The tall doors to the barn opened, and out stepped Leland Tate, drawing Jamie’s eyes to him with a hard snap. Leland’s blue jeans were tight on his long legs, his flannel shirt with pearl-snap buttons as crisp as though he’d ironed it that morning before putting it on.
Leland started talking to an older guy and two other men. Then he scanned the crowd as if to see who had shown up, and Jamie froze. The day before, throwing up everything he’d eaten, with everybody watching, had left him feeling like he’d crawled through a bush backwards, all sweaty and gross. Leland hadn’t seemed to mind that and had been nicer about it than Jamie had expected. That would end, of course, when he remembered Jamie was a drifter that someone named Bill had made him hire, and not someone who’d gone through official channels.
Turning his attention back to the small group of men, Leland took off his hat to scrub at his hair. As the sun came through the trees, it sparkled in Leland’s hair, turning it to bright gold.
He was really quite gorgeous, all blue eyed and broad shouldered, but his expression seemed to change from easy going to hard-assed in under a minute when lifted his head and looked right at Jamie. But instead of hauling Jamie out of the crowd to holler at him for being late, he merely nodded, put on his hat, and continued talking to the men.
Jamie exhaled a breath and rubbed his arms, hopping from foot to foot to get warm, even as he noticed that as the sun got higher in the sky, it got warmer, and was getting warmer, bit by bit. Maybe he should have worn that long-sleeved shirt like Leland had said, but it was too late to go back for it now.
The air was fresh and so clean it hardly seemed real. In the distance, he could hear horses whinnying, and birds singing, the nearby sound of a creek running. It was all pretty amazing, and he smiled to himself, glad, after all, that he’d bought that Greyhound bus ticket.
The woman from the day before, Maddy, came up to Leland and handed him a clipboard. Then Maddy whistled for everybody to be quiet, and listed the plan for the day, the times when guests were arriving, where they would need their luggage taken to, and who was responsible for what.
There seemed to be a lot of prep work to be done before guests even started arriving that day. Feeling a little lost as the information came at him, Jamie figured he’d be put to work doing the most miserable of tasks. He wasn’t high on the ladder, so that only made sense. He just hoped what he was asked to do wasn’t truly horrible.
One by one, the ranch hands got their assignments and walked away from the group till only Jamie stood by himself. He thought for a wild second Leland would come up to him and say something about what he wanted Jamie to do, but he’d already gone into the barn with Maddy and the older guy.
Jamie stood there alone, his arms criss-crossed over his chest, halfway on his way to shivering again, wondering what he should do.
“Hey,” said Clay, coming up to him with a smile. He was dressed like all the ranch hands had been, in a crisp button-down shirt, his hair tidy beneath his straw hat.
“Where’d you come from?” asked Jamie.
“From the barn,” said Clay, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “I have your assignment for the morning, you’ll be pleased to know.”
“I am pleased,” said Jamie, and he meant it. He would feel more settled once he got to work, he just knew it.
“We need to have the area around the fire pit scythed clear,” said Clay. “Cutting the grass away from the area keeps it a little more bug free. Plus, we don’t want the fire leaping into the grass and setting everything ablaze when Bill tells his ghost stories. You see?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll take you there now,” said Clay as he started down the road. “Jasper is waiting with the scythes. Do you know how to use one?”
“No,” said Jamie, following. “But I can learn. I’m a fast learner.”
“Good. He’s tough, but he’ll take good care of you.”
They walked beneath the group of trees alongside the road, the cool air making Jamie shiver. Clay looked at him and shook his head, and it was easy to see he figured Jamie already realized he should have worn that shirt. But maybe for today, it would be okay.
When they arrived at the dining hall, Clay stopped and pointed over a low field where the fire pit was. A dark-haired man wearing overalls and a straw hat was waiting with two long poles with shiny curved blades on them.
“Just go on down,” said Clay. “Jasper will show you how to use the scythe, okay?”
“Okay,” Jamie said, his voice faint in his ears.
The scythes looked heavy, and he didn’t know if his shoulder and ribs could take it. But he couldn’t very well say no, not when Jasper might go complaining to Leland about Jamie’s lack of cooperation. Which really wasn’t fair, as nobody on the ranch seemed to be the same type of people he’d worked with at the meat packing plant. He needed to give people at the ranch a chance, just like Leland had given him a chance.
The fire pit was a wide, flat area that overlooked a slope that led down to a road, and from that, a river. Tall, wheat-looking grasses grew high around a large, rock-lined pit that held a thin layer of ash. Hay bales and old logs were ringed around the fire pit, and it looked like it would be a cozy place to gather and tell stories.
As Jamie walked through the grasses to the fire pit and over to where Jasper was standing, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was about to mess something up, and almost turned around and walked back to the barn to ask for different work. Except he’d already been seen by the glower-eyed, black-haired Jasper, who held a scythe cradled in his arms like he was some old west version of the grim reaper.
“You here to do this?” Jasper asked, almost grunting the question.
“Yeah,” Jamie said.
“Yeah?” Jasper asked, his dark blue eyes glaring.
“Yes, sir, I’m here to help,” said Jamie quickly. Then he pointed to the wicked-looking blade, not quite wanting to touch it. “I’ve never used a scythe before, though. Can you teach me?”
