The Ranch

“Rise and shine!” Zoe said, as Mary Stuart pulled the covers off and took Tanya's mask off

“You're both sadists!” Tanya groaned, squinting in the sunlight. “My God, what is that… I'm going blind.” She rolled over on her stomach and refused to move as the other two pulled her off the bed just as they had in college,

“It's called sunshine, and there's lots of it outside,” Mary Stuart said, as Tanya sat slowly upright in pink shorty pajamas. “If I didn't know you better I'd think you were a drunk, the way you wake up in the morning.”

“It's just old age. I need a lot of sleep,” she said, staggering slowly to the bathroom.

“Well, Big Max is waiting,” Zoe added.

“Tell him to go back to sleep, he'll feel a lot better,” she said, yawning, but twenty minutes later she was dressed and showered, and she looked as spectacular as she did every morning. She was wearing pale pink jeans and a pale pink T-shirt, her old yellow boots, and a pink bandanna. Her hair was down her back in a long braid, and there were soft tendrils around her face that made her look incredibly sexy.

“That ought to catch your wrangler's attention,” Mary Stuart said, when she saw Tanya's outfit. She looked better than ever. “It's a shame you're so ugly.” Mary Stuart smiled at her, suddenly anxious to see Hartley. She had thought about him all night, and she felt like a kid waiting to see him that morning. For the moment, they were just friends, but the undercurrent of something more intrigued her.

They were on their way to the dining room, when Benjamin crossed their path again, and Mary Stuart looked as though she'd seen a ghost as he walked beside them. He wanted to stand next to her, and it was almost eerie the way he wanted to be near her.

“Where's your mom, Benjamin?” Zoe asked, sensing Mary Stuart's discomfort. It was easy to see why. Although she had never seen Todd, the child actually looked like Mary Stuart.

“She's sleeping,” he said matter-of-factly. “My dad told me to go get breakfast.”

“How come she gets to sleep and I don't?” Tanya complained.

“She's eight months pregnant,” Zoe explained to her.

“I'm going to look like a hag by the time we leave if you guys don't let me get some sleep. It's not good for your health to wake up this early.”

“Who said that?” Zoe grinned.

“I did.” Tanya glared at her as they stepped into the main building, and the three of them strode across the dining room a moment later, with Benjamin right behind them. He was sticking to them like glue, and Mary Stuart was determined to ignore him. But when they sat down at the table they'd used the day before, he sat right down with them. Tanya was amused by him, and Zoe liked him too, but neither of them wanted to upset Mary Stuart. They tried to suggest he go sit with his friends, but he absolutely didn't want to.

“It's okay,” Mary Stuart said to them finally. “Don't make a big issue of it.”

“Are you okay?” Tanya asked her pointedly, and Mary Stuart nodded.

“I'm all right.” You couldn't protect yourself to that extent. No matter how much it hurt to see him sitting there, you couldn't create a world without children.

“Nice fax from your husband last night, by the way,” Tanya commented as she drank her orange juice. “Very warm and emotional and loving. Nice guy,” she said, and Mary Stuart smiled. “Sorry I read it, but I couldn't help it Are you going to answer?”

“There's not much to say.” And then she thought of something. The night before had been almost dreamlike, and she was beginning to wonder if it had ever happened, sitting there with Hartley's arms around her, holding her close, and him telling her he wanted to get to know her. “By the way, I clarified things with Hartley last night, about my husband. You were right, I think he did misunderstand what I said. But now he's clear.”

“Did he care?”

She tried to sound cool about it, but the others didn't believe her. “Why would he?”

“Because I don't think he's interested in offering you a secretarial position,” Tanya explained as though she were retarded. “The guy likes you.”

“We'll see what happens,” Mary Stuart said calmly, and couldn't help noticing Benjamin in his red cowboy hat staring at her.

“You look kind of like my mom,” he said, looking at her, “and my Aunt Mary.”

“My name is Mary too,” she said to make conversation, “Mary Stuart. That's kind of weird, isn't it? Stuart was my daddy's name, and he wanted me to be a boy, so that's what they named me.”

“Oh,” he said, nodding. And then, “Do you have any children?” He was far more interested in her than the others, it was as though he sensed something different about her.

“Yes, I have a daughter, but she's very big now. She's twenty.”

“Do you have boys too?” he asked, munching on a Danish Zoe gave him.

“No, I don't,” Mary Stuart answered, and the child was too young to understand the tears in her eyes as she said it.

“I like boys better,” he said matter-of-factly. “I hope my mom doesn't have a girl when the baby comes. I don't like girls. They're stupid.”