“You won’t,” Leland said. “But you’re to rest now, and I mean it. You don’t want me to tell Maddy you weren’t following orders, do you?”
“No,” said Jamie with a little laugh.
There was a small smile in those green eyes of his, as though he was amazed that anyone would worry so hard about him. Well, Leland was worried and, at the same time, he was a little amazed he felt so strongly about it.
What if he’d not been riding Beltaine on his way to the parking lot to greet the arriving guests? What if he’d not paused on the rise on the road above the fire pit? Life on the ranch was full time work, hard work, from sunup to sundown. Jamie was a city boy through and through, and so Leland had stopped to check on him, and considered it lucky he had.
The other question was: why this one? Why was he so affected by Jamie when there were a dozen or more young men, cowboys, ranch hands, staff, who were capable and hard working—but no, this was the one who drew his eye and his attention, stirring up his heart, making him want to take care of him.
“Now,” said Leland. He pointed at the as-yet untouched tray. “Start eating so I can faithfully report back to Maddy that I saw you eat.”
“Okay.” With a smile Jamie picked up the BLT and took a bite and his entire body seemed to sigh with contentment. After he’d eaten half the sandwich and some of the strawberry-rhubarb pie, he settled back in his pillows.
“So how did you end up on the road, Jamie?” Leland asked, figuring that this quiet moment between them was a good time to get some of his questions answered. “I know you came from a meat packing plant, but what made you leave there?”
“Well, the guy I told you about.” Jamie polished off the rest of his pie in three quick bites and scrubbed at his mouth with his forearm. “He kind of impressed me when he was talking about his cows. Kind of reminds me of you.” A quick flush raced across Jamie’s face as he scraped his hair back. “But part of it was I was tired of the guys I shared a place with. They’d spit in my cereal and lied about whether I paid the rent. The foreman at the plant always believed them over me, so I left there and came here.”
“And before that?” asked Leland, now, doing his best to keep a rein on his temper about abusive bosses.
“I worked at a bodega on Colfax for a while, and before that, I worked at a bookstore.” Jamie looked at him carefully, as though wondering what Leland might make of his journey.
“And before that?” asked Leland, thinking there must be more to Jamie’s story, as he was too smart and too hard working to have ended up drifting without a good reason.
“Well, my folks got divorced about two years ago, and there was no more money for me to go to college.” Wrinkling his nose, Jamie looked down and brushed the crumbs from his t-shirt. “And I know you’re going to ask, so I’ll just tell you. I don’t know they got divorced because I told them I was gay, but sometimes I think that was why. Neither one of them wanted me to live with them after that.”
“Oh, Jamie—”
“I had to leave the meat packing job,” Jamie said with a gulp. “So I bought a Greyhound bus ticket as far as it would take me.”
“Which was to Farthing,” Leland said, slowly.
“And I guess you don’t want gay guys working on your ranch any more than you want drifters.”
“That’s not true, not true at all,” said Leland. Where only seconds before his heart had started tightening up, now it expanded, both with fury at such unfeeling parents and a sense of wonder that Jamie had done so much on his own. “Nobody on this ranch tolerates any kind of discrimination, understand? Besides.” Leland put his hand on his heart. “I’m gay, and I run the place.”
At Jamie’s astonished expression, Leland nodded, pleased to have gotten the message across. But, at the same time, should he have opened that particular door?
“Listen,” he said, standing up. “I need to go down and greet guests, but I’ll check on you later,” he said “Feel better, okay?”
“Thank you, Mr. Tate,” Jamie said, looking at him, his hands fiddling with the sheets. “I feel better already.”
“Good,” Leland said. “And it’s Leland. You hear?”
With a nod, Leland left and shut the door behind him. And stood there for a good long minute, feeling a bit relieved that all was going to be well but not understanding anything about why he kept thinking about Jamie the way that he was. Regardless of the fact Jamie was gay, he was off limits. Those were his own rules, and he needed to stick to them.
Slowly, his heart doing unexpected things in his chest, he walked back down to where Clay waited with Beltaine. Mounting up, he settled his shoulders and lifted his chin. Week two was getting underway. He needed to greet the guests with a smile and make sure they knew they were going to have a very good time at the ranch and that their money was well spent.
11
Jamie
When he woke up, Jamie took a quick, hot shower, dried off and got dressed as fast as he could. Slugging down two more ibuprofen with the rest of the bottled water, he bemoaned his lack of a cell phone to tell him what time it was. Was he going to be late for dinner, or too early? And how was he going to get another hat? All the ranch hands had hats, and Leland was probably going to be pissed that his brand new straw one was lying in pieces in the newly shorn grass near the fire pit. He’d have to get a new hat before Leland noticed.
Pounding down the stairs of the staff quarters, he raced through the trees to the dining hall. The front porch was busy with activity, with ranch hands standing to one side while the guest got in line for the buffet. Everybody looked happy, and the air was filled with excited chatter.
Going to the very end of the line, he relaxed his shoulders. He wasn’t too late, so that was one problem solved. Odors of salt and fried onions and good strong coffee floated out of the open double doors. The ibuprofen was kicking in, too, and he didn’t feel sick or too hot.
When it was his turn at the buffet, he picked up a tray and loaded his plate with fried chicken and cornbread, and carried everything to the nearest table, plunked it down, and began to eat. But, being more aware, he ate at a more sensible speed than he had the day before, pacing himself rather than shoving it in. Life was looking good. He had a job, a place to sleep, food to eat, and a thousand bucks hidden beneath the underwear in the top drawer of his dresser.
