River Lane

Chapter 11

                                                                              Chapter Eleven

            When I woke up, I wasn’t sure how the day would go. After Garrett didn’t come back to the party, I was hoping he had thought things through and wasn’t mad at me anymore. I hadn't seen him at all yesterday. I had done my best to stay inside the house all day and stay upstairs at meal times but today i was ready to see how things would be between us and try to make them right. I decided the only way to find out was to go see for myself.

            I walked down the stairs with a grin on my face. It was a beautiful morning and I had my hopes up that things were going to start going well. I was wrong. When I walked into the kitchen, things were going on as normal. Claire was scrambling around getting breakfast ready, the few kids that were awake were fighting over something and Jared was sitting at the table starting to eat. The main difference was the somber looks on everyone’s faces.

            “Why does everyone look so somber? It’s not that early in the morning,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. It was only after I had got me a plate and scooped some breakfast onto it and sat down that Jared answered me.

            “Garrett is gone”. That was it. No explanation or reason, just ‘Garrett is gone’. I wasn’t sure how to react.

            “What do you mean Garrett is gone? Where did he go? When’s he coming back?” I asked, erratically looking back and forth between them.  This time it was Claire that answered me.

            “Honey it might be a while before he comes back. He packed all his things and left yesterday.  He was on his way to Utah and I think it might be a while before he comes back this way. Sorry.” I had suddenly lost my appetite. Just then Ryder came running in.

            “Momma I’m hungry”.

            “Well you’re just going to have to wait a minute,” she replied.

            “Here bud, you can have this plate, I got it all made up just for you,” I told him as I set the plate down on the table in front of him. “I’ll be back in a little while,” I said as I walked out the door. Claire gave me a heartfelt look. She thought she knew how I was feeling. But truthfully, even I wasn’t really sure how that was.

            Walking down the porch stairs, I wasn’t even sure where I was headed or what I was doing. Instinctively I headed to the barn. Surely there was some fence somewhere that needed fixing. Some cows that needed to be checked on. It was a ranch, there was always some sort of work that had to be done and I was just as good as any to do it.

            Opening the barn door it took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dusty pale light that was coming through the high windows that lit the place in the day. A couple of horses snorted at me and I could hear the crunching of the hay and grain as they ate their morning breakfast.

            Most of the stalls were empty. During the summer the only ones that are kept inside are the mares with new babies, injured horses, or the ones that are being rode hard through the day. All the rest are out in the pasture where they can run and get plenty of exercise and don’t need as much feed.

            I grabbed a wheel barrow, pitchfork and shovel and began cleaning out one of the stalls. About three stalls later I heard someone walking into the barn. Getting my hopes up to who I thought it would be I was thoroughly surprised and irritated at who it really was.