Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 24180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
I don't know why I haven't fired her yet. For twelve years she's been bossing me around with her opinions on everything under the sun. Maybe it had something to do with the way she loved my son and the way he absolutely adored her.
"Don't you have animals to feed or something boy? You're getting in my way here, set and eat your breakfast and then head out. I think I'll get Emily to come on out a day early and give the house a run through. Can't have my baby embarrassed in front of his friends. Probably them beach types with their half naked selves. Lawd I hope my boy didn't become no heathen."
"For the...he went to Stanford University Sheils one of our nation's leading institutes of higher learning, not the damn jungle to hang out with the natives."
There’s no talking to her, once she gets something in her head she’s like a bull terrier. No matter where he’d gone off to school she would’ve found fault. I saved my breath and let her have her say.
"You watch your mouth Hawke Jameson cussing at an old lady; for shame." Oh today she's old; yesterday she was threatening to brain me with a cast iron skillet for tracking mud on her carpet. She had a few choice things to say about me and my lineage for taking her baby away, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before a hundred times.
I grabbed a quick bite and got out of her way. She didn't like people hanging around her kitchen except for Garrett of course. When he was home the two of them were thick as thieves and I was persona non grata. It would be fun to see how she dealt with his new friends, seeing as how she didn’t like to share.
The sun was scorching hot when I went out the back door. The smell of freshly cut grass mixed with the usual ranch scents of animals and curing hay tickled my nose as I made my way towards the corral, where Jed was already putting my training horses through their paces.
We'd come a long way since those lean early days. I’ll admit to not knowing what the hell I was doing back then. The ranch had been a dream of Janine’s. Something she never got to see.
I guess I did it out of respect for her memory as much as it was to raise our son somewhere away from the city.
I’d had a hell of a time those first few years. But with help from the neighbors and a whole lot of trial and error, I’d made it work. Now I had hands working for me to take some of the load off. The ranch had already paid for itself ten times over and was still doing well.
I'd given Garrett the opportunity to choose whatever it was he wanted to do in life. The fact that he'd made it into one of the country's leading schools was a thing of pride for me. In fact, quite a few people in our little ranching community had celebrated the occurrence with us.
That's what I'd wanted for him. Small town life where neighbors knew one another and shared in the joys and hardships alike of each other.
But I'd given him the freedom to choose his own way as a man. It was no surprise that my boy had done so well in school. Both his mother and I had held our own there too. But there was never any guarantee that kids would inherit their parents’ brain.
Nonetheless it did my heart proud that my boy has chosen to study veterinary science so that he could come back here and work with his old man and help run things. I thought for sure once he got a taste of life elsewhere he’d bolt, but so far his heart was still here.
"Hey Jed how's that mare coming along?"
"Not too bad boss, she's not as ornery this morning, only nipped at me twice." The young buck grinned as said mare snorted and flicked her tail at him.
I loved training horses, it was almost the same as training a high strung woman and bringing her to heel; not that I'd done much of that lately but a man could fantasize couldn't he?
The rest of the day went as was to be expected from life on a working ranch. There were animals to send off to market, some headed to other ranches for stud service, and the vet was in and out doing his thing.
The thought of old doc Simpson made me think of my boy and his vocation. Now I didn't have to worry about him living his life off somewhere out of reach. After his however many years of schooling he'd be back home where he belonged.