Cowboys and Mustangs

Bombshell- Chayni

I watch my hair gently float over my face as I blow air through my lips out of boredom. It was a slow day in the office at the sale barn, slow and boring. It didn't help I was counting down the minutes until I got to go home and practice in the arena. It was prime weather to be running the horses, beautiful weather to be doing anything outside honestly. Gotta love spending those summer days in a warm office with the smell of cow shit wafting around.

At the sound of the phone ringing, my hand flies to the phone and answers immediately to engage in relieving human interaction, "CT Livestock Auction, this is Chayni." I answer with a big smile although they can't see, but it's all in the voice.

"What are your business times?"

"Monday through Friday, open at seven close at nine. Saturday and Sunday open at eight and close at six. Cafe is always seven until three."

"Alright thanks darlin'." The rough voice says then hangs up before I can say anything else.

Well it was brief, but it somewhat helped.

As I put down the phone, I'm once again relieved when I see Cathy walk through the door, "Should have called you to bring back a mariachi band." I sigh as I sit back in my rolly chair. Cathy went out to buy more office supplies since everyone and their brother thinks it's okay to freely take stuff and not return it.

"That slow huh?" She says as she puts her stuff down, "Oh, before I forget." She says then pulls out a sticky note and writes something down, "I ran into my old friend Bob Nance and he mentioned he was looking for hands for hire, so I thought of Jesse and took down his number for him." She says then hands me the yellow note with a phone number.

My eyebrows scrunched as I hesitantly pinched the note with my fingers, "For Jesse?"

"Yeah, he's looking for a place to work for right?" She says innocently, confusing the hell out of me. News to me.

"Where'd you here that?" I ask her. Jesse isn't looking for a new place to work, we're leaving for college in a few weeks.

"He posted it on Facebook a while back asking if people knew people looking.." She slowly says, wondering why I was asking such questions, "Full time hire." She adds.

Full time? That means year-round. What the hell is going on? What's wrong with his job now?

"Oh dear," she whispers, "did I say something I wasn't supposed to?"

I quickly snap out of my very dazed and confused fog, "No no you're fine. Just forgot that's all.." It was a lie, how could I forget something I had no idea about in the first place?

~

With the sticky note in between my fingers, my legs walk up the porch steps with a fierce march of a truck load of different emotions. Ever since Cathy brought awareness of Jess's job search, I didn't know what to think but I was trying to avoid coming to a conclusion because I didn't want it to be true. Thankfully, my parents and brother were around the arena so I knew Jess would be in the house waiting for me like always. We have some talking to do.

When I walk into the house, I see him casually sitting at the island counter on his phone until he hears the door open. He greets me with a small unsuspecting grin, "Hey, how was work?" He asks as I walk past him to go the fridge to grab a water.

"Boring." I respond then stand across from him.

"What's that?" He asks, eyeing the sticky note now on the counter.

I also look towards the note, already knowing how I'm going to play my cards, "Some rancher called to ask if he could leave his number in case any one came by looking for a place to work. Know anyone?" I accusingly perk my eyebrow at him.