Chapter Two
Murray and I are walking around taking in the options we have for a new cattle horse. But I can’t stop checking my phone for a text from Juliette.
“What do you think? There aren’t many here. Must be the weather comin’ in.” Murray writes down the number of a horse he likes on a short list.
Usually we both write down our numbers and compare before the auction starts the bidding, but my list is empty.
“Yeah, pretty slim pickin’ today.” I slip my phone back in my pocket to stare out at the options.
“You alright today? Your mood is going downhill.” He slaps my shoulder. “Does my buddy need a snack?” He asks in a baby voice.
I shoot a glare at him. “I’m fine.”
Before he can ask more about my mood I am saved by a commotion ahead of us. We both look toward the sound to see a white mare kicking her feet in the air at the man she is with. He is screaming at her, trying to whip her into doing what he wants while he staggers himself.
I look at Murray, who looks back at me. We both say “We need her” at the same time.
Sometimes you see the worst of the worst at these auctions and I’ll be damned if I let that horse go home with him.
We walk around finalizing our numbers for cattle horses, not letting the commotion we saw deter us from our mission.
Henry, the ranch’s owner, would never be mad at us for buying a beaten or abused horse.
The auctioneer walks out to the podium, a silent announcement for the start of the auction.
I check my phone one more time. Still a blank screen showing the photo of Juliette and I from years ago.
God, was that the last time I took her out on the town?
I knew I should’ve picked up my boots this morning.
I knew it’d make her madder than a wet hen, but I was simply out of time.
She’s never ignored me like this all day though.
She always cleans it up, gives me shit, I’ll kiss her and things go back to being fine.
The bidding starts and I let Murray handle everything. My mind is too distracted to be the one trying to win a bid.
The cattle horse we want comes up. A beautiful Arabian. He’s a deep chestnut brown with a black mane, a good lineage and a good breeder. I expect there to be a few bids on him.
Murray’s paddle flies into the air and I see three other bidders as serious as we are after the lower budget bidders are out.
Two are out pretty quickly and now it’s a war between us and another ranch.
However, I know that ranch doesn’t have the money to go much higher so I have faith that we’ll win.
Two more bids and I’m right. Watching the ranch hand from the Blue Skies Ranch shake his head, the auctioneer ends the bids and the horse is officially ours.
A few horses later is the white mare that we saw. Murray gets his hand on the paddle ready, waiting to see if anybody else is going to bid on her. It’s unlikely based on the behavior that we saw. No one wants the horse with behavior issues. With her history of abuse she will be hard to train.
The auctioneer opens the bidding for her. Someone raises their hand and offers an absurdly low amount. No one else bids. Murray raises his paddle and more than doubles the bid on the white horse. The other bidder shakes his head. He was only in it for a cheap horse.
“Well, looks like we’re the proud owners of two new horses. Hopefully Henry won’t be too mad when we tell him why. If he is mad, I’ll just buy her for myself.” Murray gives me a sad look.
“I’ll do half with you. We couldn’t let her go to anyone else.”
Now that we have our wins, Murray and I go get our trailer ready for the two newcomers and pass the time until the auction ends. We need to get the dividers up, not knowing how they’ll react. Especially after seeing the mare’s behaviors.
Dropping the divider in, I make the rookie mistake of leaving my finger in the way.
“Fuck!” Ripping my hand away I inspect the damage. I probably need fucking stitches but superglue is going to have to do today.
Stomping my way over to the toolbox in my truck I pull out the superglue and a rag. Dabbing at the cut and then covering it with superglue. Blue collar medical care at its finest.
“What’s up with you today? You’re grouchier than usual. You’re distracted. And I haven’t seen you look at your phone this much the entire time I’ve worked for you.” Murray’s eyes take me in, full of scrutiny.
I blow out the breath I’m holding waiting for the superglue to do its job. “Juliette’s pissed at me. I didn’t clean up my boots last night. Or this morning. And then she told me she didn’t want to be my mom, whatever that means. Now she hasn’t answered me all day.”
“Ah. Of course. Woman troubles. Don’t sweat it, man. You and Juliette are solid. No better couple in my opinion.”
Right, solid. I scoff at my own thought. We’ve been doing more fightin’ than kissin’ lately.
“Yeah. I’m just over the day, ya know? And it’s not even half over. All the hard stuff is left.”
“Want me to get one of the other guys to help?” He snaps the last piece into place and stands to wipe his hands on his pants.
“Naw, I got it.”
The end of the auction is announced so we shut up the trailer and head over to the ticket table. Handing our number over to the worker they get us all the paperwork and within an hour we’re ready to go.
“Bring the Arabian first?” I ask.
They nod and head back to find our new horses.
Leaning against the trailer, I close my eyes trying to stave off the headache I can feel coming. Pulling out my phone I send another message to Juliette. She’s usually just getting up from a nap to get ready for work.
Me: You okay? I’m really sorry. I’ll get the boots as soon as I get home.
I watch as the message sends, but it doesn’t. It turns green. I hit her number calling her, but it goes immediately to voicemail.
What the fuck?
I try again. Same result. Either she blocked me or her phone is off. Fuck.
The Arabian gets loaded without issue. But the mare is a different story. She’s bucking the whole way, thrashing her head, and flat refusing to move.
None of these assholes are acting like they’ve spent one day around a horse. I intervene to get this shit show moving again.
Approaching the worker I hold out my hand for the lead. “What the fuck are you doing to her?”
He rolls his eyes, handing over the lead and I rip it out of his hand.
I stand stock still, letting the horse calm down a minute. “Hey girl. We’re going to get ya out of here, but I need you to walk to the trailer. Think you can do that for me?”
I step forward, but when I do she starts whinnying again. “Okay, you win. I won’t come closer.”
The man, if you can call him that, who was here with her approaches us with his whip in hand.
“I’ll get her for you two. You’re bein’ too easy on her.” He raises the whip over his head.
Murray steps in front of him. “The fuck you will. She’s ours now. We’ll handle it.”
He laughs at us. “Good fucking luck with that one. She’s worse than my damn ex-wife.” He slurs his words, swaying on his feet now that he’s at a standstill.
“Yeah, we’re good. Get on now. Go drink another one.” Murray shoos him away, but I know he’d rather punch the fucker who dares to touch this mare.
Luckily the drunk stumbles away, not causing any issues.
The mare watched Murray throughout the entire exchange. It earned him some trust with her, because she starts following him as he walks away.
“Murray, go right to the trailer. You won our girl over,” I yell at him.
He looks tentatively over his shoulder and she stops. When he looks back ahead she follows again. We play this game until she’s tucked safely in the trailer. She still didn’t like us getting close, but once we got to the ramp she climbed on in.
“She’s a smart thing,” I remark.
“Should be good for training once we can get her to realize she’s safe with us.” He nods. “Let’s get on home.”
We climb back in the truck and I have mixed feelings about getting home.
I don’t want to pass off my work, but I want to find my wife. That means I’m going to give the younger ranch hands the task of helping Murray get these two settled.
Pulling up to the house, Juliette’s truck is gone. She’s already gone to the bar for work, I missed her by hours.
I’ll shower and get over there to see her as soon as I can.
When I get in the house though I’m greeted by my dirty boots still sitting in the middle of the floor. Still surrounded by the dirt and a dried circle of salt from the snow melt.
Sighing, I grab the boots and toss ‘em out the door onto the deck so I can clap the dried mud off them later. Getting the broom, I clean up the mess they left behind before sanitizing the spot. There’s a ninety percent chance there was cow shit on those.
And I guarantee that contributes to her griping.
She’s always yelling at me to take them off outside and I never listen.
Why do I not listen?
Snapping a photo of the freshly cleaned spot I send it to Juliette before running upstairs to shower.
Only the sight I’m met with isn’t one I ever thought I’d see. Every one of her drawers is open and empty. I rush over to the closet to find the same. And the bathroom paints the same picture.
Juliette left.
Frantically I pull out my phone. I dial her number over and over. At least it’s ringing now so I know I’m not blocked.
So I switch to texting.
Me: Babe, where the hell are you?
I stare at my phone waiting for the three dots to appear, letting me know she’s going to respond, but they don’t.
Suddenly our home speaker system starts playing Same Old You by Miranda Lambert.
The chorus repeats over and over again, she is making her point.
I collapse onto the bed, staring out the window at the field as the song finally stops.
Fuck. I’ve really gotten myself into it this time.
I reflect on how we got here and the only thing I realize is that I can’t let her go.
She can’t leave me. I’d never survive, because I don’t know what life is without Juliette.
Who am I even without her? I hop off the bed and rush to the shower.
No man has ever won their woman back smelling the way I do.