like a chicken with its head cut off. He’s bouncing between making sure people are learning something and keeping everyone safe and keeping them entertained. Honestly, I don’t know how he does it.”
Garrett looked back at me, and an expression I could only read as being impressed crossed his face. “Really?” he asked.
“Is it that crazy?” Hugh asked.
I took a deep drag of the beer and belched loudly, drawing a laugh from Hugh and Garrett and a disgusted sound from Annabelle.
“It’s all right,” I said.
“What is it you have them do?” Hugh asked. “The only Dude Ranch I ever saw was in that movie City Slickers. That Billy Crystal fella is funny as hell in that movie.”
“Well, it’s kind of like that, actually,” I said, not mentioning that I knew for a fact how funny Hugh found Billy Crystal since Annabelle and I had watched that movie with him at least a dozen times in the years since we were kids. “People come from all over the world to hang out on the ranch.”
“All over the world?” Garrett said, cocking his eyebrow.
“Yes. The world. There was this one couple who came over from Paris just for the Dude Ranch. They grew up watching American western movies and wanted to experience what it was like. They were so enamored with John Wayne, I just let them dress up like him and quote lines back and forth the entire time they were working.”
“You put them to work?” Hugh asked, laughing.
“I do, and they love it. Hand to God, they love it. They might screw up occasionally and make a mistake I might have to fix, but that’s outweighed by how much they get done. Hell, I had one of the advanced tours drive cattle for us.”
“I didn’t know you taught AP Cowboy there, professor.” Garrett snickered.
“I might as damn well,” I said. “It’s not easy. Some of these folks have never even seen a horse up close, and I teach them to ride and work. And they pay us for the privilege.”
“Paris? French people came over to be cowboys?” Hugh mused. “I never.”
“There’s been a bunch of people from around the globe too. Canadians, Scotsmen, Irish folk, even these two middle-aged sisters from Australia. They came over and had all these stories about three-foot spiders and drank all the boys there under the table. They were wild. I barely had to teach them anything, but they seemed to have the time of their life just working on the ranch. Then, there’s all the folks from around the USA. I had this hippie-looking guy from Oregon come down by himself, said he wanted to work in the dirt for a while. Turns out he’s this billionaire software developer.”
“A billionaire software developer wanted to come and muck out horse stalls?” Annabelle asked.
“He did,” I said. “Wore shirts made of hemp while he did it. Damndest thing I ever saw.”
“I’m glad you seem to be happy,” Hugh said, clinking his water glass against the beer can.
“I am,” I said. “It’s the perfect job for me, really. I can run the Dude Ranch and teach people about our life out here, and show off our beautiful land, and then when they go home, I pitch in as best I can with the chores.”
“Like washing dishes?” Annabelle asked.
Very calmly, I picked up one of the gloves I had been wearing and threw it at her. She ducked, giggling, and it sailed over her head.
“What?” Garrett said, confused.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Okay,” Garrett said, smiling confusedly and shaking his head.
“He pitched in with the ladies washing dishes,” Annabelle said.
“Keep talking and see if I help out again,” I teased.
“No, it’s a good thing,” she said. “You are a good influence on your brother.”
“Sawyer,” Garrett said, looking at me with a serious expression, “we have got to get you a girlfriend.”
Very calmly, I grabbed the other glove and tossed it at my brother’s head.
Chapter 4
Jane
“So, are you girls all packed up and ready?” Dad asked over breakfast Wednesday morning.
I picked up a piece of bacon and bit into it, my eyes sliding over to my sister. Neither one of us had even had our luggage brought to our rooms. Rather than putting any effort into packing and getting ready for this god-forsaken trip our father had planned, we devoted our time and energy to trying to convince him not to go at all.
Since Sunday night when he first dropped the bomb on us that this was what he wanted to do