The McCullen Ranch

All three of us were still talking an hour later when Abe stuck his head around the door to remind Missy that the doctor ordered rest. All three of us kissed her cheek and left her to do just that.

We made our way out onto the porch and sat down, where I found out just how much had happened in the last three days. When Jenny came back on her own, looking like she did, Abe rightly feared the worst. Kelly phoned the vet and organized getting the now fallen horse back to her stall, while Abe and three others plundered the armory and rode out to investigate. Abe wasn't going to risk bringing Missy any further by horse, so he reverted to Major Abe McCullen (retired), used his influence and called the nearest army base.

The helicopter flew Missy and Abe back to the base infirmary, where they put her through a hundred and one tests. The doctor in charge told him that, in the grand scheme of things, she got off very lightly.

She had a concussion from the rock that would need to be kept an eye on for a while, and a bruised jaw and a very sore neck where Jenny hit her. She had been poked and prodded, showered in X-rays and run through an MRI scanner. The doctors went into a huddle, watched her like a hawk for the first twenty-four hours, and smiled with relief after that.

It seemed Missy was going stir-crazy two days later, so the doctors relented and let her go home. With her horse on the mend as well, I suppose they were right. The whole incident could have had a far different outcome.

It was then that Abe McCullen, the father, came out.

"I want to know what your intentions are with regards to my daughter?"

Kelly went scarlet, "Daddy!"

He had a point, no matter how indignant Kelly got. Abe watched me fidget while my own mind went at a hundred miles an hour. In the end, I guess honesty won out.

"Only the best of intentions, sir."

When I first met Kelly it wasn't lust at first sight, it was love, but I had always been a realist in life and work. This woman was way out of my league, or so I thought, so I kept my distance and happily watched from afar. It hurt when she watched me make a fool of myself; it had hurt even more when she laughed at my struggles.

As I spoke, I could see the pain in her eyes. It wasn't intentional, and I would have done anything never to see her in that sort of pain, but this was her father, and he asked me a question regarding his own daughter. Abe knew honesty when he heard it, and all I could do was give him that. I hoped that he did understand as I spoke of the days and evenings when we had had long conversations at the start of what I thought would only be friendship because of the distance between our homes.

Somewhere in all this, I hadn't noticed her hand in mine as I talked to her father. When I came to the end of what I wanted to say I looked at Kelly; her tears went unchecked down her cheeks, and she still looked so damn cute. My free hand came to her cheek and gently rubbed the tears away. She smiled and leaned her head further into my hand.

Perhaps this was one of those unspoken moments; it hurt me to see her cry, and I had to do something to make her stop. Placing my hand on her cheek not only cleared her tears, but the physical contact between us needed to be reaffirmed as well.

Abe stared at me as I did this, even hearing me whisper to Kelly that it was okay, everything was going to be all right. I had to do something; after all, it was my admission to her father that brought her tears about, and that broke my heart. Abe watched for a moment longer, then seemed to nod his head and he stood. I did the same expecting the worst.

He looked at Kelly and said, "I think that's saved you some time; now stop messing around, the pair of you, and tell each other to your damn faces that you love each other. None of us on this damned ranch can take much more of this pussyfooting around you're both doing."

Kelly launched herself at her father and hugged him. Abe just hugged his daughter right back.

As she wiped her eyes she said, "Thank you, Daddy."

"You're welcome, baby; just don't move all your stuff into his room. He's not here much longer, so that's what you two need to concentrate on. Just let us know what you both decide, and soon, you hear?"

It was a strange, and yet good, insight into what a relationship with Kelly was going to be like. We shared our life history, and I must say it was an insight into Abe as well. Kelly was always labeled an army brat as she was the product of his first marriage, a joining that didn't survive seven years of tours around the world.

The divorce provided her with a stable home life growing up with her mother, but left her with a need to explore the world since she now knew what was out there. It also didn't stop her loving her father, and spending plenty of time with him and, eventually, his new daughter. I had wondered where Missy's mother was; it turned out that the second marriage had also ended in divorce, but one where Abe had been able to get custody of his daughter when her mother decided that having a small girl underfoot was going to cramp her new-found freedom.

Kelly was as smart as hell; funny to the point of often leaving me with an aching jaw and chest because I laughed so much; and so soft in bed that my hands would never stop wandering. I was so glad that she didn't mind that part.

We both kept our promise to Abe, and talked as if both our lives and futures depended on it. Since the survival of our future time and emotions did, it was no contest.

*******

It was my last day on Abe McCullen's ranch and, although I was never EVER going to hear the last of it, I was going to have to thank Jade for sending me there.

I came there twenty-eight days earlier, and that time had flown by. I didn't have a moment to reflect on my time there, and that's probably why Abe gave me that day. The pattern was always the same; whenever we were going to leave the ranch buildings, Tony handed me my Sig from the armory and I checked it, strapped it to my leg and saddled up Domino.

We had no real destination in mind. If anything, I simply pointed my horse out past the ranch house and kept going. I'd never seen myself as a sentimentalist: too busy getting on in life, I guess, and yet I had to say that I was going to miss Domino. She'd taken me through a whole range of emotions over my time there after coming into my life as though she was the school bully.

She was my horse, and yet she could do whatever she wanted because she was bigger than I was. I had had to learn to work with her, not try to prove I was the boss. Out there it was a partnership, with one dependent on the other. Out there in the vast expanse of the plains, it was nature that ruled, and we each learned to contribute or die. I'd learned many skills along the way; the calluses on my hands earned through hours of using a rope were but one example.

I could lasso a cow that was running away from me and, with the right momentum and pivot point, I could wrestle said cow to the ground and keep it there. I'd learned that nature didn't care if it was your birthday or Christmas, she would continue to send the sun up over the barn in the morning to get you up, and settle down over the mountain range late in the evening to put you to bed. I guessed it was what you did with that time in between that counted.

Almost a month earlier I came there, in the eyes of people like Abe, and even Missy, as a city boy. I was not leaving as a cowboy. Hell no, I wouldn't insult the people who did that for a living by claiming that badge, although my respect for these people had grown tenfold.

Domino knew my mind had wandered, and she stopped at the edge of the river. I let go of the reins and let her drink. I knew I wasn't hallucinating, preferring to think that the place was giving me a gift. Abe told me once that it was why he came back there after his time in the army. He said the land spoke to him. It wouldn't speak to me, though; I supposed that my feet were planted too firmly in technology.

At the very moment when my guard was down and a sort of calm had descended on both Domino and me, the land offered me a parting gift. I sat astride my horse and watched six Native Americans on horseback across the far bank of the river, a memory of what was here before us. A grizzled trapper in a canoe, drifting down the river, the skins of his success drying in the sunlight in the front of the canoe but his rifle always close by: the first of the true pioneers, who learned to work alongside both nature and those that were on this land before us. The cowboys of past times, as they rode across the river crossing some thirty yards away.

I knew these were images of our past and, instead of freaking out, I accepted the gift this place had given me, and I smiled a thank you for that gift. This month out here didn't make me a cowboy. This city boy was given a glimpse into a small section of life that made this country, and felt humbled by the privilege.

I wasn't sure if Domino was getting bored or restless, but she let me know my time was up, and so we went on with our journey around the ranch. The mountain lion was long gone, taken away and handed over to the authorities for examination, and then burial. That was a place of so many emotions for me. I killed a cougar, because in my eyes I had no choice. There were no trophy pictures of me standing over it with some sick smile on my face.

Had it just walked the other way, it would have still been alive. Domino clearly remembered that place. I could sense her unease, and left as soon as my thoughts had played out. The dust cloud over on the horizon reminded me that Abe and a few of the ranch hands were moving part of the herd. The urge to join them and help was close to overwhelming, but my time was up now. I would return, since there was something that gave me reason to.

Abe McCullen had taught me so much that I could never transfer it all into words, as had Missy, a twelve year old young lady who just couldn't wait to grow up. So many people on this ranch had gently and, on occasions, not so gently, gotten me to that point. I was going to miss them all. Kelly had returned to college three days before; this was to be the most intense part of her course before going out into the world and becoming a journalist.

Domino was walked, brushed and fed before I put her back into her stall for the final time. Saying goodbye to her was harder than I ever thought and, as I passed her, I patted her gently on her flanks. In retaliation, her tail came around and slapped my face; she had to have the last word in our goodbye.

*******

Two years later...

"Well I'm gay, so you have no chance with me."

"Will you quit it! I don't mess in my own back yard, and you're not my type."

"Oh, I see! Because I'm gay, you don't find me attractive! Is that it?"

"Look. We both know I'm never going to win this argument with you, and to be honest I still haven't figured out how we got onto the topic in the first place."

Jade rolled her eyes and then did that thing that both annoyed and held me in wonder at the same time about her.

"Kelly is due in around five-thirty to six this evening, so you have to be finished here no later than four. The limo is due at your apartment at eight, so you will get to the ball at eight thirty, which puts you about middle lateness. The Cliftons are not due to arrive until eight forty-five, so you both should have a drink in your hands by then."

"And her dress?"

"Being dry-cleaned as we speak. I'll go and get it in an hour while you're in video conference with Maurice Sterns about the Biden proposal."

Jade made it as far as the door and stopped, her head turned and I noticed the smirk.

"Tell Hotlips I said thanks for the anniversary card and flowers."

The urge to find something heavy to throw at her was close to overwhelming. I had little doubt HR wouldn't approve, though.

When we both returned to work, Jade sat and listened to my time on Abe McCullen's ranch. That "I told you so" smirk wasn't a redeeming feature on her, I have to say. My boss dragged us both back to reality, and we got on with life.

Kelly and I had used every technological aid we could find to stay in touch. I couldn't spend time with her since her exams were as intense as she thought they would be, but we always managed "our" time, and that eased the pain.

Even those times when I pondered on life, my own thoughts and, of course, those of Kelly were always bang center. A woman who came into my life sideways and stayed there: within three weeks we knew it was not only real but very intense, and we hung in there because we both wanted this relationship to succeed.

That day marked our own anniversary: two years to the day that I set foot on the McCullen Ranch. Some would say turbulent years, as well. Kelly came to live with me after finishing college; she had a job interview with Fashionet Magazine a week later. In the interview she was asked to write about a part of her life that actually happened, and do it in the theme of being the reporter doing the interview.

I thought the idea was a good one, and Kelly set about it. The theme she chose was the incident with the cougar. It was off the back of that story that she got the job. It was also a shame Kelly hadn't read the small print, to be honest, because the editor read it and published it. Since Fashionet had control over all ideas and stories within their office they, of course, didn't need permission.

Overnight I was a hero, and other news agencies wanted an interview. Kelly phoned me at the office in tears and with apologies. Although Abe was more insulated out on the ranch, he was getting it from his end of the country as well. One reporter got creative, and, posing as a husband and wife team, they did the week on the ranch. Abe saw through them both within the hour, and sent Missy to visit her cousin for the duration of their stay.

Some animal league charity also got involved, since they thought it excessive that I should have emptied a whole magazine into the mountain lion. When my boss asked me for more details on the story in the fashion magazine and the comments from the animal protection league people, I told him that, if the cougar had so much as twitched in its death throes while I was checking on it, it would have gotten the second magazine emptied into it as well.

My company sent me out of town on company business until the dust settled. I was not a Green Beret or a Marine sniper; just a city boy that was high on adrenaline as I watched a cougar go after Jenny, no doubt looking to have Missy as dessert.

To me, this was a non-story. The real stories were the ones written about so many times now: the men and women of the old West who forged paths out from the cities in search of a better life, and did it so quickly that the rule of law couldn't keep up with them. That meant the only law was the gun.

My story was, by far, a much simpler one. I spent a month on a ranch learning how to be a cowboy. Fortunately the bruises have gone, but those are the memories that still to this day I keep close to my heart.

Mind you, my wife reminds me every time she steps into the apartment. Yes, Kelly McCullen became my wife. However, I made the unfortunate mistake of letting Kelly meet Jade. A friendship formed, and I had little doubt that secrets were also shared. It was my wife who told Jade I thought she was the female version of Radar from M.A.S.H.

In retaliation, of course, Jade will not stop calling Kelly, Hotlips.

The End