Ellie sees her recent graduation from college as an opportunity to find real adventure. Her need for exploration landed her a job working on a guest ranch in Wyoming, right outside of Yellowstone National Park. There she meets a strapping young cowb...
After getting the whole scoop about who was here from Gabby, she went back to work and I took the next hour unpacking my belongings into the bed in the bigger room in the back. According to Gabby, I was sharing the big space with a girl named Autumn.
I laid down in my little bed and journaled everything that I could think of about this place. How beautiful the town was, how the mountains were still topped with snow in the middle of May, how much cleaner the air felt than back East.
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It had been 12 years since I visited this very ranch with my family. It was owned by another family at the time. But I was 8 years old and fell in love with the west, with the way the people always smiled in town and the mountains that always watched over them.
Eventually my journaling took a turn to Bruce. God, the drive from Florida to Maryland had been painful. The petty arguments took a turn halfway into just silence.
I was thankful he helped move me out and drive back north with me after I graduated college. But I already knew it was not going to last. Unfortunately, I took my brother's advice to not end it in person. My brother, Ford, ever the coward, would of course be the person to say that.
I shouldn't have listened. 'Now I have to do it tonight.'
'Hmmm, maybe tomorrow.'
-
I filled up my water bottle before walking up to the stables that stood on a small hill towards the back of the ranch.
Right in front of the corrals, a woman unpacked her cooler out of her car while a heavier seat, younger, hispanic man stood next to her laughing. I walked up, and they called out to me.
"Hey! You must be Elliana," the man said with a goofy sideways grin.
I guessed he was about 27 or 28. He had the largest smile under his light tan hat. His brown eyes searched my face for something I couldn't tell yet.
"Hi! Just Ellie is good. And yeah, I just got in," I said.
"I'm Dylan and this is ole Katey," he said, already halfway into a laugh.
She rolled her eyes at him, before glancing me up and down. Just like Dylan, I couldn't read her face to know what she thought of what she saw.
She was small, petite that is, with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was at least 30.
"My name is Kate," she said simply. "Where are you from?"
I smiled at her, hoping to get the same reaction. All I got was a scowl and Dylan's cheeky smile.
"I'm from Maryland, but I just graduated from college in Florida so I'm moving from there," I said in almost a rabble.
Dylan whistled out through his teeth, while Kate stared blankly at me.
