Page 41 of Forget That Guy
NINE
Eat whatever you want. And if someone tries to lecture you about your weight, eat them, too.
—Holly’s secret thoughts
HOLLY
They’d been gone for hours, and the ranch was quiet except for a few workers here and there getting the fence repaired.
It was a hard repair, too.
“This looks like someone cut the damn wire.” The ranch hand by the name of Judson showed his friend. “Doesn’t it?”
Crest, who looked to be the youngest in the group, said, “It sure does.”
I walked closer to get a better look.
“You should call the sheriff,” I found myself saying.
“Why?” Crest asked.
“Because if someone did this purposely,” I pointed out, “then they could’ve caused a lot of damage. If a person had hit any of those cows, they would’ve likely had to hit them going pretty fast. It’s a blind curve. Not to mention you can’t really go left or right because of the mountain.”
“Oh,” he said. “I guess I’ll call the bossman and ask him what he wants me to do.”
I smiled and went walking back to the ranch house, wondering why I felt out of sorts.
As I made my way closer to the house, I decided it was because I didn’t like being idle.
I liked doing things that kept my mind busy. I liked working and making money. Making myself useful.
What I did not like doing was standing here twiddling my thumbs.
Every person I passed I smiled at. Each person barely smiled back.
Everyone was in a terrible mood.
They were all hungry.
All tired.
And all of them were wearing such ferocious scowls that I thought it’d be better for me to leave them alone rather than entertain them.
I remembered Joe’s words from when I’d eaten dinner with them.
“Enid only comes on Tuesday through Thursday,” Joe said. “Sorcha comes the rest of the days. And sometimes everyone goes hungry.”
I’m not sure why, but I found myself in the ranch kitchen cooking.
I decided on queso, beans, and rice since I’d all but mastered this particular recipe, and everyone loved it.
My old college roommate had taught it to me, then handed off the reins when she realized that I could make it better than her.
I was almost completely done with everything when the first sign of life came back to the ranch.
Tired, sweaty, and looking a little dusty, Joe and Jetty were the first ones I saw.
DeeDee and Catalina showed next, along with two dogs that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
