Chapter 3
MATTHEW
I t was an understatement to say that our ranch’s new guest wasn’t our typical visitor.
When I spotted her outside the airport terminal with her sleek hairdo and head-to-toe black outfit and designer shades, I assumed she wasn’t waiting for me.
She was absolutely gorgeous in a classy, expensive kind of way, and we didn’t get many people dressing like her out here.
From the diamond studs in her ears to the designer labels on her luggage, nothing about her said “wilderness lover” except the awe in her eyes as we drove through southeastern Wyoming, the place I called home.
She clearly found the scenery beautiful, but her choice of our ranch bewildered me.
There were so many guest ranches in the state, not to mention neighboring states, that offered more of a high-end experience. Why stay with us at Silver Sage?
Eventually, she mentioned her sister found our ranch, which offered an explanation.
Perhaps she believed Lauren needed a more rugged experience, away from her pampered lifestyle?
If that was the case, she was in for a surprise, and I needed to prepare myself for complaints, which was irritating to say the least. The ranch couldn’t afford a poor review from someone who didn’t do their research before taking a trip out west.
As we drove to Silver Sage, I reminded myself that I was jumping to judgment.
I didn’t know this woman at all and probably shouldn’t be creating a personality for her based on her jewelry and luggage.
That was something I had a tendency to do—size people up and try to predict who they were and how to handle them.
It helped me make sure guests had a good ranch experience, but I wasn’t always right.
As we drove together, I discovered she had a sense of humor and wasn’t raised in the lap of luxury.
Maybe my initial assumptions about her were wrong.
The four-mile ride from the gate of the ranch to the main buildings was a bumpy one, and I mean that literally. Rocks and ruts pitted the dirt road, resulting in a jerky ride that tested a vehicle’s shocks. As we bounced along in our seats, I glanced over at my new guest.
“You doing okay?”
She’d hidden her eyes behind dark sunglasses, but it was clear from the tension in her jawline that she was gritting her perfectly straight white teeth. “I’m glad I’m not the one driving this road. You’re clearly an expert.”
She was flattering me, and to be honest, it was working on me.
Internally, I smacked myself for driving one-handed, showing off my dirt road navigational skills when she was probably only being kind.
Was a woman like Lauren really impressed by a guy who arrived to pick her up in a filthy vehicle and an equally dirty shirt?
I needed to get a grip and go take a cold shower.
It wasn’t professional to be thinking about a guest in that kind of way.
“I can’t wait to settle in,” she said. “Maybe I’ll take a long walk. I hear there’s some lovely hiking out here.”
I tried to ignore the lines of her long legs as she stretched them out in the seat next to me. “There are lots of beautiful views. All joking aside, how do you really feel about cows?”
“Why?” She didn’t sound pleased.
“We let our neighbor’s cattle graze on our land so you might meet some of the herd when you’re hiking. They’re truly harmless, I promise.”
“Oh. Good to know.”
It didn’t sound good with her. Was she a staunch vegetarian or allergic to cattle? The last thing I needed was a high maintenance visitor right now.
“We offer guided hikes, so if that would be more appealing, I can arrange one for you.” Guided hikes.
Ha! No one on staff had time for that kind of thing, but I’d have to take time out of someone’s schedule if she wanted a guide.
I couldn’t have her running into wayward cows, then suing me for emotional trauma. “Are you a vegetarian?”
Damn, I hoped not. If I didn’t tell Chef Damon ahead of time that we had a guest with special dietary needs, he had a hissy fit.
“No,” she said. “I’m an omnivore.”
Thank God. Also, who used words like omnivore in casual conversation?
“Speaking of food, dinner will be in the dining room at six, and you can sit wherever you’d like.
” I tried to think of a way to explain our current guest situation.
“The ranch is a bit under-booked currently. We have a larger party coming in a few weeks, but right now there are two families here, the Jernigans and the Shahs. And you, of course.”
“Wow, that’s it?”
Her surprise concerned me. Our lack of bookings probably signaled to her we were a subpar establishment, and I hurried to set her straight.
“Don’t worry.” I smiled at her confidently. “That just means you’ll get personalized service from us.”
Having made that promise, I could only pray Chef Damon wouldn’t choose that night to have a relapse. When he was sober, he produced amazing meals. Unfortunately, the man liked his wine, and the grapes made him unpredictable.
I parked the truck outside our main office, a small log cabin with a tiny front porch and a welcome sign on the door.
“I’ll check you in here,” I said. “Then my right-hand man Tyler can take you and your bags to your cabin. We don’t have roads for our trucks all throughout the guest areas because you wouldn’t want to hear us driving around when you’re trying to rest and relax.
Instead, we use golf carts to deliver things to the cabins and cottages. ”
We had twelve guest cabins of varying sizes and layouts, as well as two large houses, the Cottonwood Cottage and the Bluebell Cottage, that extended families or groups of friends could occupy.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t rented out the cottages in a while, but a large party was arriving in about three weeks to rent the entire ranch.
As we stood on the office’s porch, I gestured toward the nearby buildings.
“That’s the dining room over yonder.” I shamefully peppered my speech with words like howdy and yonder when I was with guests to add to their Western experience. “And that’s the Round Room where we have events like dancing and storytelling.”
“And it’s actually round,” she said. “What a pretty wrap-around porch.”
“Yeah, that’s probably my favorite place on the property. In case you need to find me, you can look here in the office first, and if it’s empty, pick up one of the walkie talkies and give me a shout.”
“So the other office staff won’t be here?” She looked completely perplexed that there would be no one else to answer phones and greet guests, and I wasn’t about to inform her why that was the situation.
“Sometimes another staff member is in the office, but we’re often out on the property somewhere, helping guests or delivering things. You can also try my cell phone, but the walkies work better out here.”
“Okay.”
She was probably used to calling downstairs for room service and buckets of ice at all hours of the day and night.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money for full-time office staff or overnight employees to cater to our guests’ midnight whims. I could only hope that the scenery and activities at the ranch would be enough to keep her happy.
Those were the reasons people came here, not the premium service, although guests never seemed to mind.
What we lacked in sparkle and shine, we made up for with warmth and personality.
We went inside the office so I could check her in using an archaic laptop whose processing speed was so slow it would have been faster to power it with a hamster on a wheel. As we waited for my screen to load, she looked at me warily.
“You do have WiFi, right?”
Well, crap.
“We do. It’s not the strongest signal in the world, but we do have it. The office has the best connection, so if you need to do work while you’re here, I’m happy to let you use my space.” I pointed behind me. “I have a small private office back there.”
“That’s kind of you.” She pulled off her sunglasses, and I got my first look at her eyes.
Big brown peepers with thick, long lashes.
Doe eyes, my mother would have called them.
I stared into them, getting lost in their mahogany depths, until she spoke again.
“Is it possible to get a glass of water?”
“Of course! Feel free to get a drink of your choice.” I gestured over to the beverage station in the corner of the office, which was basically a water cooler and a machine that made hot drinks.
When I replaced my parents’ ancient Norelco automatic drip coffee maker, I thought I’d made a serious upgrade.
Now, the single-serve beverage maker and basket of plastic pods that went with it, looked terribly low budget.
She crossed the room to take a closer look. “Ooh, what flavors of tea do you have?” Her face fell as she picked through our selection. “Actually, I think I’m okay right now.”
“What’s wrong?”
She smiled politely. “It’s fine. I don’t drink caffeine this late in the day and there’s nothing decaf.”
Well, crap on a cracker. “I can definitely order some. What do you like?”
“Decaf green tea is my favorite,” she said. “But I don’t want to put you to any trouble.” She paused and licked her lips. “I do enjoy matcha lattes with oat milk in the morning. Do you have a coffee bar with a barista somewhere at the ranch?”
I felt my eyes widen. “A barista? Uh, no, ma’am.” I still didn’t understand how one squeezed milk from an oat or a nut, but I knew better than to admit that. “I’ll do my best to get some matcha though, and I believe we have non-dairy milk in the kitchen.”
The screen door to the office swung open with a loud creak.
“Hey, boss.” Tyler sauntered into the office with our wrangler Walt close behind him. I’d radioed Tyler about taking the new guest to her cabin, but I didn’t know why Walt was there, too. My first thought was that there was bad news.
“Everything okay?” I asked Walt.
“Yep.” He leaned against the doorframe, kicking the heel of one boot in front of the toe of the other. “Came to tell you Sam got Doug sorted out. He gave him an injection for the swelling and said he should be fine in a day or two.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. My brother Sam took care of the ranch horses free of charge, and if he said Doug would be okay, I believed him.
“Excellent news. Please let me introduce our guest Lauren Wagonblast from New York.”
They both tipped their cowboy hats and said a polite hello, not even blinking at the sound of her unusual last name, although I saw an amused twinkle in Walt’s eyes.
“Tyler will take you to your cabin now,” I told Lauren, “unless you need something else?” Something else I couldn’t provide, like matcha lattes or a barista.
“No, I think I’ll unpack and let my family know I arrived safely. I might take a little nap before dinner.”
“I’ll see you in the dining room at six.”
We didn’t have enough guests to do multiple sittings for dinner like we used to when the ranch was in its heyday.
The Jernigans and Shahs were longtime visitors to the ranch, but it was tough to bring in new business when the facilities on the property were sorely outdated.
If we didn’t make improvements soon, even our loyal guests would stop coming.
“Yes,” she said, “thank you so much. Nice meeting you, Walt.” She turned and walked out of the office with Tyler, and I did my best not to assess her backside, although I couldn’t say Walt showed the same restraint.
“Hey,” I warned him. “Eyes up. This is a highbrow establishment.”
Walt laughed and cocked his head to the side. “Is it?”
Over the years I’d known him, he hadn’t changed much except for the fact that his black hair and mustache turned to a silvery gray.
At sixty-four, he was still a skilled wrangler, no doubt about it, and the staff and guests adored him, but physically he was slowing down.
Next summer, he’d definitely need a younger wrangler working with him.
“What’s a lady like her doing out here?” Walt’s voice had grown gruff from age and the Marlboro Reds I’d been asking him to quit since I first met him.
“I guess she wanted a rugged ranch experience?” I scratched the back of my neck where I’d gotten a strip of sunburn from tending to the fence that morning. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
“Give her the deluxe Silver Sage Ranch package then,” he said with a wink.
“And what’s that?” I waited for the punchline I knew was coming.
“The deluxe ranch package is everything you can think of selling her, from the super deluxe trail ride to the super deluxe cookout experience. That’s how you keep this place afloat, dummy. Upcharge everything.”
“I’m not going to fleece my guests, Walt.”
“It’s not fleecing if?—”
There was a knock on the door, and we both spun around to see Lauren peeking her head inside. My stomach took a nosedive, and Walt swore under his breath as we braced ourselves for the dressing down we deserved.
“One more thing,” she said in a cheery voice.
“If either of you gentlemen head into town, I’d like to come with you.
I didn’t have proper hiking shoes at home, so I’d like to buy some here, as well as a few more things I might need.
Oh, and I’d really like to get the deluxe ranch experience.
Don’t skimp on a single thing while I’m here.
” She let the screen door slam shut in her wake.
I dropped my head into my hands as Walt cackled. No wonder this place was about to go belly up.