1. Jake #2
“Excellent,” Lucas said. “And here’s Jake Colter to take care of you.”
Once again, Dalton’s attention turned to me, and I was gawping and drawing air like a fish at the bottom of a boat, hooked and landed.
Mentally, I took a step back. I caught my breath and steadied myself, because the last thing I needed was to be affected by someone who would be gone in a few days.
“It’s nice to meet you at last, Mr. Colter,” Dalton said. He looked up at me with the biggest damn eyes. If I didn’t hold on, I might fall in.
I focused on shaking his hand. He had a good, strong grip, though his skin was soft from office work. I couldn’t blame him for that. After all, he’d chosen his path, an indoor life, like I had chosen mine. An outdoor one.
“Call me Jake.” If the words came out like I was holding back a shout, nobody remarked on it.
“Is that short for Jacob?” he asked. Being amiable, because of course he would be, given that he was Lucas’ friend and all.
“No, sir,” I said, again short. Terse. Nobody had cared enough to give me a full name, like I wasn’t worth the time to fill out a birth certificate all the way. But Dalton didn’t need to know that. Nobody did. My past was my past, and it stayed there, for the most part. “Just Jake.”
“Hello, then, just Jake,” he said, making a joke of it, though in those eyes, those summer-sky-blue eyes, I imagined I saw a hint of something. Maybe dislike. Or distrust.
Right up front, he didn’t seem to care for me or the ranch, because his glance around him drew sparks in the air.
Well, he was a city boy after all, and this couldn’t be helped.
The ranch was the most beautiful place in the whole wide world, and if he couldn’t see that, it was his loss.
And if he didn’t think much of me, perhaps the feeling was mutual.
“Jake’s going to take you guys into town,” Lucas said, jovial.
Inviting. “And Jake, will you take your phone this time?” Before I could answer, he winked at the two teenagers and seemed to include Dalton within a small, being-in-the-know circle.
“Jake here has an old flip phone that barely texts and that he refuses to carry with him anyway.”
I opened my mouth to justify my preference to remain disconnected as much as possible, but before I could utter a single word, Dalton said quietly, “I have my phone.”
“Good, good,” Lucas said, clapping Dalton on the shoulder again. “I have to get back to it, but Jake here will take care of you. I’ll see you all at dinner.”
Dinner was a ways off. Plus, there were a good number of hours between me and my head landing on my pillow while the utter silence and lack of movement drew me into sleep. As for now, I took them to bunkhouse four and entered the code.
“You can change it,” I said, though I didn’t see much point in anyone doing that. All the codes were the same, and nobody had ever stolen anything anyway.
The bunkhouses were on the small side, wood inside and out.
They each had a small bathroom at one end and a kitchenette, complete with a microwave and hot plate, at the other.
Cupboards held cups and a kettle, that sort of thing.
The idea was that folks would eat in the dining hall, but they could pop popcorn or make instant coffee whenever they wanted.
In the middle were a pair of bunk beds on one side and a single bed on the other.
“Here you go,” I said. “You can leave your stuff and use the bathroom or whatever. I’ll be waiting by my truck. It’s yellow.”
I patted my pocket and gestured to my old seventies-era truck that was in the parking lot, just beyond where Dalton’s blue car sat.
“Her name is Daybreak,” I said and waited for the teasing to start. I was used to it, but if it went too far, then all three of them could walk the five or so miles to the highway that led into town.
Oddly, it didn’t.
“Can we ride in the back?” Dillon asked when they came out of the bunkhouse and over to where I was. Cameron nodded his agreement with this plan.
“Is it safe?” Dalton asked. He scanned the truck like maybe he disapproved of her, but she was yellow, with a bench seat and four on the floor, and she was fully broken in and all mine.
“She’ll carry you like you were a basket of eggs,” I said with a bit more passion than I had intended.
“I’ll ride with them,” Dalton said. “To keep an eye out.”
That was fine by me. I could enjoy the silence of the truck’s cab and pull it around me to keep with me while we went boot shopping.
“Sounds good,” I said, drawing out my key ring. “Hop in.” I got the feeling that the boys were a little wild and had been a handful on the drive to the ranch, but apparently nothing Dalton couldn’t deal with.
I’d go slow, of course I would. And I’d do my best to avoid the bumps and ruts along the dirt road to town.
I wouldn’t check in the rearview mirror to make sure they stayed in the truck bed, though.
That was Dalton’s job. Mine was to drive them there, flash the credit card at the appropriate time, and drive them back again. That was all.
One thing at a time. One step at a time. I would make it if I kept that in mind.