ROCK CANDY RANCH

Swing Out Sister

Seth kept a loose hold on the reins of his own horse while he stood and watched Jane saddle up Patsy...  She wasn't lying. She did have experience.  She checked for burrs, applied the blanket and saddle, tightened the straps, adjusted the stirrups for her height.

After double-checking that everything was secure and comfortable, she checked the horses shoes, for embedded rocks or debris.

Jane then walked around while stroking the horse's haunches and watched it's eyes blink at her in acknowledgement.   It huffed a bit and stepped into her space, nosing her palm.  Jane could only oblige and stroke her some more.  

"She's a sweetheart.  Wish I had an apple for her."

Seth couldn't help but smile unbidden at her joy. "Ready to mount up?"

Jane merely turned to the horse, and asked her...

"Ready Patsy?"  The horse nickered but remained steady.

Jane placed a gentling palm on it's back and the other on the saddle horn. She gave one more testing tug and then smoothly stepped into the stirrup, gracefully hauling her own bodyweight over the left side of the saddle, and settled in, properly straddling the horse... She then pet it whispering... "...good girl..."

Seth cocked his head to the side and squinted an up and down look, impressed and amused by this.  He licked his lips and sucked his teeth before mounting his own horse, a shiny maned black mare called Sable.

Jane mounted Patsy ably enough, but Seth could tell it had been awhile... She held the reins too-tight for a bit, before forcing herself to loosen up her grip. Seth sidled up beside her on Sable and watched her closely. She was relaxing just enough...allowing her hips to roll with the canter of the horse instead of trying to force it.

"You good?" he asked. She nodded in reply.

"Alright, then I'll lead the way, show you some of the rest of the acreage."

◘

Seth thought of his life as a blessed responsibility.  Being the caretaker of the family lands and bearing the well-being of so much of the beauty of creation; plant, animal, and human. He was old-fashioned that way.

The tangibility of it both invigorated and kept him settled.   He wondered at his elder brother's capacity for leaving this place.  In his mind, much of expected modern life killed something of what man evolved for.

Muscle corded naturally on his body, not from some stuffy gym, but from real honest hard work.  He knew how to build most things with his hands- had overseen and helped build many of the buildings on this land, in fact.  He'd reached elbow deep into a mare and pulled new life out of her one morning so cold, frost clung to his eyebrows. He'd also looked many a buck in the eye before taking it's life, the meat going to his neighbors and friends, with nary a speck of the creature wasted nor unappreciated.

But one thing was missing...

A family to share this with. Oh, he'd had his fun as a younger man, the local girls were eager to tussle with the good-natured, and exceedingly handsome rancher.   But then...  

Kendra happened.

In his early twenties, a little bit after his father passed on and his brother set upon another path... He set his sights on a local girl, one quarter Ojibwe, long, tall and pageant pretty, with shiny black waves and  striking hazel eyes, who was known as the most desirable woman in those parts.   She was fifteen years older than himself and rumored to be engaged to the son of an oil magnet. He, like all others in the area who appreciated a pretty woman, had had his eye on her for years, but he'd always thought she was well beyond him.

At the yearly Black Cherry Festival, he danced with her and she'd finally let him in, he thought. And things got intense rather quickly.  The thrill of sneaking around behind her fiance's back making their liaisons all the the more heedy.  He naively thought things would progress to a point where she would realize what a mistake a life commitment to this old man would be.  She took his heart, used it up, and crushed it when she was through.

He was just one last adventure for her before she settled in as a trophy housewife.

In the end, it turned out her husband had even known about the liaisons, quipping about how they'd shared in experiencing her sexual prowess in a local shop a little bit after they'd married. If Seth had been a lesser man, they'd've fought, right there in old Manny's Store.

Shortly thereafter she'd married that man, and they moved into a McMansion in Missoula.

He'd scarcely glanced at another woman after that, until this pretty out-of-towner showed up, with those big amber-brown eyes and even bigger hair of hers.

◘

When he first saw her, in her unused work clothing, with that all-too-familiar caught look on her face --the local girls loved watching him work-- he found himself struck by her uncommon-around-here beauty in a way he hadn't felt in a good long while. 

But having had his heart broke made him wary and untrusting.  Knowing what she could do to this place, with her work and vast audience of readers, there was none' to it but to make certain she didn't become the trouble that initial spark of attraction warned she would be.

Ray Cressie's niece...  The man could be tricky.   They had spoken extensively about the troubles with the Ranch.  Year after year, it was getting tougher to keep the books balanced.  Ray had said that it might be worth considering opening up the ranch to a wider pool of folks.

He had read some of Jane's articles, but hadn't thought to look up her photos.  He assumed she'd be a younger and just as plain, female version of Ray.  He was a good bit wrong on that account.

He didn't know what drove him to show her the wild horses, they'd rounded up... Well, he did, but it was best not to entertain it.  He'd only keep an eye on her for Ray's sake; keep up his end and send her on her way.

Presently, he watched her from the corner of his eye, as she demonstrated just how strong her core was, on the mare he'd chosen for her with a no longer low estimation of her way in the outdoors.