{Chapter 6}
Toni felt the muscles in her body grow rigid and she gripped her rifle with enough strength to make her knuckles turn white. A dark figure approached slowly, and for a moment she didn’t recognize him.
“Boss? It’s me, Erik” a deep voice said.
She lowered her gun. “Oh, for corn’s sake, McBride! Don’t scare me like that” she said.
“I’m sorry. I came to relieve you so you can get some sleep” Erik explained.
“It’s the middle of the night. You can go on back to bed. I’m fine” Toni plopped down on top of her saddle.
“Nothin’ doin’. I’m up now” Erik sat down beside her on the ground.
“Well, I ain’t goin’ back” Toni said with decision.
She wasn’t about to leave her herd to the likes of Erik McBride.
“Then we’ll stay up together” Erik took off his hat and put it on his knee, revealing that hat ring again even in the darkness.
They looked out over her herd of around 1,500 sleeping horses and the air was silent. Toni took the opportunity and decided to ask Erik some questions.
“Why do you believe in God?” She asked.
“How do you mean?” Erik seemed puzzled.
“I mean, either you can get through life on your own with no restraints or you can answer to the Big Man and suffer consequences when you do something wrong” Toni said. “The whole concept is a little twisted to me.”
“Twisted? Boss, God is more than some big man in the sky looking down at earth looking for someone that He can teach a lesson. There’s a whole lot more to Him than that” Erik said.
“Like what?” Toni asked, knowing he was probably going to go “preacher” on her.
“Imagine having someone always with you in life, willing to bear burdens that you don’t want to deal with anymore. Someone willing to help you when you got into a jam. Someone who-no matter what- promised to stay by your side for your whole life. Wouldn’t life be easier that way?” Erik asked.
“Yes, but there’s more than that. You have to dedicate your whole life to someone like that” Toni sighed.
“Well, He did send his Son to die the worst death imaginable just so we wouldn’t have to spend forever burning in hell. I think it’s the least we can do” Erik leaned back, bracing his arms behind him.
Toni shook her head and looked out over her herd. Not a word was spoken for a while, and Toni looked over to see if Erik had fallen asleep.
He was wide awake, looking over the herd in front of him. The full moon directly above them beamed down and shone off his deep reddish hair. He chewed on his lower lip and appeared to be in deep thought, but his eyes were too dark to reveal that.
Out here in the wide open of Texas you could nearly sort out your whole life in the peace and quite. A lonely coyote howled into the night but other than that not any other sound could be heard. Toni looked up at the sky just in time to see a shooting star.
“Did you see that?” She asked Erik.
He nodded. “I did.”
“Wonder what makes them do that?” she asked, folding her arms across her bent knees.
“I don’t know. Maybe some scientist’ll figure that one out” Erik said.
Toni smiled. She never put much stock in what educated people said. Seemed like they spent more time arranging their words in the proper order than thinking about what they were saying.
YOU ARE READING
The Boss Lady's Man
Romance"Look, Toni. Not everyone who comes into your life is there just to use you. Some people are there because they really do care about you" Erik's calmed voice only made her anger worse. "Why do you not trust anyone?" Toni lost it. She was tired of ho...
