“We’re ready to go, boss,” said Clay, looking for Leland. Seeing him by the arena, where guests were excitedly mounting their horses, and Quint was steady and quiet as he helped them, Clay went up to Leland.
“You got a minute, boss?” he asked.
“Sure thing, Clay,” said Leland. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to say—” Clay had to stop to gather his thoughts, to make sure the words were lined up just right so it didn’t come out like he was whining, which he wasn’t. “I’m missing out on driving the team this time around, and it’s because I punched Eddie Piggot and I know that. But I wanted you to know—” Another hitching breath. “—that I’mreallymissing out. I love driving the team. I love everything about it and I hope you will put me on the roster for next time.”
“Of course I will,” said Leland. He even took off his hat and twirled it around his hand, so Clay knew he was really listening, really thinking about what Clay had just said. “I knew you enjoyed it, but not how much. Thank you for letting me know.”
With that, Leland hurried off to help Quint, and Clay walked back into the barn to clean up horse shit and old hay and to make the barn spick-and-span for when the next round of horses would need to be groomed, or if any guests happened to wander in.
As he picked up a pitchfork and opened the first box stall, he shook his head in some amazement. Austin had done him a solid favor. Of course, Clay had always known how to speak his mind. The trick was to get him to shut up sometimes. But to be honest in the way he’d just been? Had taken a nudge from a friend. Which he hoped Austin was, he really did.
12
Austin
Austin had to talk himself into buying blue jeans and cowboy boots, had to really work around the idea, as the clothes he had were perfectly serviceable and he didn’t need more clothes. And maybe he’d feel foolish wearing the boots when he really didn’t know the first thing about horses or how to ride. But after he’d met with Maddy and spent a good part of the day going over her books with her, he felt he might deserve a treat, as working with her had not been as easy as working with Leland.
“I like having physical receipts,” she said, showing him the various shoeboxes and accordion files where she kept them, stacked on top of the three black filing cabinets, which were stuffed to the brim with file folders, more receipts, and a shoebox of telephone pole glass insulators. “I can find anything I need to find and that’s a fact.”
“I realize you can, Maddy,” said Austin, keeping his tone reasonable. Wasn’t there a saying about leading a horse to water but being unable to make it drink? “But there’s more to it than that. What if the IRS wants to do an audit? How quickly could you hand over those records?”
“Quickly,” she said with a flip of her braid. “Very quickly, in fact.”
“And what if you were to win a million dollars and move to France—?”
“I wouldn’t move to France,” said Maddy in a way that told Austin she was being stubborn just to be stubborn. And maybe when she saw he knew this, she smiled. “Anyway, if I won the lottery, I’d move to Iceland or maybe Spain, not France.”
“The point is, Maddy,” he said, moving the catalog of office equipment toward her, which she’d closed only moments before. He flipped the catalog open to the page with the scanners. “We need to streamline so information can be quickly accessed by me, or by Leland, or by the IRS. You know where everything is, sure, but does Leland? Does Bill?”
“Bill couldn’t care less how I handle it,” said Maddy.
“Where is Bill?” asked Austin. “I’ve yet to meet him.”
“He’s doing the rounds with the hay and alfalfa dealers,” said Maddy. “It’s going to ruin your perfect record keeping because he does handshake deals, no contracts, no receipts, and only works with cash.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t mess with Bill, I’m telling you.”
“And I was told not to mess with you,” said Austin, throwing up his hands, frustrated. “Yet here I am.”
“And yet here you are,” said Maddy with a laugh, but somehow his offhand comment broke the ice between them and he could have a serious discussion with her about scanning receipts to store them in the cloud, while keeping only the previous month’s receipts in physical form.
“You’ll have much more room in your office without all these filing cabinets,” said Austin. “And more room to increase your display. This ranch goes all the way back to 1945, so there’s a lot of history to share. Wouldn’t you like more than a single glass-topped table, and a single wall of photos? You could display those telephone pole insulators, too. We could fill the entire half of this office with artifacts and photos, not to mention we could get you another leather chair and make it so guests could come in and put their feet up.”
“I guess I would,” said Maddy, looking at him as though she finally was listening. “I’ve got boxes in that closet that haven’t seen the light of day in years. It’d be nice to unpack them and show them off. I’ve even got a buffalo hide coat in there, packed in mothballs, did you know that?”
“No, I did not,” he said. “But I’m sure it’d make a fine addition. So let’s pick out a scanner, and get you set up. You’ll be in charge of the project, and I’ll only check in once in a while.”
“And go over my files,” she said. “Everything’s in order.”
“I’m sure it is,” he said. He pointed at the row of images of scanners in the catalog. “Now, how about this one? It looks pretty sturdy and the ratings are good.”
The meeting went on for another hour, and when he was done, he packed up his laptop and trundled over to the ranch’s store. There he told the clerk what he needed, what Clay had suggested he get. In about an hour’s time, he walked out into the sunshine with new, stiff-feeling blue jeans, a sturdy pair of brown cowboy boots, a straw cowboy hat, and his first ever pearl-snap button shirt. Mona would have had afit—
But who cared what Mona would have thought? All he wanted to know was what Clay thought, whether Clay would approve of his choices. He used to have to check in with Mona about what he wore to the office, donning bespoke suits she’d picked out for him, wearing tassel loafers she’d approved of. But this felt different.
