The Foreman and the Drifter Snippet

It’s a cowboy kind of day! I’m blazing along, getting my revisions done, and am very happy with my progress. To celebrate, here’s the snippet that made me cry the other day…for various reasons.

***

Leland took care of some paperwork, then grabbed his Carhartt jacket, along with some leather gloves, and headed out to the arena. There, ten horses were lined up, and guests were helping ranch hands to groom and saddle, though mostly it was the ranch hands doing the work while the guests flitted around with excited smiles and voices filled with expectation.

“Better bring out those yellow slickers, Mr. Calhoun,” Leland said, extra loudly, drawing out the o sound, as he pulled on his leather gloves and steadied his hat as though preparing for foul weather and maybe even the worst storm the ranch had ever seen. It was a bit of theatrics on his part for the benefit of the guests and, to his pleasure, and as he expected he would, Brody snapped to.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Tate,” he said, then gestured to the ranch hands to dash off for those slickers.
All of them, except Jamie, went into the barn where the slickers had already been piled up. They came back, their arms full, and carefully handed out a slicker to each guest, and to Jamie and Brody and himself.

As Leland helped guests tie their slickers to the back of their saddles, demonstrating what the leather strings on their saddles were for, he watched Jamie out of the corner of his eyes. He couldn’t help it, it was like he was drawn to him like a sighthound, hopelessly drawn to him.

Jamie helped Dorothy tie down her slicker and then tied down his own, but it was easy to see that Leland’s comments and theatrics had made her more nervous, which wasn’t right. With quick strides, he went over to her and Jamie and patted her horse.

“Ma’am,” he said, touching his gloved hand to his hat. “Jamie,” he said. Jamie looked at him like he’d just smacked him, which made Leland heartsore all over again. “You probably won’t need to use that slicker,” he said to Dorothy. “It’s just a precaution.”

“But will the trail get wet?” she asked her eyebrows high in her forehead. “Will the horse slip?”

Leland couldn’t imagine what grief she’d experienced having lost her husband, but he admired her for going back out into the world and trying something new and different. She might be nervous but she’d not stepped out of the ring. It was Leland’s job to reassure her that all would be well.

“You’re smart to be thinking about these things, Dorothy,” Leland said, focusing his attention on her. “It it probably won’t rain, but if it does, we’ve got the slickers. The trail we’re riding along is mostly flat, except for a small rise that we go over to get into the valley bottom. Besides.” He gestured with his gloved hand to Jamie, standing close by. “Jamie will ride with you, keep you company. Dusty, the horse he’s riding, is the steadiest of all the horses being ridden today. And you already know Travelle is sweet as sugar, and will take you there and back again, quite safely. Now, can I give you a leg up?”

“Jamie,” she said as she reached out and touched his arm. “He makes me feel safe.”
The last thing Leland would have expected, upon first meeting Jamie, was that an older, widowed woman would turn to him for assistance. There was something he’d done or said to make this good connection with her and it was something Leland heartily approved of. That was the kind of behavior that made a new rider feel safe. Made a good ranch hand. Made a good man.

Leland watched as Jamie stepped close and helped her mount Travelle, then kept watching, like some kind of fool with nothing else to do. Jamie double checked that Dorothy’s yellow slicker was security tied on, then patted Travelle’s neck, talking softly to Dorothy all the while.
Leland wanted to step close and hear his words, wanted to do something then and there to make a difference—any difference—where he wouldn’t have to feel like a complete asshole in all of this. But that was his burden to bear.

***

PS: I walked around for a few days, going Better bring out those yellow slickers, Mr. Calhoooooooooun, making myself laugh and laugh. It kind of reminded me of the time Bill said, This is the story of OOooooooooold Joe, and I said that over and over, too.