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“Okay,” I yell back.
Hearing more babies were born today does lift my spirits a little. That’s the best part of living on a ranch—all the babies that are born seemingly year-round.
We can’t afford the staff we need so my brother and I have our duties that have become our biggest contribution to the family business. For my brother, it’s herding the cattle; for me, it’s helping with any of the newborns.
First though, I need to go to Brandy.
As I enter the stable, I call out her name, and she instantly perks up from her stall and looks at me. There’s a reason she’s my best friend. I know that sounds sad, but it’s the truth. There’s no drama with her, and she’s always happy to see me.
I walk up to her and place my palm on her face, then my cheek against hers. She nuzzles into me, and just like that, the stress of the day floats away.
“Hey, girl,” I say, running my hand down her mane. “You want to get out of here?”
She huffs and moves around, showing me she knows exactly what I’m saying.
I grab the saddle and place it over her, getting everything ready to head out for my favorite part of the day—the time where it’s just her, me, and the land surrounding us. Normally, I go for rides later in the day, but I can’t wait that long now.
Once she’s all set, I open the stall door and walk her out of the stable. I put my foot in the stirrup and jump up, then swing my leg around until I’m securely sitting on the saddle.
With a kick of my heel, I say, “Come on, girl.”
She instantly starts off, and within seconds, we’re racing down the hill, through the stables, and past the barns to where our cattle are held. It takes a few minutes to get through our two-thousand-acre ranch to the back by the river. The first part of our ranch is still actively running, but a large portion back here has been left empty for the past twenty-five years.
My Pops never comes out here because it’s too devastating to him to think about what this place used to be, but I love coming out here because there’s no one else around. I feel like it’s my personal sanctuary.
Brandy and I race through the rolling hills of the now-empty land, feeling like we could run forever, as free as we could possibly be.
Our property line is marked by a narrow river. Even though downstream, where the river gets much wider, is a popular place for people to hang out, our ranch is so big that no matter how far you look right or left, you’ll never see a single soul.
Well … maybe one. Across the river is the Wick property. Thankfully, their monstrosity of a mansion is up higher on the hill, so I don’t have to see it from here, but every once in a while, I’ll see Dalton back in these hills. Of course, he’s never cared to even notice I’m back here too.
I dismount Brandy and walk her to the stream so she can get a drink of water.
When I look off to the hills above our ranch, all I see are the houses that now dot the land that once was covered in just trees. The sight always saddens me, so instead, I push the thought out, especially after my partner incident today, and go about my routine of brushing Brandy to help calm any bad emotions that pop into my mind.
Here, with her, is my Zen place.
I know my time is slipping away and my dad needs my help, so I mount Brandy again, and we make our way back to the ranch and the barn, where my Pops still is.
After I hop off of Brandy, I tie her to the fence and enter the barn, which has the few ranch hands we have, working in the area. I head toward the back, where I’m sure he is since that’s where the babies are kept.
“Hey, Pops,” I say when I see him pouring some feed into the containers.
He’s obviously had a rough day just by the way his clothes are covered in mud, yet he’s working like he’s as clean as can be. He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever met. His biggest fear is losing this ranch, but sometimes I wonder if the ranch is even worth saving if it means he works his life away just to keep it.
He walks up and places his arms around me to give me a hug. No matter what he’s doing, he always stops to give me a hug. “Hey, sweetheart. How was your ride?”
I hug him back not caring if doing so gets me dirty. “It was good.” I say nothing more, not wanting to think about my day any more than I have to.
He goes back to what he was doing. “Your mom said you have something to tell me. Something about a partner at school?”
I inhale a breath and let it out slowly, not happy my mom told him anything, but honestly not surprised. These two have this amazing bond, and I swear they are like one soul, split into two bodies.
“In English, we have to work with the same partner all semester, and we chose them randomly by drawing numbers.”
“Do you not like who you got?” he asks sincerely while continuing his work.
“You’re not going to like who I got either,” I state matter-of-factly, making him stop in his tracks and look at me.
