Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
There was a corral for the horses, and Mr. McNamara wanted us to put the horses there and then come eat. When Rand squinted at him, he must’ve understood that first we would be seeing to our horses, and only then we would sit down.
“If you all need to eat right now,” Rand told McNamara, “you go on ahead, and we’ll have our chow when we’re done.”
No one wanted that, especially the kids. I was surprised to see so many. Normally, the only kids you saw on cattle drives were the children of ranchers because they would be doing it one day themselves. I was surprised that parents had thought it would be a good idea. Hopefully, all of them would be in a wagon. I was betting that after the first day, the novelty of driving cattle would wear right off. And another thing, why weren’t they in school? It wasn’t Thanksgiving yet. I had all kinds of questions.
The kids wanted to see the horses, and the person in charge of the guests, Eliza Kerr, asked if the children could help with unloading them and taking them to the barn to be fed and watered. When Rand said they could, all the kids cheered. It was cute how each one—there couldn’t have been one over ten—came up to the trailers and waited. When we’d reloaded back at the Lone Pine, Juju had gone in first, so she was one of the last horses unloaded.
The girl waiting patiently next to the trailer gasped in clear wonder.
“Hi,” I greeted her.
She looked sad suddenly and shook her head, signing that she didn’t speak, thinking, I was certain, that I wouldn’t understand.
I signed back that I did, in fact, understand, and smiled for good measure. The way her face lit up was beautiful to see.
“Your horse is so pretty,” she told me, her hands animated, clearly excited. “Is the horse a girl or a boy?”
“She’s a girl,” I told her, handing over the reins, noting Juju’s side-eye.
“What’s her name?” the little girl asked, putting Juju’s reins under her arm so she could keep talking to me.
“Her name’s Juju,” I answered, smiling at Juju as she bent and breathed into the little girl’s face and then gave her a kiss on the nose.
The delight on her face as Juju, unlike the others, bent her head to receive pats and gentle strokes, was beautiful. Moments later, she had Juju’s whole muzzle in her arms.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” a blonde woman said, rushing up, a man behind her. “We thought she was in the barn with the—”
They stopped suddenly, frozen there, watching their daughter hug the crap out of my horse.
I tapped her shoulder, and she let Juju go and looked up at me.
“What’s your name?” I signed, and the woman gasped, while the man huffed out a breath.
“Annalise,” she signed back.
“Very pretty,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she replied, then asked if Juju could have an apple.
“Sure,” I said, and she gave me back the reins and raced toward the tables, passing her folks and giving them a little wave as she flew by.
“Hi,” the woman said, closing in on me, flanked by the man. “I’m Kate Harrison, and this is my husband, Eric.”
They were a beautiful couple, she with long blonde hair and big blue eyes, a bit of a sunburn on the pale skin of her neck, and her husband with a deep tan and dark-brown eyes and hair. The mix accounted for Annalise’s blue-gray eyes, dark curls, and freckles.
“Pleasure,” I said, offering her my hand. She took it, then her husband.
“We were told no one knew ASL on this drive.”
“That’s probably true. I’m just here filling in. I run a restaurant called the Bronc at the King’s Crossing Resort and Spa, and—”
“Oh, we ate there,” Kate said. “It was delicious, and our waitress knew ASL. That was wonderful for Annalise.”
I smiled at her. “Yeah, I wanted to make sure we could communicate with all our guests, so there’s always at least three people per shift who know ASL, Spanish, and now Mandarin too, because a couple of my guys knew it when they came to work and have been working with the others.”
“That’s amazing,” Eric assured me.
“Well, we are part of a global community, even way out here in Texas.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” Kate agreed.
“We need to learn French next, but Spanish and ASL were the ones I wanted to focus on first.”
“And what is your name?” Kate asked.
“Glenn,” I told her as Annalise came rocketing back and presented me with the biggest apple I’d seen in a while. Juju gave an appreciative nicker.
“She’s a beauty,” Kate said, reaching out to pat Juju on the side of her neck.
“She’s a handful,” I replied. “But she really likes kids, so Annalise got the good one.”
Pulling my knife from my belt, I quickly quartered the apple and passed it back to Annalise. I then signed, “Can you hold your hand out flat?”