Cecelia
“Where have you been Dante? I was looking for you earlier. Cliff bailed on me halfway through the work in the barn and now we don’t have enough stalls for the night. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not. They might get out or fight if they have to share.”
“It will be okay Cece. We can go finish up now if we have to.”
“It’s one o’ clock in the morning.”
“What do you have to do?”
I shrugged and told him that I guess I didn’t have anything to do. I was up because Cliff was still around here somewhere. I thought I would find him, not Dante out here. I was angry that he had left me in the lurch and again, Dante showed that he had far more class about everything.
“Thanks Dante. I really don’t know what I would do without you around here. You are like my knight in shining armor.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Well right now we will because I really appreciate the help. I didn’t want to wake anyone up going to the hand’s house.”
He had a strange look on his face for a minute that I didn’t get. I knew Dante and I knew when something was wrong.
“So what are you doing wandering around in the middle of the night? Is this how you pick up all of those women?”
Dante chuckled and the sound eased my soul for some reason. I was grateful that he was willing to help me, but I should have known that he would. Dante was always doing all kinds of things that were helpful. He was the type of guy that I could trust to do what was right, even if it wasn’t very pleasant. There were a lot of jobs like that around the ranch and he had never shirked from any of it.
“No, sadly I don’t think that tactic would work very well.”
“Works well enough for Barb. I have seen the two of you. Are you guys together?”
He shook his head no quickly and I don’t know why I liked that answer so much. I didn’t like the idea of them together, but I was glad he was happy, though it still didn’t answer why he was out here. I had gotten sidetracked with my curiosity and now I was feeling like a boob about it for being so nosy.
“No Cece, I don’t think me and Barb will be having much to do with each other anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, it was never much of anything. Sometimes I don’t even know what it was or what I was thinking having her come here.”
“Well, be nice and don’t let it mess with the rhythm of the place. We need her right now and she does a pretty good job.”
That funny look was back on his face like he wanted to tell me something, but he was having a hard time doing so. “I don’t think that is going to be a problem from my end.”
“So if you aren’t here to find some tail, what are you doing out here this late at night? I didn’t see you for supper.”
Another shrug and his eyes moved away from me. “I don’t know. It seemed like a nice night to get out. I was going to check the barn to see if it was in good shape before I went to bed as well. You know I don’t sleep very well.”
“I thought that was getting better. I hadn’t seen you on the porch in a while.”
His jaw tightened and the dimple that was sometimes there, a smile almost always on his face was gone. We had been walking to the barn the whole time and we were finally almost there. Several boards still had to be put up to finish the stalls and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
“With all the sounds in the night, the porch isn’t very peaceful anymore.”
I felt a wave of heat moving to my face and I knew what he was referring to. Cliff liked me to be a little vocal and I liked the reaction that I got from it so it made me a little wetter to think that Dante heard me as well.
“Sorry about that. I really need to remember that the window is open.”
There was a silence that fell over us and I was unable to think of anything good to say. I knew that there was a way to handle this situation, but I really didn’t know how to do it gracefully.
“You know Cece, we have become something more than coworkers since I started working here. And I hope that you can trust me. I like to think that we have some kind of report than just working together, that we have something akin to a friendship.”
“I can. Of course, Dante. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I have something to tell you that you aren’t going to like. I mean, you really aren’t going to like it and I don’t want you getting mad about it because I am just telling you because I feel like you have the right to know.”
My heart pounded in my chest. He was being so serious that it made me nervous. I didn’t know what to say or what to do about it all. I knew that he wanted to be clear with me and I didn’t like the setup of the situation.
“Just spit it out Dante, geez. You act like you are starting a federal case.”
“You don’t know how hard this is Cece. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell you this, but someone has to.”
The buildup was killing me and when I finally told him so, he blurted it out and I was stunned. I had been expecting a lot of things, but never in a million years would it have been that. What in the world was going on here?
“You saw them?”
“Yeah I walked in on it a little while ago. It was definitely Barb and Cliff getting it on. I didn’t want to say anything, but I thought you should know.”
I was shaking my head and telling him it was okay. I wanted to know. Which was true. I did want to know, but now it was hard to look him in his eyes. I guess maybe I really didn’t want to know, but now I had no choice. I knew and I was going to have to process it and figure out what the hell it was that I was going to do. The most obvious answer was to get rid of Cliff.