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“She says it’s not normal for young people to be this worked without at least a little bit of mischief.”
This made me laugh because it sounded exactly like something Ellie would say.
“Well, what does everyone end up doing when she demands this?”
“We drive into Kalispell while the older hands watch the fields.”
I laughed to myself. “What do you all do for fun around here? Do you drive the strip? Visit the malt shop? Split an Eskimo Pie?” I said in my best impression of Kenickie.
“Nah, too much snow, and sometimes, if Rizzo has a couple of quarters.”
I glanced up at him in disbelief before I realized he was joking with me and he chuckled. “You’re an idiot.”
I smiled. “All right, so say I go with you into town?”
“There’s a little pub-like grill off Main that we like to frequent. It’s laid back and plays a few tunes. They’ve got a jukebox, sometimes the girls get up and dance on the peanut shell-covered floor.”
“Girls?” I asked, mockingly looking around me. “What girls?”
Cricket and Bridge were the only young women on this ranch. It was a wonder the guys there didn’t trip over themselves to get to them. It probably helped that they’d grown up with Cricket and that Bridge had her own personal bodyguard in the linebacker we all knew as Jonah.
“There’ll be girls,” he said quietly, almost fearfully, which made me want to burst out laughing. “They come from the nearby little towns. Also, Kalispell has enough of them to go ’round.”
“I’m convinced,” I jested, thinking back on L.A.
“Good,” he said.
“Good,” I countered, thinking on Cricket and smiling secretly to myself.
I spread the pellets around my feet again, even though it was unnecessary. I cleared my throat. “So, uh, will Cricket go?”
“Yeah,” he said, thinking nothing of my question and my heart jumped. “Ethan takes her,” he finished, and my heart sank to my feet.
Heavy-ass heart.
When the day was done, I went back to the trailer and decided to catch some Z’s before everyone met up to drive out to Kalispell. I showered and fell to sleep in a blur of ten minutes. It had been several weeks since we’d come to the ranch, but it didn’t seem to matter. My muscles felt like they were ripped apart, healed with a night of sleep, then viciously ripped apart once more the next day. This had gone on day after day, week after week, and I was starting to feel the effects of it. I felt like a modern-day Prometheus.
And yet, though I was more tired than I had ever felt, I felt all the more accomplished for it. Life didn’t feel like I was merely existing from one droning moment to the next. I felt effective, useful and altogether worthy. I had never felt that before, not once my entire life had I ever felt truly valuable. I had earned the right to be proud, but being enlightened in that way only exacerbated the fact that I had so much further to go before I could ever deserve someone like Cricket.
“And so what?” Piper asked me.
“So what, what?” I replied, annoyed.
I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist.
“You think this sensation will last?” she asked, almost desperate. She was pacing behind me and I could see her wild reflection in the mirror. “This supposed merit? You will grow tired of the tedious days, you know. You will grow in resentment.” I scoffed at her as I began to shave. “You think to dismiss me so easily!” she asked hysterically.
I stopped what I was doing and narrowed my eyes at her. “If I could do that, you’d be gone completely,” I told her before returning back to my task.
“Spencer,” she said softly, remembering herself. She slithered across the marble floor to my side and leaned back against the bathroom countertop. “You’re losing your motivation. You’re dropping your guard.” I shook my head, casting off her statement. “You’re going to lose it all because she is going to take it!” she practically screamed, her cool facade breaking like weak glass.
I pulled away from her slightly and gauged her. “And what the hell is it to you, Piper?”
She smiled sweetly, but it felt frantic, forced. “I only want what’s best for you,” she hummed throatily.
“Why?” I questioned her.
She looked affronted. “Don’t ask stupid questions, Spencer,” she said before turning and fleeing the bathroom.
