useless to come striding in. But Sawyer actually seemed attentive, like he knew what he was doing. He certainly had the body to be able to handle the work that needed to be done. Not that Josie had been looking at his body… She cleared her throat and moved on as quickly as possible before she embarrassed herself.
“Wasn’t expecting the phone, is all.”
“Sorry to drag you into the twenty-first century. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Might even teach you how to use a microwave.”
“What? You mean you don’t carry a pen around at all times? A piece of parchment? Maybe a feather quill?”
Sawyer snorted a laugh. “No, I’m not somebody’s pappy who carries a notepad and pencil stub around and thinks that’s good enough to give to the bank as official documents. Luke is though,” and he waved a slip of paper that Josie assumed must be a note from his brother.
Josie couldn’t help it and smiled at the thought. Every old-school farmer she knew carried their own little notebook and refused to use a computer. Even Luke hadn’t escaped the tradition, handing his list to Sawyer on a slip of paper. As for her…
“Well…” she said, a little chagrined. “Turns out Iamsomeone’s pappy with their notepad and pencil stub.” She pulled out her own list from her back pocket and Sawyer laughed again, loud and deep like rolling thunder. It was a nice sound, a genuine laugh, not some stilted polite thing. Josie liked to make people laugh, but sometimes she could tell that whoever she was talking to actually found her just kind of annoying and they were doingit to be polite. It didn’t seem like Sawyer was the type to do a whole lot just to bepolite.
“Can I see?” Josie asked, holding out a hand for the list Luke had given him, curious to know what he’d written down. Sawyer handed it over without question, and it was kind of stupid really, but that made her feel good. He didn’t question why she needed to see it, or what she was going to do with it. He just handed it over. Half her job was convincing those same old-school farmers that, yes, she looked like she’d just graduated high school, but that didn’t stop her from being able to do everything herself. Except maybe reaching things without a ladder or an upturned bucket.
Luke’s list was scribbled out in his barely legible handwriting that always took her an extra minute to decipher, even though he’d protested since high school that his handwriting was perfectly fine.
“I guess you already know most of what needs doing,” said Sawyer, looking at her like he was waiting for instructions. That little warm glow of appreciation traveled up her spine again, and Josie tried not to look too smug as she handed back the list.
“Yeah. And a few other things too. But that’s stuff that Luke wouldn’t know about anyways.”
“I thought you said you were only part-time?”
“I getpaidpart-time,” she clarified. “It’s not like there’s a whole lot to do in town. May as well come out here and bum about in my free time. Take care of the horses, do extra jobs here and there.”
Sawyer looked impressed. “I guess that makes you the boss, then.”
Josie couldn’t help herself; she was practically preening from the praise. But anyone would be, she convinced herself. It was nice to be complimented. She was only human, after all.
“Well, I guess it does,” she agreed. “But constructive criticism is encouraged. As long as you say please.”
Sawyer chuckled again and Josie wondered what it would be like to be pressed up against his chest as he laughed, to feel it against her cheek.
“Don’t worry,” Sawyer said. “I can be the picture of politeness. I’ll even bow as you walk by, pay you your dues like I’m some knight of old.”
“You talk well,” she blurted out, immediately mortified with herself. But Sawyer threw his head back and cackled.
“Thanks,” he said, clapping her on the shoulder like she was an old buddy and not someone he’d just met. “My manager will be happy to hear it.”
“Your manager?”
Sawyer chuckled. “When my career started really taking off, I was doing more and more interviews and fumbling so bad on some of them that the team manager pulled me aside and made me go through media training. Guess it paid off.”
He flashed her a smile, and Josie felt her face copying his like it was contagious or something.
“What’s first, boss?” said Sawyer as he folded his brother’s list away into a pocket, along with his phone. “I’ll follow your lead.”
Josie pulled herself up to her full height, which wasn’t a whole lot, and puffed out her chest.
“Fencing first,” she said with as much authority as she could muster. “Better to get all the repairs done first before we worry about making anything look pretty.”
