Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
Two weeks later, the sisters looked at each other as Julie slowed the car down and made a left turn.
“Is this it?” Sara asked as she leaned forward to look out of the window at the surrounding area.
“It’s what the directions say, and the arch above us says Erin’s Way.” Julie looked at her with a grin, and laughed when Sara rolled her eyes at her. “I tell you one thing, if I do decide to move here, I’m buying me a truck. No offense little sister, but this car sucks on these roads.”
“Yeah.” Sara agreed with her, and they followed the directions Erin had given them last week, and when they came upon a large farmhouse, they pulled off and parked. It took them a few minutes to get out and stretch, and as they did, they looked up when someone called out to them.
“Help you?” A very handsome man asked as he approached them, but immediately rushed forward and started asking Julie questions about her prosthetic. She had worn shorts because it was close to ninety degrees and the air conditioning in Sara’s car was on the fritz. Julie stood there and let the man talk.
“Sorry,” he said as he looked at her sheepishly as he held out his hand. They all shook, then he lifted the leg of his jeans on his left leg. “I still have what the Navy sent me home with. I have yet to look into a new one.”
“I had one of those, but I felt this one was better, and it is, especially with the rubbing on the stump. It’s not as sore as the one you have.”
“If you’re going to stick around, I’d love to get some information from you.”
“I’ll be here a couple of days. I’m Julie Truman, and this is my sister Sara.”
“Gould’s friends?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he call Scott by his last name?” Sara asked in confusion.
Julie and the man answered at the same time, “It’s a military thing.”
“I’m Reid Garret by the way.” He smiled at them and paused when a truck pulled in, hauling a large trailer. “Speaking of the devil,” Reid said as they all turned and watched as the truck swung around and backed in front of the barn. Because of the way the sun had hit the windshield, Julie couldn’t see who was driving until they got out, and she sucked in her breath at the sight of Scott, he looked so much different.
“Scott?” she asked in confusion, and her heart and stomach did somersaults when he looked up and smiled at her. “You look different.”
“I’m healing,” he said as he approached, and instead of shaking her hand, he gathered her in a hug. When he stepped back, he held his hand out for Sara, and they exchanged smirks as they shook hands. “How long have you guys been here?”
“About five minutes,” Julie said. “I was just about to ask Garret to take us in to see Erin.”
“I’ll do it,” Scott said, and nodded to Reid. “There are ten in there.”
“Holy crap,” Reid said as he walked forward, but whipped around. “Keys?”
“Taped to their seats.” Scott laughed at his expression and turned to the women. “I’ll try to make this short. There is a woman that works over at Broken that had a challenge that she couldn’t sit in an enclosed vehicle, so she had a golf cart. She has since been able to overcome her challenge, and lent her cart to Ducky, the owner of New Double. Anyway, Ducky is eighty-six-years-old, and loves that cart. Erin thought it would be nice to get more so we can get to different parts of the ranch with them, instead of using our trucks.”
“What about the winter time?” Sara asked. “Can you use them then?”
“Probably not, but they are nice to have around. Let me take you into Erin.” Scott turned on his heel and directed them to follow him. When they entered, Julie asked quietly.
“Do we take our shoes off?”
“You don’t have to,” came a woman’s voice from deeper into the house, and they all followed it. “I’m Erin Riceman,” she set her cup of coffee down, and came forward to shake their hands.
“I’m Julie Truman, and this is my sister, Sara.” They shook and Erin looked at Scott with a raised brow.
“Well?”
Scott laughed and handed her a stack of papers. “Reid’s unloading the carts, and I got a clean bill of health from the doctor. I’m cleared for all duties.”
“Great, but I think I’ll keep you where you are for now, it’s working out well. I’d also like you to give Julie and Sara the tour once I’m done with them.”
“It would be my pleasure, I’ll head back out and help Reid with unloading the trailer.”
“Thanks, Scott.” The three women watched him go, and Erin turned back to them. “Coffee?”
“Could we use the bathroom first?” Julie asked, and Erin laughed when she told them where to go. Ten minutes later the three women were settled in Erin’s office and Erin didn’t waste any time getting to the point.
“Jake from the Brotherhood Protectors gave you a glowing report. He didn’t tell me exactly what you did in the service, and if you can, will you tell me what you did?”
Julie had sipped her coffee and waited until she swallowed before she answered. “I want to be totally honest with you here, Ms. Riceman.”
“First, call me Erin.”
“Okay, Erin, I want to be totally honest with you. Here is a little history about my military career. The fall of my senior year in high school, I signed up to join the Navy after I graduated. I had our parents full cooperation and they signed what they had to. During my senior year, I turned eighteen, and Sara turned fifteen.”
“Okay,” Erin said to encourage Julie to continue when she paused to sip her coffee.
“I graduated, everything was fine, I was set to leave for boot camp the first week of August.”
“What happened?”
“Mom and Dad were coming home from work the beginning of July. Mom’s car was in the shop, and Dad dropped her off and picked her up. It was a Friday night. Both Sara and I were spending the weekend with respective friends. This wasn’t unusual for us. We were going to be home on Saturday, because that was the Fourth of July. They were hit by a drunk driver on their way home from work.”
Sara took up the story then. “It was devastating to say the least. I’m not downplaying anything, but the rest of the summer was horrid. Luckily, we had an aunt that came to stay with us, and with her help, Julie was able to do what she did.”
“Which was?”
“As Sara said, our Aunt was a godsend. She got us through the funerals, the reading of the wills, and the insurance companies. I know there was more, but she helped a great deal. Anyway, Aunt Lydia dragged me down to the recruiters’ office and explained the situation. With her help, she volunteered to stay with Sara while I still left for boot camp the beginning of August. Except, after boot camp, I was able to go back home and be in the reserves until Sara graduated from high school, and started college. Aunt Lydia stayed with Sara while I was away. When I came back and she knew we would be okay, she went back home.”
“What Julie didn’t say was that when I started college, she was able to go into active duty and leave. Neither one of us was ever the typical teenager that acted up, we didn’t need to, and since I was accepted to college less than forty-five minutes away, I stayed in our childhood home and commuted. We didn’t have to sell it, because Aunt Lydia made sure it was completely paid off before she left. See, there were only about eight payments left on the mortgage and she was able to take some of the insurance money from both of us and paid it off.”
“Wow, that was nice of her.”
“Yeah, she was good like that. Anyway, I knew Aunt Lydia was a little over an hour away if Sara needed help, and I would be home as much as I could. The only time I couldn’t was when I was stationed on a ship, and I knew then I would be gone twelve to eighteen months. We made it work.”
“How did you get injured?”
“The ship I was on was attacked, and I was in the area where we took on shells. Meaning we were bombed. Luckily, other ships were in the area and were able to come to our rescue. I lost my leg because it was pinned beneath metal. Thankfully, no one lost their life, but there were about a dozen of us that were severely injured enough to be discharged from the service.”
None of them said a word as they absorbed what she said, then Erin turned to look at Sara. “Do you have any challenges?”
“No, and before you ask, I’ve never even had a job. I concentrated on my schooling and put everything I had in it. When we leave here, we’re headed to Denver where I will be until January, and Julie will be flying home.”
“Will you return?” Erin asked in concern.
“If you offer me a job, yes, however, I’ll have a house to deal with. Since talking with Scott, we’ve gone through every room and have had several estate sales. The only items left are what we want to keep. If you offer me a job, and I return, I’ll just have to see if there are any storage units I can rent to put our things in until Sara can join us. If you hire her, that is.”
“Well, from what I see now, I don’t see why I can’t hire you. Sara, once you get your schooling done and have your degree, you can set up an office in one of the buildings over at Broken Two. I’ll take you over there in a few minutes to explain how things will run. I’m hoping to have most of the work done by the end of the year, however, if not, I’m sure we can come up with someplace for you to work. Now, Julie, thank you for telling me about your career, however, I’m not privy to this information, because it’s military. Can you tell me what you did while you were in the Navy?”
“Oh,” Julie laughed and waved her hand in the air. “I was a communications officer. I controlled all the communications coming into and outgoing on the ship. Ship-to-shore, and shore-to-ship. I was the one that knew we had hostiles in the area and went to find the commander to tell him what I had overheard when we were attacked.”
“You’re good with computers?”
“I am.”
“Good, now hear me out. Let me tell you exactly what’s going on here, and then we can take a tour. Before I tell you, I’m not only looking for people to help over at New Double, but I’m in desperate need of help with my on-line business. I’m finding myself not getting to bed much before midnight, and I need an assistant.” She paused as the phone rang once again, and she looked at the caller ID and let it go to voicemail. “As you can see, we’ve been here for thirty minutes and the phone’s rung twenty times. I need help, and it will be even more hectic when Broken Two is up and running.” She sipped her coffee and took the next hour to tell the two women before her just what Erin’s Way, Riceman Stallions, Broken Wheel, Broken Two, and now New Double was all about.”
“Pardon my language,” Julie said, “But, holy shit, that’s a lot.”
“Yeah, back before my accident, I had just finished school. I went for sports medicine with heavy emphasis on the physical therapy aspect of it. Since taking total control of Erin’s Way, I let my license lapse, all I do now is try to keep all the irons in the fire, and hope no one gets burned when I forget something.” She sighed, then quickly stood. “Let’s take a tour.”
Julie and Sara jumped to their feet and followed Erin from the office, then out the door. Erin talked the entire time as she showed them the barns at Erin’s Way, and the three of them giggled when she discussed the ‘sex barn’ and what it entailed.
“What’s in there?” Julie asked at one point, and turned to Erin when she giggled.
“That’s the only location on this entire ranch I do not have access to. I can, but I don’t want to. I know that’s confusing, but that’s the sperm samples we collect from the stallions. Tom Stolls, the vet, has control of them. I get the request over the website, Riceman Stallions, then I pass that request onto Tom. He contacts the rancher requesting the sample, then talks to their vet. If Tom is happy, then he boxes up the frozen sample and mails it to the other vet. We never, ever, ship the sample directly to the rancher. There are protocols in place to keep the sample viable. One of the reasons I need help is that I’m getting a lot of requests and Tom has his own business so he doesn’t always have time to get back to the ranchers and their vets. Oh, he does eventually, but sometimes it’s well over a month before he can get back to them. That’s not good business in my mind. I want to do better.”
“If I take on the job of your assistant, could that be something I could do?”
“The first thing I’d have you do is talk to Tom and have him walk you through the steps of researching the rancher and vet. I would prefer you don’t actually touch the sample, but you could everything else, but I’ll let you take it from there. I’m not saying you’d be mailing the samples, but it might be something you can work up to.”
“One thing is that I love variety in my work. I think that’s why I became a waitress because I would work different shifts, see different people, and do different things. I didn’t have to work, but it kept me busy.”
“That’s good information to have. Now, that was Erin’s Way, and it’s run efficiently for decades. My so many removed grandmother started this ranch back in the eighteen thirties, and we are well-established. Riceman Stallions, the online stallion dating site is new. We keep everything for that here because, well, the stallions are here. Let’s hop in the truck and head over to Broken.”
They followed Erin, and she only waved at the men standing and looking at the ATVs and golf carts, she only called out that she was going over to Broken. The men waved her off, and they started out.