Tamed and Free

Chapter 12: Gatlin

Gatlin made a pit stop, after she left her home, at her mama's. The driveway was so packed with cars, she couldn't get out for work. She walked into the house and saw her mama in the living room, watching Dog: The Bounty Hunter.

"Hey baby." Evelyn said, looking up at her youngest daughter, "How are you?"

Gatlin walked into the living room fully, "I'm good mama. I got to get to work though. Can Sara Beth's friends please move their cars so I can get out." She kissed and hugged her mama. "I do have someone I want you to meet though. We will get together this week, okay?"

"Okay baby. I just texted Sara Beth. She said they'll be out here in a minute." Evelyn motioned for Gatlin to sit down with her which she did so. "Tell me about him. What's his name? Where does he work? I saw him pull down there last night."

Gatlin had some time before these friends of her sister would come out of the room. "His name is Deacon Gibson. He's the McAnisters' nephew from Scotland. He is seventeen, a year older than me. He works at his uncle's feed shop. Mama, he's so sweet." Gatlin gushed over Deacon for a while. That is until she saw her ex boyfriend, Markus, came down the hall shirtless.

He stopped and flung his dyed black hair out of his brown eyes. "Oh hey Gat. You need me to move my car?"

She had such a high, she didn't realize that what was blocking her in was his midnight blue Ford Focus. "I do. Thanks." She hugged her mama goodbye and walked out the door with Markus.

He hadn't changed in those few years. Still has the longer, badly cut, badly dyed black hair with the neon colored raccoon tailed extensions, his skinny jeans falling off his butt, and his jelly multi colored spiked belt didn't help. Piercings all over his face, but he did work at the mall, Hot Topic to be exact.

As they were walking to their cars, Markus piped up, "How you been Gat? How is the apartment?"

"Good. I just gotta get to work." She hurriedly said.

"That's good." He ignored the work part of her words. "When are you inviting me over to the apartment."

She snorted. "When pigs fly." She jogged over to her Jeep and got in, cranking it up. A sign for him to move his car and she was done with that conversation.

He obliged and started his car. An Escape the Fate song blared through the stereo. He backed his car into the road. When Gatlin pulled out she stopped.

"Thanks. But-" She began to tell him to park in the back because Deacon needed to come out too.

"Listen Gat, we should go out sometime. Maybe a dinner and movie?" Markus tried shooting his shot. "We didn't work out when we were kids but maybe we can try again? I know you still like Chinese food right? There's a new restaurant in the mall we can try......" He rattled off.

They both saw Deacon pull up behind her. Markus was getting furious as Gatlin started smiling. He really was her knight in denim.

"Who is he?" Markus scorched out his mouth.

Gatlin went from looking at Deacon's truck to back at her ex. "Deacon, my boyfriend." She pulled the rest of the way into the road and continued to her job.

Gatlin worked at the Georgia iNC ranch as a help hand. She helped barrel hay and feeding the horses and cattle, cleaning their stalls, she's even helped fix a fence. The iNC stands for "in North Carolina" because the owner, Jim Howard, thought he was in North Carolina when he built it. She pulled her Jeep beside the stable, as she usually did. "Morning Jim. Morning Clyde." She called out as she jumped out with Beau right behind her, walking over to them.

Jim was getting papers in order for their morning meeting. Clyde, another help hand, was sitting on a flipped over bucket. They both said hey. "Now, we are waiting on Jenny, Jack, Bud, and Cap." Jim said as he petted Beau. "The others have their duties already." He was talking about the actual adults that he had working for him and not the teens to get something on their resume. He just never cared to refer to them by their ages.

Jim was an older cowboy type. Always wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. He once stood tall but now his age has him slouching more. The ranch had been his family for generations on top of generations. The town was built around the ranch. Jim loved keeping everything traditional too. But one rule of each generation is that they have to add something to the ranch. He added that he hired teenagers to give them something on their resume. His son, Allan, added that there was two different shifts: Teens do the later day chores, adults do the early day chores. And it works. Adults get to the ranch earlier and start the morning off, by the time the teens come most of getting everything started is done. Both age groups work till 3 and then the adults leave, all but Allan, and the teens finish the chores till seven pm.

Clyde was Jim's grandson. He looked exactly like his daddy, Allan, which looked exactly like Jim. So anyone could see that Jim was a looker back in his dad. Clyde, being sixteen, had honey brown eyes and perfect blonde hair. He was training to become the next horse breaker so he had the muscles.

Gatlin sat beside Clyde on a bale of hay. Jenny ran up, her deep brown hair following her. She sat beside Gatlin. "I heard something from the grapevine. I need to know if it's true." She grabbed Gatlin's arm in hers. "What's up with you and that McAnister boy?" Jenny's father was the mayor, so to her, it was her duty to know everything about everyone. She helped get the animals out and the horses exercised.

Gatlin smiled. "He's just a guy." Her face was flushed red.

Jack, Jenny's older brother, was right behind her. He found one of the actual chairs and dusted it off before he sat. Jack didn't want to work here but their dad told him this or military school so he chose this. "Have you let in your pants yet, cowgirl?" He mocked Gatlin.

"Hey. Uh huh. We don't do that here." Jim corrected him. Jack slummed down in his chair as Bud and Cap came up. They were eager to work. Jim gave them their job duties and what he expected to be done at the end of the day. And all of them went straight to work.

Gatlin started her day by bringing out Feather, a mustang stallion that was white with a wisp of red in his hair. After cleaning his stall, she always rode him around the ranch to work, which is what happened today, after she cleaned his stall and put his saddle on him.