Head Over Boots For You // Jenlisa

4: Daenerys

Lisa

"They're... uh... really going at it, aren't they?" Jennie said with some measure of disgust.

Lisa looked up from the lasso she was hooking onto the pommel of her saddle. "That's the point."

They had released three bulls into the herd five days ago, and they would leave them there for another forty days before putting them back into isolation on the other side of the ranch. Giving them such a short window to mate encouraged the bulls to get the job done as quickly as possible but also ensured that they had a chance to mate with every cow in the herd. Cattle raising was a science, even if most people didn't understand that.

"But I mean... wow." Jennie approached the enclosure, eyes wide. "I feel like there should be a subscription service for this or something. Not that I'm into it, but I'm sure somebody is, you know?"

"That's disgusting, Jennie."

"I know, I know," Jennie trailed off. "Still, it's sad when a bunch of cows get more action than I do."

Lisa knew that Jennie was joking, but she still bristled slightly. She picked at a chunk of leather that was threatening to come off of her saddle, the same saddle she had been using for that last ten years at least. "You can go to town for that sort of thing," she said vaguely. She wasn't even sure why she said it.

"For sex?" Jennie asked point-blank. Sometimes, she could be incredibly blunt. "Are you talking about a brothel or something?"

Lisa sighed, already regretting this conversation. She shouldn't have said anything. "That's not what I was suggesting. I was thinking more traditional methods, like meeting someone at the bar."

Jennie laughed at her. "No offense, but that bar in Huntley looks a little too sketchy for me."

Lisa felt the piece of leather she had been picking at come undone from the saddle in her fingers, and she flicked it into the ankle-high grass. Her hands needed to keep moving, though, so she knelt down and began inspecting the fence (even though they had inspected it just a few days before). It bothered her that there wasn't anything wrong with it that she could fix.

"The bar isn't that bad," Lisa insisted, even though she wished this topic was already over. If Jennie was feeling... unfulfilled on the ranch, then, as her employer, Lisa needed to help her think of solutions, even if she found them distasteful. "I know the owner. It may look rough on the outside, but he keeps it clean on the inside. And..." Lisa hesitated but continued in an even tone. "It would be easy for you. All you'd have to do is walk in. I'm sure men would be falling over themselves to buy you a drink."

There were some good men in the town, Lisa knew, but there were also a lot of entitled fools. Men who had grown up on farms and ranches and felt like they knew everything, even if they couldn't tell the difference between a Senepol and a Salers.

Jennie knelt beside her then, and Lisa found herself trying even harder to find some kind of flaw she could fix in the fence. It had nothing to do with how Jennie's hair was falling over her shoulder, or how the jeans that Lisa had bought her perfectly accentuated her legs when she was kneeling like that. Lisa just knew that she would rather not be talking about Jennie hooking up with some random man in town.

"The men will be lining up, huh?" Jennie rocked back onto her heels. "Either there's not a lot of competition in this town, or you just think I'm pretty."

Lisa sighed, finally giving in and glancing over to Jennie, only to be met by the smuggest grin she had ever seen. She knocked her shoulder into Jennie's and was happy to see that she lost her balance, if only briefly.