“I could teach you,” he heard himself say, which surprised him into a momentary silence. But a brief glimpse of an imagined scene where he spent time with her specifically to teach her to whistle was enough to spur him on. “It’s not so hard, once you know how.”
“You want to teach me to whistle?” She scoffed and gave him a wry look. “Is that part of the package here at the ranch?”
He shrugged. “Could be. Could also just be our thing. Might help you out when you graduate to the advanced chores on the ranch.”
“Advanced chores? Hmm.” She tilted her head at him. “What are remedial chores?”
Ryan sniffed and looked out at the dark fields. “Picking up rocks. Hands down.” He cocked a crooked grin her way and started backing toward the screen door. “Welcome to the ranch, Talia. And if you’re in the mood for pie, you’re welcome to join us.”
She waved a hand, smiling at him in return. “Thank you, but you go ahead. Enjoy your friends, I don’t want to impose.”
“Not an imposition. It’s an invitation. And it’s always there. But if you’re against being around people, I’ll make sure there’s a spare piece for you in the fridge. Come get it after we leave. I won’t tell,” he added in a loud whisper as he reached the door.
Her smile lit something within him, and it zinged something down his left leg as he reached for the screen door, entering the kitchen again. “Okay, who wants pie?”
Picking up rocks was the worst thing Talia had ever done, and she’d had a decent chunk of miserable chores as kids.
This beat them all.
It was easy enough to do, but wandering the fields up and down over and over again just to get rocks had to be a form of torture the government had considered inhumane and done away with. She had rocks of all sizes in her bucket, and she wanted to dump them all back onto the ground. Caleb, her foreman of sorts for the day, had told her which sorts of rocks could stay and which had to go. Most of the time, she wouldn’t have to dig at all and could just pick up a rock and toss it in. Other times, the rocks were large enough and stuck out enough that she had to pry them out with her fingers.
Texas was dry and flat, and there was no other way to describe it, which meant working the rocks out was annoying in the extreme.
She had a trowel in the strange holster of sorts she’d been given, along with gloves and a little baby rake, but she had so far refused to use it.
Why in the world hadn’t someone invented a machine for this?
She reached the edge of the field, as marked by the fence, and stopped, shaking her head. “Five,” she muttered, counting the number of passes she had made. She turned to her left, took one measured step forward, then turned to face the field and began to walk again.
Torture. No other word for it.
Still, it was better than sitting in her room at the homestead doing nothing. At least she was guaranteed a time limit so she could attend her first session of group therapy before lunch. She’d briefly met the other ladies yesterday when they’d come in from their chores and tasks, but they’d hurried to head into Lost Creek, and she had opted to stay at the homestead, intending to call it an early night.
That hadn’t happened, as she had sat by the fireplace she’d been so fascinated by and then moved out to the porch to stare at the night sky, but she didn’t regret that, either. The stars had been incredible, unlike anything she had ever seen. If it was as clear tonight, she fully intended to put shoes on and walk out to really see them, maybe even lay on the ground to look up at them.
And then there had been Ryan.
She had been awkward and embarrassed, feeling like an intruder in someone else’s home, but Ryan had immediately put her at ease. His jokes needed work, but they had made her smile, which was kind of a big deal. He had to be used to having guests roaming in and out of the homestead, but it had meant a lot that he had gone out of his way to say hi.
And true to his word, he had saved a piece of pie for her, which had tasted amazing at 11:35, when she went to get it.
She hadn’t seen him yet today, but she was curious to see what it was he did on the ranch. This huge ranch that seemed never ending and was way more impressive than she’d thought when she arrived. She was so far from the homestead house out in this field that she’d never make it back without getting lost, and the fact that this place was that large baffled her. She was the only one on rock duty today, which might have been a hazing ritual, but she had signed up for irrigation maintenance for the afternoon, which no one else had picked.
There might have been a reason for that, but Talia didn’t know enough to say no.
Ryan was in charge of the ranch part, she knew that much, but what did all that mean?
She’d heard some of the conversation at the dinner the night before, mostly about rodeo, but she didn’t know what any of it meant or who the other men had been. None of this was any of her business, but she was curious just the same.
“How you doing, Talia?” Caleb called, riding up on his horse, grinning like she was doing something amusing.
“Great!” She held up a thumb, but made a face.
She could hear his laughter as he neared her, and he thumbed back his hat just enough that his face was clearer. “Yeah, this isn’t anybody’s favorite chore. Except for one lady a few months back who was really OCD. This was her happy place, and the fields just have not been the same since she left.”
“Maybe she should be hired on,” Talia suggested blandly, swinging her bucket beside her. “Might solve your problems.”
“Don’t think I haven’t suggested that,” he told her with another laugh. “How’s it coming?”
Talia exhaled and looked around the land. “I’ve just started my sixth pass. I think I figured out which rocks need to go. Can I ask you a question, though?”
He nodded once. “’Course.”
“Why am I doing this?” she asked point blank, one hand going to the base of her neck.
“Because chores build character and give structure,” he recited like a well-practiced parent. “Daily satisfaction with your work does a lot for your mind.”
Talia fought a smile. “Yeah, I get the idea behind the chores, and I fully support that. I meant, why am I clearing rocks from a field? Why is anybody clearing rocks from a field?”
Caleb stared at her for a second, then threw back his head on a loud laugh. “Sorry, ma’am, I’m so used to guests complaining about working at the ranch before they’re used to it that I don’t even think about it anymore.” He cleared his throat and pointed to his left, Talia’s right, to the area she hadn’t gotten to yet. “So you see how about twenty yards away, there’s some decent-sized rocks?”
“Uh-huh, and plenty of little ones.” She shielded her eyes, looking more closely. “It makes the ground a little … unsightly, but is that the problem?”
“Not unless we’re having a photoshoot,” Caleb retorted with a chuckle. “No, the issue is that our horses or cattle can turn an ankle on those, and while that sounds minor to you or me, the ankles on horses and cattle aren’t as easily healed. It can be pretty bad, so we tend to make sure every pasture gets a turn getting cleared. Then there are the fields for planting, where the rocks cause other issues, so … Basically, however you look at it, rocks on the ranch are bad.”