Her Cowboy's Dream

Jeb sat at the desk in the restaurant, mad at his older brother. Who did he think he was? Superman? His older brother had come to the ranch and decided to stack some hay bales in the barn. His wife Bonnie was inside working on the books. Stacking the bales was something Jeb would have done, and Jack Jr. didn’t need to do it. He could have done something less strenuous like cleaning the horse stalls but no he had to be a big shot older brother.

Jeb ran the ranch. Jack Jr. and his wife Bonnie ran the restaurant. If either needed a helping hand mom or dad would help out but they were on an extended vacation in Europe and they deserved it.

Bonnie was pregnant again and due to complications from a previous miscarriage she couldn’t help out in the restaurant. Standing and waiting at tables all day was too much for her. As a result, Jeb asked her to do the ranch's books, which would normally be done by his mother.

All was well until Jack Jr. decided to join her at the ranch after the restaurant closed for the day. He got bored and took it upon himself “to help.” Now Jeb had to run the restaurant while Jack Jr. was in the hospital nursing a badly fractured leg from his fall from the barn loft. He could hire any cowboy or high school kid to help out at the ranch, but it was not as easy to find someone to run a restaurant and dad had to make sure they were familiar with the business from the top to the bottom.

His sister Iris already worked the restaurant full time, but she couldn't take on Jack Jr.'s job too — she had a kid at home and no man in the picture to help her.

They had already hired a new girl, Crystal, to take over for Bonnie so thankfully he didn’t have to worry about that. From what Bonnie told him she was a young orphan who grew up in the system. She was trying to stand on her own two feet and eager to work and learn. She thought she would be a suitable fit for them and hopefully it could become a permanent position.

Bonnie stayed home after the birth of her first two until they were older. Initially, she was working at the restaurant to fill in and it turned into a full-time position. She wanted to stay home with this one. But she had planned on working longer, but her doctor and baby had other plans.

This morning before the breakfast crowd hit, he had a staff meeting. This was to explain that he would be the first manager of the restaurant. This was until the doctor gave Jack Jr. the OK to return to work.

The restaurant opened at 6:00 am sharp and the clock gave no grace period. Ranchers finished their morning chores and headed in for breakfast right at the hour, and the folks with so-called 'city' jobs trickled in around 7:00 am, about the time the ranchers cleared out. Jeb had the schedule taped to the office door before 4:00: breakfast ran 6:00 am to 9:30 am Monday through Thursday, 6:00 am to 10:30 am Friday and Saturday. That meant the kitchen had to walk in between 5:00 and 5:15, wait staff right behind them, and every pot of coffee better be brewing before the first truck hit the gravel lot. He checked his watch three times before the doors unlocked.

He opened the restaurant at 4:15 am and came in and started coffee. The kitchen staff started coming in around 4:30 am so he held a brief meeting with them. Jeb told them he would fill in for Jack Jr. until the doctor approved his return. This should be in three to four weeks. Then he released them to start their morning duties.

The wait staff started arriving around 5:00 am. Everyone except the new hire, Crystal, was there. At 5:10 am. Jeb moved ahead and held the meeting. He told them the same information as the kitchen staff. They were an excellent crew and set up the tables and got things ready for the morning crowd.

~

At 5:30 am Crystal showed up and Iris told her the boss wanted to see her in the office. She walked toward the office to see her boss Jack Jr. Everyone called him that or JJ. His real name was Jackson Smith, Jr. His parents Marianne & Jackson Smith Sr. started the restaurant but retired and left it to their seven kids.

Too many kids in her mind, but she grew up in the system. She was always around kids, so she longed for privacy, which she rarely got. She currently lived with a friend and slept in her friend’s three year old son’s room. He slept on a toddler bed, and she was on a futon.

She would need to move soon as he outgrew his toddler bed and needed a regular bed. She was really happy about getting this job because now she might be able to move out in a couple of months.

She was early for her first day as Jack Jr. told her to arrive at 6:00 am. However, last night someone called and left a message for her to be there thirty minutes early for an announcement. So here she was at 5:30 am walking to Jack Jr.’s office, not sure what announcement he would tell her. Hopefully, he wasn’t letting her go already. He had said she was filling in for his pregnant wife but that she would probably be a stay-at-home mom, and this could become a permanent position for her.

She rounded the corner to the office and ran smack dab into something solid. A cup of coffee went up in the air and came down all over a pretty floral western shirt of a tall man she had just ran into. Her nose barely came up to his chest, so she had to tip her head all the way back to see his face. He had hard, deep emerald green eyes under a scruffy deep brown beard, and sun bleached brown hair that made him look like a bandit. His sleeves were rolled up, and when she put a hand out to steady herself, the arm she grabbed was muscular and solid as a fence post. She bounced right off him like she'd hit a rock wall. The man didn't even sway.

She immediately mumbled “I’m so sorry sir, I wasn’t expecting anyone to come from this direction.”

“And why wouldn’t you expect someone to come from here?" he asked menacingly.

“Well, it’s my boss' office," she replied.

“And wouldn’t you expect him to come from that direction?” he asked gruffly.

Somewhat taken aback she said, “Well yes, but I was told to meet him in his office so I assumed he would be IN his office not IN the hallway, so I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

He looked at her and said “I see. Well, you better run to his office then so I can clean this mess up that you made of my shirt.”

She looked at him humbly and said, “Truly sir, I am sorry. I will gladly pay for its cleaning if you’d like.”

He replied “Well, why don’t you see how your meeting is with your boss first.” Then he left.

Oh no, she was going to be fired. Is that something he already knew? She just got this job and had so many plans for things she needed to do that only a job could help her with. It took her a month to find this job. In a small town there are few jobs except for ranching, and she definitely wasn’t a rancher.

She reached Jack Jr's office, but he wasn't there. She wondered if she should sit down and wait or stand and observe. She thought about it for half a second and concluded that standing would probably be appropriate since she didn’t know the basic tenets of the meeting. So, she stood waiting.

~

What a ninny! How could Jack Jr. think she was competent to work in a restaurant? This is when one of the basic fundamentals was to always expect someone to come from the opposite direction. When she bumped into him, he thought she would hit the floor. She was barely over 5’ and weighed 100 pounds soaking wet.

Good thing he learned a long time ago to bring a spare shirt or two to the restaurant when working.... Somethings never changed. He walked to the locker and got a clean shirt out of it. He hung up his wet one on a hanger and left it hanging on the front of his locker to dry. Then he headed back to his office to finish it. He had to straighten this girl out or she wouldn’t last the entire week.

He walked back toward his office but paused in the dining area as the front door opened. The Harmons came in, same table they'd had every morning for twelve years. "How's the boy doing at college?" Jeb asked, and Mr. Harmon told him he'd switched his major twice already. Then Gus Elder shuffled in behind them, and Jeb nodded him toward the coffee. "Rats been getting into your feed this year, Gus? Or are your cats just as lazy as mine?"

Gus shook his head. "Worse. Locusts. Found 'em thick on the south forty yesterday. I'm telling you, Jeb, it's going to be a biblical plague this year." Gus had a biblical plague every year, but Jeb shook his head anyway and said, "Well, I sure hope not, Gus. You let me know if it gets bad." He excused himself and headed back to his office.

As he approached his office, he could see she was standing instead of sitting. Was she thinking of running? Good. She knew how serious it was to show up not only late but late on a day that her boss had called and told her to come in early.

When he walked into the room, and she saw him, her eyes got as big as a saucer. She looked around presumably for someone to save her from him. She asked him, “Where’s Jack Jr.?”

“I’ll get to that in a minute but first I’d like to address your punctuality and lateness this morning” he said.

“But sir, I wasn’t late. I was told I would start at 6:00 am and then someone called my home last night and told me to be here thirty minutes early. I arrived at 5:30 am. That's not late," she replied.

“Who told you started at 6:00 am?” he demanded.

“My boss, Jack Jr. Now will you tell me where he is? I think I’ve answered your questions.” She replied flatly.

Oh boy, she was about to get shocked. Best to pull that band aid off quick.

So, he said “First off, my name is Jeb Smith, Jack Jr.’s brother, and I am your boss for the next couple of weeks or longer. Please sit before you fall down.” Which she did with a plop. Her soft green eyes were huge.

He continued, "From now on your start time is 5:30 am and you work until breakfast ends at 10:30 am. Before you leave, you must help set up for the evening crowd. We are not open for lunch, so you are scheduled for the evening shift. You need to be back here at 6:30 pm and work until 9:30 pm. Which means you will leave here around 10:00 pm."

She sat very still, her hands folded tight in her lap, but her eyes flicked to the clock on the wall and did some math he could see her doing.

"You are expected to work these hours Monday-Thursday. The weekend shift is different. The hours you are expected to be here are Friday 6:00 am to 11:00 am and evening 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Saturday morning hours are the same but Saturday evening we stay open until 10:00 pm so you will get out around 10:30 pm. Every other weekend you will either get Friday or Saturday off. That will give you forty hours a week."

Sixteen hours a day, split down the middle like a biscuit. Her shoulders sank a little, and she rubbed the hem of her apron between her thumb and finger like she was wearing a hole in it.

"Do you understand these hours?"

She said, “Yes sir.”

“Ok” he began, “in reference to Jack Jr. he pulled a bonehead move yesterday at the ranch and fell off the loft while stacking some hay bales----“ he heard her laugh slightly and it was a light musical sound. He wondered what it would sound like louder.

He continued on “anyway he fell and fractured his leg rather badly and is currently in the hospital, but he’s supposed to go home in a day or two. Apparently, they had to put a pin in his leg.” Now why was he telling her more than he had told the others? “ After he gets out of the hospital, he’ll be away for a couple of weeks to a month or so. Now, I hope you are ready to work?”

“Yes sir, just point me to where I’m supposed to be " she said.

"Turn out front and find my sister Iris, tall, bleach blonde and she’ll tell you where to go and what to do. Okay?”

“Thank you, sir. I won’t let you down. I appreciate the opportunity.”

As she left, he thought about what a funny girl. Cute, but funny. And way too young for someone like you, Jeb. Now where did that come from? He shook his head and proceeded with his business.