My Knight

“Kota, did you read this letter?” My father asks, I lift my eyes from the tack I’m cleaning. I squint against the harsh sun shadowing his hunched figure. What now? Tossing the rag over my shoulder I stand and step over the bale of hay I had commandeered for a seat.

“What letter?” Papa responds by tossing the stapled stack of flimsy papers in my direction. A glare mars his thick tanned leather like skin. Years in the sun has taken its toll, from his rough hands and broken body to the leather skin. I can look forward to it in my future too. I scan the header and scoff, it’s the same BS as always. “Don’t they know we ain’t interested in their offers?” I dropped the pages into the pail of water I had been using.

“Apparently we haven’t gotten the hint across well enough.” He grunts as he drops onto a bale of hay, lighting a cigarette. I listen to the familiar sound of his jingling spurs as he rolls it on the bale.

“Ain’t nothing gonna get through their thick skulls, not unless it’s lead.” I rub at my chest feeling a rush as I drop onto my bale with a breath. The searing pain tingles through the fairly fresh scars that mark up my torso. Damn things won’t let up.

“Them fancy doctors said to take it easy girl; have you been listening?” Papa asks with his heavy drawl, taking a heavy drag of his cigarette. I snort as I drop my hand, pulling my rag in the process to clean once again. I can’t even remember the last time I cleaned my saddle.

“Yeah, just like you taught me.” Scrubbing away at the dirt I listen to his growl of frustration as he strikes the bale again with his spur.

“Dammit girl! I ain’t gonna play with this shit. I don’t know if you heard or not but you died up on that damn table.” His voice grows thick and I drop my head with a sigh, tilting my head to look up at him. My father has never been a man who gets emotional easily, but hearing that his little girl was laid up on an operation table, and it wasn’t looking promising. Was a hard pill to swallow for him. It still got him and my ass wasn’t even buried.

“Papa, I’m fine. I came home still kicking.” Papa shakes his head, his lips thin before he shakes his head, rubbing under his cowboy hat.

“Dakota, that’s not the point. You almost didn’t. I know you’re a Marine, a damn fine one at that. But you aren’t bulletproof, I’m not ready to lose my girl.” I feel the cold sweats start as I’m transported back to that night overseas. Not one I want to revisit. That night, my unit and I got pinned down in a rat hole, under siege with limited options. Tuck tail or make a stand. We made our stand, but it didn’t go without losses. I think of the men that didn’t come back to the states upright.

It’s always a sad day carrying a casket home. “Papa, you ain’t gonna lose me anytime soon. You oughta know by now that I’m too much of a hard headed heifer to go down that easy.” I joke to him in an effort to lighten his mood. He gives me his classic hard stare before a soft chuckle falls from his lips, letting his head hang.

“Girl, you make me crazier than any son I ever could’ve had.” I chuckle and give him a lopsided grin. I’ve been a hellion since the day I popped outta the womb. There hasn’t been a day where I wasn’t getting into something. In my younger days it was stuff on the ranch and that transferred to the Marine’s. Boy was that a blast. I’ll always miss the service, it gave me something I hadn’t been able to find here. Patience for starters.

Now I focus on training horses, getting thrown in the dirt more times than I can count. Making a living training horses ain’t easy or even money making. But it sure is fun. “Well hell, I knew you wanted a son, I didn’t want you to feel like you missed out on something.” I change rags to start conditioning the well loved leather.

“Trust me, you did good.” He chuckles softly as he scrubs his features, trying fruitlessly to remove the strain on his features. Lately the developers have been pushy and only growing in their efforts. They have never been told no in their cushy lives, now they just want to take it all. Greedy pricks. Taking everything they can get their grubby hands on.

“What’s on your mind Papa?” I rest my elbows on my knees, watching as he stands with a grunt and a scowl. Never a good sign.

“I don’t like how things are playing with those people. Things are gonna start to happen- I just don’t know what.” He frowns as he stares out the back door admiring the farm for all that it’s worth. “I want to start riding the property more, the perimeter, check herds, shit like that.” So he feels the storm too. I sit straighter, nodding.

“Do you want more trail cameras put up?”

“I want our asses covered, use some of that spiffy training you got.” He calls out as he walks away, his spurs jingle with each uneven step he takes. His limp is more pronounced from his recent hip injury. That man is as stubborn as an ox. The thought makes me chuckle softly as I shake my head and turn to finish conditioning the saddle. Yet another menial task to give me pitty work. My doctors have not been kind enough to clear me for work yet, Papa has refused me the ability to actually get my job done and touch a saddle with my rear.

Not that I’m keen on listening to doctors orders. It’s taken a lot of restraint to keep myself from getting in the saddle. I stand with my rags in one hand and the saddle in my other, heading for the tack room. I chuck my trusty saddle up in place and pray I can use it soon. I have to pause staring at the water logged pages, before I grab them. What is their play to get this place? I’ve never been interested in their offers, no matter how many zero’s they add or how many numbers they change.

We’ve told them countless times to piss up a rope and they refuse to listen. I drop the papers in the fire barrel and slide my shades down over my eyes. I’ve missed home. It was a long time coming, my last deployment was running longer than I had expected. And then abruptly ended. My phone rings, with its annoying shrill sound, I answer it to save my ear drums not checking the caller ID. Let’s face it, if you have the number, you better have a good reason. “Yeah?”

“Baby are you out at the ranch?” The voice I hear brings a smile to my face. My Fiancé never thought I’d say that. Kevin Marshall, one of the few men that I grew up with, and lucky for me he saw me as something more than one of the guys. I always figured I’d be subject to a toy pleasing my needs.

“Where the hell else would I be? What’s up?” Walking to the fence I watch our newest ranch hand is put to work breaking a bad habit of bucking in a horse. At least it’s a show, even if it makes me crave feeling the leather of a saddle more.

“Nothing, I thought it would be nice to come out and see you. Besides, we have to get a few things ironed out for the rehearsal dinner.” Great, more planning. I rest my arms on the top rung of the fence, my left foot rests on the bottom rung as I settle in for the show.

“What else do we need to figure out for the rehearsal dinner? Aren’t we just supposed to eat?” What else do we need to practice? The bay stallion commences to kicking up a storm, twisting and bending like the wildest bronc. This boy really needs to learn his seat and quick. They tend to not like how my father teaches new hands to get their seat.

“Well that, but more importantly we need to get the placement of tables and the table setting. Who we want where- make sure no fights are started.” Try not inviting the whole damn town and there won’t be fights. I want to point out, yet again as he sighs. I wanted an outdoor wedding, preferably here, with just family and some friends. Not make it the event of the ages.

“I’ve told you I only wanted friends and family, you wanted all the extra heads coming.” This is your bitch to rein in. I want no part in playing babysitter on the day I walk down the aisle. He acts like more of the girl in this relationship. The thought makes me want to chuckle, I’ve never been the typical girl, but after a certain point. It’s sad when I have more balls than my fiance. It does make me second guess things.

“Baby, I have a big name in town. Everyone wants to come see who is lucky enough to tie me down.” The cocky statement makes me snort and roll my eyes.

“Honey, your head’s getting too big for your neck. Sooner or later you’re gonna start looking like one of those stupid bobbleheads.” He chokes out a laugh and I shake my head. Kevin has always had a massive ego, only getting worse with his recent financial growth. I don’t think he’ll ever grow into the damn thing.

“Oh please! Like you’ve never gotten full of yourself.”

“I ain’t saying that I’ve never worn britches too big for my rear. Trust me, I have the scars to prove it, you on the other hand need to get dumped in the dirt some, rough you up.” Kevin has turned into a pretty boy. Almost too pretty for my taste. A break in the business world has made him forget his start in hard labor. Anyone who can put up with me is a dime a dozen. The thought makes me chuckle.

“I’ve been roughed up plenty, thank you.” He snorts. “I’m not as rough as you are, baby, I leave that for you. I know you rock it better than I ever could.” Back to sugaring me up. I smile at that before I steer the conversation back to the main reason for the call.

“When is the rehearsal dinner? I have to make sure to give the boys time to get all perty.”

“You’re inviting the help?” His tone makes me scowl. Kevin once was the help, started out just like the rest of them.

“Yes, I’m inviting the help. Without them the ranch wouldn’t be what it is. They’ve earned a fancy dinner. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but you started there too. It’ll do you good to remember that.” I don’t have the patience for him and hang up. Every time Kevin makes a dig at the ranch hands I want to shake him. He gets on my nerves with his arrogance. The ranch hands are a little rough around the edges- but hell so am I. They’re family. More so than he is here lately.

Pushing off the fence I can’t bear to watch the newbie get his ass chucked and not do something. I can’t wait to be in the saddle again. My phone rings to see Kevin’s name. I need to cool off. I turn off my phone, because if he wants to argue with me, he can come and find me. I should get a head start on the security measures for the ranch. I head up to my loft office and unlock the door, listening as the cow bell rings its welcome.

It holds a special place in my heart, having belonged to the first calf I helped birth. I wouldn’t let Papa do nothing to her, she was a fine little bessy. Tore me to bits when we had to put her down. He only ever let me have one cow. He made sure to make me understand that I couldn’t get too attached to the cattle. I was never fond of that side of the business growing up.

Don’t need the extra heartache that comes with the job; animals come and go, it’s the cycle of life. Not that it’ll ever be easy watching them go. I flip the lights on watching as the fan starts to lazily spin moving the muggy heat around. Sweat rolls down the center of my back as I lose my flannel, wiping my face with the bandana I always have stored in my pocket.

I stare at my right hand, flexing my fingers with a fond smile. This is one of my favorite tattoos, always will be. The artists asked what inspired me to get USMC over my knuckles, I had to explain that I wanted whoever was stepping to me to know that I wasn’t the typical broad to step to.

As I boot up my computer I stare at the clutter on my desk with annoyance. Why can’t people put it in stacks? I push it all into neater piles of clutter, until I care enough to sort it fully. Lately Papa has been giving me all of the paperwork to go through, considering I’m still on desk jail. I know he thinks it’s going to get me to listen. Instead the paperwork piles up until I’m forced to work through it. I’ll get to it later. I pull out a large map of our ranch and look over the borders, fencing, and obstructions already marked out.

I know this land like the back of my hand; every entrance, tactical advantage and disadvantage. I’ve walked every acre of this ranch. Hell, even run ops out here. This is not going to be an easy task, I zone each area of the map and start to mark out the risk level. This will be a task and a half.