Page 141 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

By 7:30 I’m in the barn office going through the updated access records when Benji knocks once against the open frame and waits. He has enough sense not to enter without being told, and enough experience with me to know exactly what my mood is from twenty feet away.

“Jake’s here,” he says.

I look up. “Good.”

Benji lingers just long enough to tell me he’s noticed something else. “You want me around?”

“No.”

He gives one short nod. “Alright.”

If he’s surprised, he doesn’t show it. Benji understands the difference between ordinary problems and the kind that need fewer witnesses.

Jake falls into the second category now. Whether he deserves that or not has become less relevant than the fact that he’s attached himself to too many of the wrong patterns for me to keep pretending coincidence is a viable explanation.

Jake steps in a moment later with his usual calm in place. Tablet in hand. Expression composed. Shirt sleeves rolled neatly to the forearms because he’s here to solve a practical issue rather than answer for one.

He takes the chair across from the desk without being invited.

I let him.

Sometimes it’s useful to see what people assume they’re permitted to do.

“You wanted to see me,” he says.

I sit back in my chair and study him before answering. Jake has always had the kind of confidence that works well on a ranch. It’s enough that people stop questioning him because doing so feels unnecessary.

I can see how that became habit. I can also see, more clearly now than I could six months ago, how habit becomes cover if no one presses on it hard enough.

“Yes,” I say. “I did.”

He nods once and waits.

Good. He knows enough not to start filling silence unless he has a reason.

I slide a printed entry log across the desk. “Walk me through this vendor approval.”

His eyes drop to the page. “This was for south side service access. Routine.”

“Routine for who.”

“Third party supply review.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

His gaze lifts back to mine. “It’s the category.”

“I can read the category, Jake. I want the vendor.”

He sets the page back down. “Barrow support route.”

Hmm. Just as I thought. “And what did they do on the property?”

He pauses just long enough to be measurable. “Reviewed staging access for equipment movement.”

“No work order attached.”

He shakes his head in irritation. “It was folded into another service packet.”