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Mari grins and turns her phone to face me. On the screen, there are . . . cows.
I narrow my eyes and read:Thoroughgood Ranch Cattle Drives.“Seriously? No way. No cows.”
“Just hear me out. You said they expect you to be the girly one. This is anything but. Yeah?” She bobs her head slowly.
I hate to admit it, but she’s not wrong. So, eventually, my lips curl into a smile and I answer, “Sure, but—”
Mari’s hand pops up to stop my objection “And your team is strictly the suit-and-tie type, right?”
I’m starting to see the promise in her idea. I don’t think I’ve seen one of my peers in anything but designer clothes. Sure, like me, they work out regularly, so we’re all in decent enough shape for this. I mean, we do work for a healthy lifestyle company, but this would definitely throw them all off their games. However, it also means I would have to deal with cows. And horses. And dirt. I start shaking my head again.
“C’mon, Jack.” Mari widens her eyes. “We’re from a small town. There were farms nearby. You even had some ranch down the road, right?”
“A Buddhist retreat, Mari. There weren’t any horses or cows on that ‘ranch.’”
“Bah.” She rolls her eyes. “You can handle this. No problem. But... can your coworkers?”
I chew the inside of my lip and think about Bruce. He had hip replacement surgery earlier this year and is getting around better than he did before the surgery. Although, how keen will he be to ride a horse? Perhaps suggesting this will show that I’m not capable of being Geoff’s social director. That alone would make the trip worth the trouble.
I keep noodling on the team and their probable reaction as our dinner arrives. My boss and the quartet of thirty-somethings . . . well, their hobby is golf. Regardless, their preferred sport likely means they are not fit for something like ranching or cattle drives either. Eddie, now, he is as flexible as a rubber band and eager to boot. He’ll love the idea. That’s good, because the others love him. He’ll sell it for me.
“I did go to a horse camp once when I was eight,” I muse.
Mari watches me, lips pursed, eyes narrowed and her head nods.
Then, I recall something else, gasp, and reach for my purse.
“What?” my friend asks.
Biting my lip, I glance at her as I retrieve my LivFit Mastercard. “Geoff already gave me the go-ahead to book something.”
Mari snatches the card out of my hand and lifts her glass. “Nine of you, right?”
“Yep.” I toast. “This is an awful idea. But, also, brill.”
Chapter Two
Luca
Jasper looks at me withhis big brown eyes, and like I always do, I give in and offer him one more carrot. He rubs his long head against my shoulder, his favorite way to say thank you, and I finish brushing his deep brown coat until it shines. It’s not fair for me to have my favorites, but Jasper is my boy, and I’ve told him more about myself than I’ve shared with anyone else. Horses are magical creatures. No judgment. They accept people for who they are. And, usually, Jasper can sense what I’m thinking or when I feel down, and he doles out love unconditionally.
“Alright, boy, it’s time for you to get some sleep. You had a busy day.”
I close the door to Jasper’s stable and rub the one small white spot between his eyes. “I’ll be back bright and early.”
All the horses start settling in, and I do a check to make sure their stalls are secure for the night. I glance back into the barn one last time before I shut the outer door and walk toward the main house.
The house is quiet, and there are no signs of Wyatt and Emma. I walk into the kitchen, grab myself a Coke from the fridge, and hold the cold bottle against my forehead. After a few seconds, I open it on the edge of the counter and put it against my lips. I look around the rustic cabin and can’t believe it’s been two years since I left my old world to join my best friend Wyatt and his wife here on their ranch. It’s changed so much since I’ve arrived, and with the breaking of land a couple of miles down the road.By this time next year, I’ll have my own home on this five-thousand-acre ranch on the eastern edge of the Santa Fe National Forest.The location has a million and a half acres of the most beautiful undiscovered scenery this world has to offer.
Before settling into the ranch office, I grab another Coke from the fridge, and then I fire up the laptop. Business has been steady for the past few months, and when I click on the reservation page, there’s a new one waiting our attention. The reservation is for nine people from LivFit, a health technology company out of San Francisco. I hold my drink to my mouth and let it pour in.
“What’s the good word, Luca?”
I swivel my chair to look at my best friend, Wyatt, who stands in the doorway.
“Business has been good,” I say. “Can we refuse a reservation?”
Wyatt laughs off my question, but I already know the answer. These things are half of our livelihood here on the ranch.
