“Hey, new guy.”
Looking up, Jamie saw Clay amidst the bustle of the dining hall. He was smiling as he came over, letting Jamie know he was being teased, but gently, which made a pleasant change from the guys at the meat packing plant. With Clay was another guy, slender and lanky, with messy hair and a casual walk.
“Can we sit with you?” asked Clay as he put his tray on the table.
“Of course,” said Jamie, terribly pleased to have been asked, to have the company. “I was hoping to see Leland to invite him to sit with us.”
“Oh no,” said Clay as he sat down. At his side, the other guy was shaking his head as he, too, put his tray down and sat. “Leland never sits with ranch hands. He usually sits with his team leads, and especially tonight, he’s got to mingle with the guests, make them feel welcome.”
“We had lunch together yesterday,” said Jamie before he could think about how it might come across as bragging. “I mean, maybe he was just making me feel welcome on my first day.”
“That’s probably it. He’s nice like that.” Clay shrugged as he began eating. Then he gestured at the other guy with his elbow. “This here’s Brody, he’s our horse wrangler. Brody, this is Jamie, our newest ranch hand.”
“Hi,” said Brody, without quite looking at Jamie, but not in a rude way. Maybe he was shy of strangers.
“What does a horse wrangler do?” asked Jamie. He crunched into his fried chicken, enjoying every bite.
“Uh.” Ducking his head, Brody scrubbed his hands with a napkin and nodded, like he was forming an explanation in his head and wanted to have it all ready before he started talking. “I’m in charge of choosing horses for guests, and for leading the horse procession each morning and the retreat at night.”
“Horse procession?” asked Jamie, feeling his eyebrows go up.
“That’s when we bring the horses down from the upper fields. They kind of race into the main corral and we make a big show of it. Guests love it.” Brody nodded. “I also work with Jasper to make sure the horses are all properly shod and in good health.”
“Jasper can shoe a horse like nobody’s business,” said Clay. He took a long swallow of his ice tea. “And there’s nothing on this ranch he can’t fix.” With a laugh he added, “Except maybe that stupid ice maker, which is always breaking down.”
“Everybody’s got so many skills,” said Jamie, trying to make a list in his mind as to what he could say his skills were, but other than cutting up hunks of raw meat, he came up blank.
Looking around the dining hall at the variety of guests, all smiling and talking, at the row of cowboy hats hanging on the wooden pegs along the wall, Jamie saw Leland come into the dining hall. He was with Jasper, who didn’t look too happy as Leland talked to him earnestly. They both hung up their hats on the pegs before getting in the buffet line, which moved quite briskly. Then, when they came out of the other end of the line, trays in hand, Leland went up to a table with a pair of older couples and smiled as he sat with them.
“See?” said Clay. “That’s part of his job. He sits with guests, mostly, but sometimes you get lucky.”
Clay winked at him, and Jamie pulled back, not really understanding what that meant.
“I guess I was lucky,” he said, buttering his cornbread with way too much butter to try and cover his own confusion.
“You have skills,” said Brody, somewhat unexpectedly into the small silence that fell. “Jasper told me you did a good job cutting the grass, at least before you collapsed.”
“Hey,” said Clay, jabbing Brody in the ribs as he snickered.
“I’m just teasing,” said Brody, smiling. There was a smile in his dark eyes, so Jamie knew he meant it. “Same thing almost happened to me my first week. What was it, beginning of last season? They lecture you about those dang coolers full of bottled water and snacks, so—”
He looked at Clay with expectation on his face and the two of them said together, “Always hydrate. Always take breaks.” Then they laughed and returned to their dinners, leaving Jamie realizing he’d been included in a long-standing joke, like he was one of the guys, part of the team.
Oh, this was nice, so nice, and so different from what his life had been like for the last two years. Maybe he could just stick that thousand dollars in the bank and work really hard and save up and go back to college. Maybe it would take him a year, maybe two, but at least now it felt possible, as long as he could work on the ranch to do it.
They ate their dinners together, with Clay making jokes while Brody smiled at his tray, as though unwilling to let on that he found Clay funny. Jamie ate slowly, and when Clay and Brody got up, he got up too.
“We’ve got to go help in the barn,” said Clay.
“What about me?” asked Jamie.
“You’re not on the roster till morning,” said Clay. “But you might go down to the office, if you’re up to it, and see if Maddy needs help greeting arriving guests. Handing out water, that kind of stuff.”
“Okay.” Feeling pleased with himself, his belly full, his shoulders relaxed, Jamie watched as they hurried off, then bussed his own tray, and went outside, clomping down the wooden steps in his sturdy new boots. He smiled as he got out of the way of guests who were too excited to be paying attention to where they were going, and started down the dirt road to the parking lot and the office.
From behind him, he felt a rush of movement, and a warm hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, Jamie, hold up.”
