Cowgirl Boots

Chapter One

The wind blew through my car's open windows as I drove down the highway. Taking my eyes off of the road, I gazed out at the mountain landscape past the metal guard rail that kept me and my white Subaru from tumbling down the tree-covered, descending mountainside below. Endless blue sky and cotton-ball clouds stretched over the mountain range and into the horizon. I'll never get used to this view.

 I turned my attention back to the winding black highway in front of me, and pressed my foot a little heavier on the gas. I watched the speedometer crawl past 65, 70, up to 75. My hair blew around my face and I looked back at my dog through the rear-view mirror. She had her paws up on the car door and her face was outside of the window. Her tan and white fur was being blown in all directions and her face was being buffeted by the wind, but she looked as happy as could be.

I leaned out of my window a little and breathed in the cool mountain air. For the first time in months, I felt at peace with myself. I was thousands of miles away from home and thousands of miles above sea-level, and I felt happier than I had in a long time. I was on my way to what would be my new home for the next three months.

The vibration of my phone on the dashboard of my car quickly snapped me out of my thoughts. I touched my foot to the brake to slow down a bit and picked up my phone.

“Hello?” I tried my best not to sound exhausted from the hours of driving and lack of sleep last night on my hotel bed.

“Hey there! Is this Ella?” A friendly male voice filled my ear

I gave a small laugh before replying, “It is! Who is this?”

“This is Clay.”

My back stiffened a little for no reason. I was talking to my new boss.

“Oh, hi Clay! Thanks for calling. Is something wrong?” I tried to sound intelligent but warm.

“No, nothing at all. I was just calling to make sure you were on your way before you lost cell service.”

“Yes I am, I’m almost there right now.”

“Well okay! You’re one of the first wranglers to arrive, so you should be able to settle in nicely and have some extra time to learn the ropes.” I thanked the Lord for that little piece of information.

“Okay, thank you so much, sir. I’ll be pulling into the ranch soon.”

“See you soon, Ella!”

I heard the phone click and turned it off, tossing it into the passenger seat.

I looked out at the highway ahead of me. About a hundred yards ahead was a dead end.

Damn it.

I had missed my turn.

                                                                    *

Thirty minutes later, I drove down a dirt road and under the wooden gate that read “RR” for Riverside Ranch. I breathed a sigh of relief. I drove a short distance, then turned a corner and saw a barn, an arena and a huge corral with at least a hundred horses of every color and size. Some were tall, some short. Some young, some old. I could tell from my car that no two were the same.

Outside the barn, there were three wide rows of hitching posts. A few horses had on rope halters that were tied to the horizontal post, and I saw a guy who looked about my age saddling one of them up. I pulled my eyes away from him and drove onto a bridge that took me across Bear Creek, the ‘river’ that the ranch was named for.