The Ranch

“I know.” She looked extremely pleased with herself as she kissed him. “I bought it on Monday.”

“You're crazy.” He looked completely overwhelmed and for a minute she was afraid he'd be angry. “Why did you do that?” He wanted to believe all this, but he just couldn't. He had brought her to see a ranch on Sunday, and the next day, she bought it. It defied the imagination.

“You told me I should buy a ranch here.”

“So you did?” He stared at her. “Just like that?”

“The realtor said it was a great investment, and the price was fairly okay, so I figured I'd try it. I thought we'd do what you said. You can breed horses here, I can commute. You can do some stuff for Charlotte Collins. You help me run my little ranch. But we fix it up first. And well see. If we hate it, if you run off with some other rock star, if you decide to move to L. A. and give up broncos, I can always sell it. I figured we'd try it.”

“Oh, baby,” he said, and grabbed her close to him with his good arm. He knew it was for real now. No kidding. “You are amazing.”

“Will you help me do it?”

“Of course I will,” he said breathlessly, after what she'd done for him, there was nothing he wouldn't do now. She had proven herself in every way, and he knew he'd never forget it.

“I wanted to ride over here with you today, and show you.”

“I can't believe this.” He was still beaming as they pulled away and he looked at her again in amazement. “You really want to do this with me?” It was such a leap of faith for her, such a gift for both of them, it defied the imagination. He really did feel as though he'd died the night before and gone to Heaven. “How can you be so decent and so trusting?” he asked.

“Just stupid, I guess.” She smiled and took a sip of his Coke, and settled him back on his pillows. “Is there any reason that I shouldn't?”

“No, ma'am,” he said proudly, “you're going to have the best little ranch in Wyoming. When can we start fixing it up?”

“As soon as you can fly again,” she pointed to his broken wing, “it's ours next week.” It was hers of course, but she was going to share it with him. She figured she'd give it to him as a wedding present if they got married, but that was for later. She still had to get her divorce from Tony, and it wouldn't be final till Christmas. But after that… the possibilities were endless. The sky was the limit.

When they got to the ranch, and people saw the bus arrive, the whole staff was waiting outside his cabin, and they cheered as Tom helped him down the steps and into his cabin. Tanya was walking behind them. She was too afraid to hurt him if she moved his arm wrong. Everyone wanted to talk to him, tell him how glad they were that he was okay. They had brought him books and candy and food, and tapes. He had everything he needed. And now he had a woman who loved him, and the ranch he had always dreamed of. It brought tears to his eyes when he was finally alone with her again in his cabin.

“I still can't believe you. Nothing in my life has ever been like this.”

“Me too,” she said. “I love it here, and I want to be with you.”

“I'll come to L.A. too, whenever I can,” he reassured her.

“You don't have to if you don't want to.” She had learned that lesson now. She lived in a difficult world, and if he didn't want to be part of it, she wouldn't force him.

“I want to. You've seen my world, you're part of it now. I want to see your world too. We can have both, as long as we understand each other.”

“My world can be brutal,” she said sadly, “it'll hurt you terribly, even if you're careful. Nothing's sacred. I don't want them to hurt you.” But as it turned out, she couldn't stop them. The whole story was in the paper the next day, fed to the wire services, and it was on the front page of the tabloids, about how Tanya Thomas had gone to a ranch two weeks before, had an affair with a cowboy, and bought him a ranch a week later. It said how much she had supposedly paid for it, and added roughly a million dollars. And then it told the story of each of her husbands. Most of that was wrong, and all of it was ugly. The headline in the tabloids was A QUICKIE, OR HUBBY NO. 4? WHICH IS IT, TANYA? It approximated how much money he made a year, and how much she did, and it ridiculed her in every way. It cheapened him, it made her sound like a whore. It even made her look like a fool for singing the anthem at the rodeo, and they had the pictures they'd taken outside the bus there. It even told the story of how he'd been stabbed allegedly by another wrangler fighting over her in the corral. It made the knifing sound like a fight between two men vying for Tanya, and the article claimed she'd nearly been killed trying to stop them. She sat in her room at the ranch, feeling sick as she read it. The trouble was, there was always just enough truth in those stories to make people wonder. And she was worried about Gordon. What would he think of her when he read it?