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“Interesting,” she said. “Maybe we can have a few bison as well as the beef cattle. My current foreman, Joe Cahill, will be happy to talk about all that, but I’ve only got him for another five weeks before he retires.”
“I see. I’ll definitely be working closely with him then.” He shook his head. “No one told me that I was going to be able to ranch when I married you.”
“That’s Dr. Lachele’s fault,” Alexis said. “I let her know I needed a cowboy to run my ranch on my first phone call with her.”
“And it makes sense that she matched you with me then.” He reached for her hand under the table and squeezed it. It felt different when he touched her now. At the church, it had just felt right when they touched. Now, she felt…attraction to him. His smile made her heart flutter.
Mom looked at Alexis. “You’re going to have to keep in touch, and I don’t mean like you did in college with just email. You will be calling at least twice a week, and hopefully Skyping.”
Alexis nodded. “I know. But remember, Skype and phones work both ways. If it seems like it’s been too long since we’ve talked, you should call me. I’ll have a flexible schedule for the most part.”
“How are you doing on days?” her dad asked. “I know you had a hard time every time you had to be on days for any period of time back in Texas.”
She nodded. “I’ve been working on it slowly. Getting up earlier every day. Still not up with the chickens, but I’m up by nine most days.”
Kyle looked at her oddly. “Nine? On a ranch, we’re usually at work by six-thirty.”
She smiled. “Three weeks ago, I was working in a call center from nine at night until six in the morning. I’m pretty proud that I’ve adjusted to nine. I’m still working on it, and soon I’ll be up by five with the rest of you.”
“That makes sense then.”
She nodded. “At first, I’m probably going to hire a housekeeper. She can fix breakfast and keep the house clean while I sort through all the ranch’s files and learn if anything has been neglected. I’m doing a major overhaul but it feels like I’ve done nothing.”
Mom shook her head. “I can attest to the fact that you’ve worked your butt off.” She looked at Kyle. “I’ve been staying with her for the past week to get everything ready for the wedding. We at least have the master bedroom ready for the two of you.” Looking back at Alexis she frowned. “We forgot to take all of those clothes to the women’s shelter in town.”
“I’ll take care of it this week,” Alexis said. “It’s not like we’re driving three hours into town.”
“How far out is the ranch?” Kyle asked.
“About twenty minutes,” she said. “And I will be donating a lot. I may have to use the truck at the ranch.”
“The ranch came with a truck?” he asked.
“Two of them actually. One for the owner and one for the foreman, who I won’t have in five weeks, so we’ll have plenty of trucks to go around.”
“Sounds like you’re making a lot of changes,” he said.
“I need to. There is so much to be done, and I’m learning as I go.”
Their food came then, and it looked as it should. She was very leery of eating Mexican food outside of Texas, though. She used her fork to poke at her enchiladas, before cutting off a bite and popping it into her mouth. When she finished chewing, she smiled happily. “It’s good!”
The rest of her family had waited for her to announce it was good before they’d even tried their food. Kyle looked between them, uncertain what to think. “Why wouldn’t it be good?”
Her dad answered that for them. “We’re used to Tex-Mex, and it’s a different taste than most Mexican food. We were hoping to find a restaurant that would serve good Tex-Mex for Alexis before leaving. She’s all about Tacos and enchiladas. I swear the girl would swim in queso if given the chance.”
Alexis could only nod her agreement. “And now we have a place, so we don’t have to worry. When I’m craving Tex-Mex, we’ll come here.” She took a bite of the refried beans and smiled. “The beans are good too.”
They all talked and laughed while they ate, but Kyle noticed her brother Brent was quiet. He looked at him. “Not much to say?”
Brent shrugged. “My sisters have so much to say, that I rarely get a turn so I’ve learned to just wait.”
Kyle laughed. “I’m an only child, but I spent a lot of time at my best friend’s house growing up. He had two sisters, and they were obnoxious to deal with.”
When they were finished, Alexis hugged her family goodbye. “I’ll visit. I promise. But I want all of you to know you’re welcome to come and visit us.”
“I’m taking you up on that,” Brittany said.
“You’d better!”
