“Booked?” He sighed, and she could tell he was getting irritated. “Did you suggest what I told you to suggest, or are you being stubborn again?” He didn’t wait for her to respond before he assumed her answer. “See, this is why you aren’t advancing in your work. I’m telling you as a friend, Kat.” Kat rolled her eyes at that, but he wasn’t finished. “If you insist on being stubborn and folding like a pushover in every negotiation, you’ll never get anywhere in this industry. You’ve got to be aggressive, assertive, act like an?—”
“An alpha?” she finished for him. She’d heard this speech before, and she was tired of it. “I’m trying not to alienate our affiliates. You can’t always treat people with disrespect and expect them to keep working with you. We’ll lose everyone.”
“We won’t. And that’s why you’re the employee, and I’m the manager. You have no drive, no go-get-’em attitude. How do you expect to make it in the world if you aren’t willing to stand up for yourself?”
She had to unclench her teeth to answer. “I’m standing up for myself right now, in case you can’t tell. I refuse to be a jerk to the people who are good enough to work with us. That’s a terriblerelationship to build with anyone. Threatening people might work in the moment, but you’ll lose that talent long term. If you don’t know that, then you’ll find out the hard way.”
A vision of the ranch flashed through her mind, of her uncle teaching her the right way to feed a horse without getting her hand nibbled, of chasing chickens and running through fields at sunset. The romance of the past squeezed its way into the present and crowded her thoughts until she couldn’t hear her boss ranting anymore. Starting today, she had the chance to change her life. She didn’t have to hire someone to manage the ranch if she was willing to do it herself. The only thing standing in her way now was her job in Houston.
In an impulse she could barely control, Kat interrupted her boss with the words, “Actually, I quit.”
There was a beat of silence in which her boss seemed to be grappling with what he’d just heard. “What?” Apparently, an employee willingly walking away from this job was difficult for him to believe.
This was her chance to backpedal. She could laugh and claim it was a joke or insist he had misheard, but some deep, instinctive part of her didn’t want to. “I said, I quit. I resign. Whatever word you want me to use. I’m done. You make your own threats. I’m not doing it for you. I’m sure someone in the office has the list of contacts. I’ll be back to clear out my desk on Tuesday.”
“You can’t just quit,” her boss said after hemming and hawing for a bit. “You have to give notice.”
“I don’t, actually,” Kat said. “Only last month, you fired an employee and gave him no notice.Noticeis clearly not part of our ‘company culture,’ as you like to call it.”
“You won’t work in this industry again,” he said, which she knew was an empty threat. He didn’t have a good enough relationship with anyone else in the industry to dictate who they hired. But it didn’t matter.
“I’m changing professions,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. You don’t have time for it. You have to get this campaign moved up by the end of the weekend. Go ahead and do it your way. See how well it works.” And she hung up before he could take a breath to answer her.
CHAPTER 4
KAT
Kat barely slept that night, though she definitely gave it her best shot. She lay in bed and stared at the dark ceiling, going over and over her options, trying to convince herself she hadn’t made a massive mistake in quitting her job. Not only had she quit, but she’d burned that bridge for sure. There wasn’t a chance she’d get hired back after that phone call. She had a moment or two of panic that night. But in the end, she decided this was a cord that needed to be cut. Even if the ranch didn’t work out for her, she needed a change in her life. She needed to find a new place, one where she felt like she belonged.
On Monday, she drove all the way back to her apartment and started packing. Her apartment was a studio, so she didn’t have much to pack. What she couldn’t fit in boxes in the back of her car, she would hire movers to bring. She left a key with Jessie and asked her to let the movers in when they showed up.
Jessie’s response to hearing the story of what happened between Kat and her boss started with, “You didwhat?” and ended with, “Well, somebody had to say it to him.” In general, herother coworkers supported her just as much. They all felt the same about their manager and his unfriendly tactics, so Kat was hardly criticized at all.
On Tuesday, Kat got up at the crack of dawn and cleaned out her desk well before her boss typically showed up. She wasn’t in the mood to have any kind of confrontation with him, so she did her best to avoid it. When she was all packed, she said her goodbyes and left for the ranch. Leaving Houston behind was more sweet than bitter because, for the first time in a long time, Kat had that energizing hope that so often comes with big changes. She was actually giddy about the prospect of changing her whole life.
She recalled there being a cabin on the property, so she decided she would stay there for the night rather than booking another room at the B&B. From today onward, she would give all her energy, all her hope, and all her resources to the ranch. Kat was a goal-driven woman, and as soon as she had a finish line in sight, no single person could stop her from running toward it. Right now, that finish line was saving her uncle’s ranch. He’d entrusted the task to her, and she had no intention of letting him down.
She could not possibly have predicted how much harder than expected that would turn out to be.
Kat arrivedat the ranch in the early evening, pulling slowly up to a broken gate on a long, poorly maintained, gravel driveway. She got out of her car to tug it open and found it took all her weight just to move it a few inches. Didn’t Tony ever have to leave the ranch? Did he just grapple with this thing every time he came and went?
“That’s OK,” she told herself. “This can be fixed. No problem.” She got the gate open with great effort, drove her car through, and then closed it again with even more effort. She was sweating by the time she started toward the open door of the ranch’s one and only working barn. “I’m going to need to get in better shape for this job,” she said to herself with a laugh.
A gruff voice came from inside the building, “Oh, you won’t need to worry about a gym membership or anything like that. This place’ll whip you into shape real quick.” The voice laughed and a figure emerged from the barn. He was a tall, older man with a husky build, a week of stubble on his chin, and hair that was about seventy-five percent gray. He looked unreasonably friendly as he said, “Welcome to the ranch. You must be Katherine. Roy told me so much about you. I’m Tony.”
When he held out his hand, Kat shook it without really thinking. Only after letting go did she realize how dirty his hands were. She cleared her throat and tried to surreptitiously wipe her hands on her jeans while introducing herself. “You’ve got it right. I’m Katherine, but most people call me Kat. I thought I’d just jump in with both feet and get to know the ranch.”
Tony’s grin was wide and warm. “Well, little lady, I’m happy to show you around.”
“Great! I’m so excited,” Kat said, smiling back.
“I guess you found the barn, so we’ll start here,” Tony said. He led her into the darkness, and Kat stiffened up a bit.
This felt a bit creepy, if she was honest, though Tony wasn’t giving off any creepy vibes or red flags. She reminded herself of the kind of man her Uncle Roy was and how careful he was about who he surrounded himself with. He would never have left theranch to Kat with a dangerous man in charge of it. If she knew her uncle at all, he would have immediately fired any employee who displayed any kind of predatory behavior. “I guess we should get some lights in here,” she said, offhandedly.
Tony laughed. “You’re probably right. My eyesight isn’t the best, so I’ve kind of gotten used to not seeing everything clearly.” He showed her the horse stalls and told her they had one horse left. Then he showed her where the tools to clean up were kept, the hay to feed their sole horse, and the buckets they used to offer water, treats, or medication, usually hidden in the treats.
Kat pulled out her phone and started taking notes:Fix front gate. Repair lighting in barn. Paint barn. Repair stables.She would have to prioritize it all later. Right now, the most important thing was getting it all down.
