It took me two whole weeks to get back on my feet. Peyton kept me company for all but the last four days when he had to fly back to New York for a wedding. Shana took over from there. We watched a lot of movies, read romance novels, ate junk food, and gossiped. I never asked her about Jake's visit, and she never brought it up. By the end of the second week, I was sluggish and antsy from lack of movement, and more than ready to get out of the trailer.

There was an unexpected paycheck waiting for me when I returned to work. I went to Daniel Harris, who was in charge of summer employee payroll, to let him know about the mistake.

Daniel was a big, burly man in his late sixties who'd been serving as the Beaudry's stable manager since Earl Waites' drinking put him out of the job. He'd spent his whole life outdoors on horseback, and wore the resulting weather-worn skin and perpetual wind-burn with pride.

He was a good, solid man who had known my father and treated me well. He'd been the one who made sure my mom enrolled me in school, and the one who took me and bought me the necessities I needed when I first moved to town. He'd also held me (albeit awkwardly) when I cried, (which was often back then) and his wife Faith, would cook me nice meals at their cottage once a week. The meals only stopped last year when Faith was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo intensive chemotherapy.

Daniel set his pen down on top of his ledger and smiled at me over his glasses. I grinned, rounded the desk, and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

He ruffled my hair and leaned back into his chair, making the old leather creak. "How've you been pretty girl?"

Daniel had been away for the past few months, overseeing renovations to the Beaudrys' property in San Antonio.

"Good," I lied. "When did you get back?"

His kind brown eyes turned sad, as they always did when he looked at me, but he didn't say anything further. "Last week."

"I'm glad to see you back. Can I come by and see Faith?" I asked.

"Give her some time to recover from the trip and we'll make a date. How's that sound?"

"Good," I said.

He glanced at the clock. "Shouldn't you be starting your shift?" Favored or not, work ethic and punctuality were paramount to Daniel.

I nodded. "I dropped by because I think somebody made a mistake on the payroll," I said, sliding the check across the desk to him. "I didn't work the last two weeks."

He glanced down at the check, then slid it back toward me. "No mistake. The sties were mucked, so you get paid."

I was about to protest that I didn't understand but realized that I did.

Daniel pointedly looked at the clock behind me. "Time, girl."

"Going... going..." I sighed, sliding the check into my pocket.

Daniel smiled and turned the page of his ledger.

*****

As I mucked, I kept glancing back at the fence, fully expecting Jake to appear. But he never did. Halfway through, I saw a group of cowboys riding out with the horses and felt a little deflated - he'd be going with that group for sure.

Mercifully, the rest of the day was uneventful. It felt good to work my stiff muscles, and the hot sun was, for once, welcome on my skin. I stuck around after my shift was over, wanting to make sure that I thanked Jake for what he did. It was the only polite thing to do - or that's what I told myself, anyway.

I wandered the stables, looking for someone who might know how long they would be, and it didn't take me long to find the perfect person.

"Hey Beth," I said.

Beth McGee looked at me with her big hazel eyes, magnified to unfortunate proportions by her thick glasses.

Beth was an odd duck. Ranching was her life and she cared about nothing and no one else. We'd had many classes together over the years but she'd neither shunned nor befriended me, or anybody else for that matter.

All I knew about her was that she loved horses. Everything she owned was decorated with them, including the tee shirt she wore today. Her daddy was Canyon's most successful home builder, making them one of the wealthier families in town. But Beth loved the ranch and worked there year-round for pleasure. Her lifelong dream was a ranch of her own, and she paid attention to the workings of Beaudry's property with a single minded focus and intensity that was both impressive and intimidating.

She knew exactly how many animals there were, who sired who, and spent the majority of the time pestering the ranch hands with specific and detailed questions that annoyed them to no ends.

"Hi Layla," she said, her face completely neutral.

I smiled at her. "Hot, isn't it?"

"Yup."

"Are you done with work for the day?"

"Yup."

"Can I sit down with you?" I asked.

"Yup."

Yikes. It was like pulling teeth. I gingerly took a seat on the edge of the bench, taking care to keep my bare thighs from coming into contact with the scorching metal.

"It sure is hot," I said again, rubbing my palms against my thighs, unsure of how to approach the subject.

She didn't respond, simply sat there and watched the horses eat with adoration in her eyes.

I cut the crap and jumped right in. "Did you see the cowboys riding out earlier?"

"Yup," she said.

A silence followed. I held my breath and hoped she'd say something more. When she didn't, I spoke again. "Do you know when they'll be coming back?"

"When they do," she said.

Ah. I picked at the callouses on my palms. Screw it.

"What do you know about Jake Waites?" I asked her.

Her eyes lit up and she turned her full attention to me, jerking her head sideways so that her face was lined up right to mine. I was astonished at the change in her demeanor. Wow. Even Beth McGee? Now that was truly impressive.

"Have you seen him ride?" she asked, her voice nearly breathless.

Flustered, I shook my head.

She stood up so fast and so suddenly that I stumbled backward, yelping as I burned my flesh on the bench.

She took me by the hand and pulled. "Come on."

"Where we going?" I asked.

"I have to show you something," she said, her eyes near rolling back into her head with excitement. "Trust me, you're going to love this."

*****

I tried real hard not to show my disappointment when that something turned out to be a pair of Apaloosas.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" gushed Beth, her eyes shining with utter devotion.

I reached up and absently stroked the Palomino's muzzle and wondered what I was doing there. "They are," I agreed.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Saddle her up."

I frowned. "We can't just take these horses out Beth."

But she was already busy saddling the Grullo. "Of course we can. They're mine. I board them here."

"Oh."

"Come on Layla, saddle her up. Her name's Phoenix. This one here's Valentino."

I didn't really want to go for a ride, but I didn't have the heart to tell her no. I'd never seen Beth like this, so bright and animated.

"I'm not sure I remember how to do this," I said, grunting as I lifted the saddle onto Phoenix's back. I saddled her up quickly and checked her. "I haven't ridden in years."

Three to be exact.

Beth looked at me as if I'd blasphemed. "You're Clint Danner's girl," she said. She double checked my work and slapped the saddle. "Now cowgirl up and ride."

I shrugged my flip flops off and eased myself up onto the saddle. Beth grinned at me. "Atta girl."

I gave the horse a gentlest of squeezes with my calves and was delighted to find her move forward.

"She rides beautifully doesn't she?" gushed Beth.

I nodded, leaning forward to stroke the horse's neck. "She really does."

We walked the horses out of the stables, trotted them through the trails and cantered them through the fields. As soon as we crossed the fences that marked off the boundaries of The Lucky Star Ranch proper, we galloped head on into the open lands.

I'd forgotten how I'd loved this. I leaned my face close to Pheonix's mane and breathed in the scent of her, delighting in the the sound of her powerfully expelled breaths, and felt more alive than I had in months.

We rode for over an hour until Beth slowed her pace. I caught up to her and she grinned at me. Her eyes were sparkling, her cheek smudged with dirt, and I realized that her plain face was actually quite pretty. "You ride well. I knew you would," she said.

"Thank you," I said, pleased by the compliment. "How far are we going?" I asked her, hoping she wasn't planning on turning us back now.

"It's not much further."

"What's not much further?" I asked, but she was already riding forward.

After another half an hour of riding, she slowed down again. "They should be just over that hill," she said, index finger extended. "Come on."

I heard the deafening thunder of hooves long before we crested the hill, and saw the dust storm rise from the valley below as we approached.

Beth held up her hand in a motion for me to stop and turned toward me. Her eyes were wide with equal parts horror and fascination. Her voice was hushed and in awe when she whispered the word: "Stampede."

Alarmed, I turned my head in the direction of the rising dust.

"Get off the horse Layla," she said with urgency. "Tie her to that tree over there. I don't think they can see us up here, but to be safe, we go on foot from here."

The yellowed wild grass was tall and scratchy on my feet and calves as we made our way up the hill. We stopped dead in our tracks and traded wild eyed glances when we heard the sound of a shotgun explode in the air.

"Army crawl," Beth said with a curt nod.

I nodded and dropped to the ground. We slithered on our stomachs the rest of the way, rocks and dry grass scratching our skin until the pair of us rested on our bellies at the ledge and peered down into the valley.

Over a hundred horses were thundering chaotically in the valley as seven or so men on horseback struggled to regain control. Dogs barking ferociously at the periphery added to the mayhem.

"Oh wow. Wow. Wow. Wow," whispered Beth.

Another shotgun blast echoed through the valley.

"What's going on? What are they shooting at?" I asked.

"See those two?" she asked, pointing to the men at the front of the line. "They're trying to make the lead horse turn. It's safer for everyone and the horses if you can get them to run in circles."

"But they're not turning," I pointed out.

"Man, they're going to put that horse down," she said regretfully.

"What horse?"

"The black mustang up front - it's obvious he started all this. They call him Satan you know. They've been trying to break him for a month now. I saw Jake taking him out this morning and was hoping to catch him try."

"Jake breaks horses? Isn't he too young to be doing that?"

Beth looked offended. "What does age have to do with talent? He was literally born in Beaudry's stables and has been the best horseman in all of West Texas since he was a little boy. Beaudry hires him out to people with difficult cases you know."

"Oh," I said.

She shook her head impatiently. "You don't understand," she snapped. "And you won't understand until you see him ride for yourself. I can't even explain it. It's just magic. I've traveled all over the world and saw all kinds of expert horsemen, but no one comes close to Jake. No one."

I didn't really know what to say to that so I stayed quiet.

"And one day," said Beth, "He's going to be all mine."

I stared at her profile. "As in... you're going to marry him?"

She snapped her head around and looked at me incredulously. "I'm a lesbian. Don't you know that? God Layla, get your head out of the clouds and take notice of what goes on around you. They pick on me just as much as they pick on you."

"You're the one that left me the shirt."

She nodded once.

"I'll get it back to you."

"Keep it," she said dismissively.

"What did you mean about Jake being yours then?"

"I want him to work for me when I open my ranch," she said with one curt nod. "Together we'll build the greatest stables in all of America."

"Oh."

She turned her attention back to the valley and gave my arm a squeeze. "This is really bad Layla. Really really bad. If they can't get them under control they're going to lose horses to the river," she said, pointing to the water.

The horses were getting closer and closer to the water's edge, and the cowboys were gaining no traction. Beth and I bit our lips and anxiously waited for a sign of changing tides.

He came flying down the valley on horseback. Just a boy, really, among the men around him.

***** Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! Please don't forget to vote and comment! ^_^****