Heartbreak Town (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty Three

      Renne was sitting on the porch swing at her Mamaw's house, enjoying the quiet, peaceful, alone time that she was blessed with. She decided to spend the time with the Lord and a cup of some strong, hot coffee. Just as Renne lifted her coffee mug to her lips, she heard a truck throwing pebbles and dirt from it's tires as it made it's way down the driveway. Slowly lowering the mug from her expecting lips, Renne looked at who it was disturbing the first alone time she had in a while. 

       "Hey, Reagan, get your stuff. We gotta go!" Swayde shouted at Renne, sticking his head out of the open truck window. A huge smile was plastered on his face, pushing up the rims of his sunglasses. 

      Renne glared at him, letting him know that he interrupted her peacefulness. He wasn't supposed to pick up her until around 5pm tonight, but yet he just showed up at 6:30 in the morning without any warning. "Why are you here so early?"Renne called back across the yard, refusing to move from her comfortable spot on the porch swing. 

      "Will you just get in the truck? We got thangs to do." The smile never faltered from Swayde's face. 

      Renne could hardly heard him due to the distance and the loud idle of his diesel. "Not till you tell me why." She stood her ground.

       "I just wanted to spend more time with you today, but also, my buddy just got a new horse. She's a crazy one. We thought you would wanna come out and see her." When Renne seemed more peeved than interested, he added, "She's a mustang."

      With that, Renne couldn't help herself, but to smile. Setting down her Bible, devotional book, and coffee on the porch swing, Renne threw the blanket off her and ran inside the house to grab her purse, jacket, and cowboy hat. After slipping her boots on over her jeans, Renne ran back outside, grabbing her coffee as she made her way to Swayde's truck. She was glad that she was already dressed for the day since Swayde decided to pick her up so early. 

      Running down the porch steps, Renne plopped her cowboy hat on her head, flinging open the passenger side door, hopping in. After setting her wallet on the floorboard and putting her coffee in the cup holder, Renne buckled up, turning to Swayde. "Well whatcha waitin' on, cowboy? We got a mustang we gotta go see." 

      Swayde smiled and chuckled as he threw his truck in reverse. When he backed out, he purposely spun his tires on the gravel, making the truck fishtail some as he sped out, onto the road, causing Renne to giggle at his spontaneous rambunctiousness. 

      As Swayde drove, taming down to his normal, safe driving, he told Renne, "Now that I have successfully 'kidnapped' you, I'm puttin' you to work. My buddy has about 150 head of cows and heifers that need to have CIDR's implanted, and we have to run a new fence line because the one rail broke. Who knows what else he will have us do while we are there." Swayde smiled, looking over at Renne. Seeing a perturbed look on her face, he chuckled as he asked, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

      "You said we were goin' to see a mustang. You said nothing about implanting cows, or workin' on fences. If that was the case, I would have stayed home. It's too early to do that kind of work." To hopefully give her some energy, Renne took a swig of her coffee.

       "You have always loved waking up early to do ranch work, what has changed?" Swayde asked, driving with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window.

        "Nothing has changed; I love doing work on the ranch, but my time here is kind of like a vacation. My working brain doesn't start until at least 8am. Besides, I thought that you wanted to spend time with me today, not put me to work as free labor on your buddies ranch!" Renne teased. Not having eaten breakfast yet, she was a little on the grouchy side.