Page 45 of Flowers To Give
“Oh, her? Yeah, she heard enough to corroborate me but I sent her away,” Laurelai answers the forming question, tacking on, “Thank God. She would’ve choked on her own drool if she’d caught that very loud ending.”
Barry puts up his hands, admitting defeat, “We’re real sorry, Mrs. Radison. Honest.”
“Ha, I bet you are.”
“So what are you gonna do?” Jeremy isn’t going to stoop to kissing ass, stating, “If you’re going to fire us then just do it.”
“Fire you?” Laurelai’s eyes twinkle with mischief, “No, babes, I don’t think so.”
Jeremy’s brow scrunches, not knowing what kind of game she’s playing and just asking outright, “Then what do you want from us?”
“From him? Nothing. But you, on the other hand,” Laurelai steps into the tack room, smile gone and expression sinister as she continues, “Isn’t it pretty clear by now?”
Not following, Jeremy shakes his head while maintaining eye contact with the actress.
“I don’t like you,” she says plainly, “I think you’re the reason Clark dragged us to this mountain. You could burn this place to the ground and he still wouldn’t let me fire you.”
“So you’re just planning to make my life a living hell instead? Until what? Until I decide to quit and leave?” Jeremy fills in the rest.
She bats her eyelashes, sarcastic smirk back as she pivots toward the door and says as a goodbye, “I’ve gotten what I need out of this. Enjoy your cattle drive, boys.”
Jeremy watches her until she’s out of sight, eyes flicking over to Barry who’s watching him closely. The ranch hand steps into his space and says, “I guess there’s no avoiding it now, she’s going to tell everyone what just happened.”
“I don’t know if she will,” Jeremy looks back out the door.
“What makes you say that?”
“In Hawaii, Clark told me that him and Laurelai are getting divorced,” Jeremy shares the secret, “I don’t think she wants that to get out. If she tells people that Clark kissed me, it wouldn’t look good for her.”
“Alright, maybe. But she’ll definitely tell them about us fucking in the tack room. C’mon, she’s a menace! She’ll do it just for fun!” Barry exclaims, gesturing back after her.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Jeremy crosses his arms, “We’ll just have to deny her and Marie’s stories. We should probably stay away from each other for a while.”
Barry exhales, shoulders minutely relaxing. Jeremy pats him on the back and they go to their horses to continue their work. Despite what he said, Jeremy’s heart won’t stop pattering from nerves. Laurelai very well may not tell people about the kiss with Clark, but she’ll most certainly confront her husband about theunfaithful act. He hates himself for bringing that up to Barry so carelessly, wishing he’d just kept the kiss private.
Continually tripping over his own two feet, Jeremy curses himself once more. Clark’s not even back from Vancouver and he’s already wrecking all the chances he has of mending that relationship. This will undoubtedly haunt Jeremy, getting the impression that he’s just thrown a stone into still water and the ripples will come back to drown him later.
Sky glowing violet as the sun sets, Jeremy enters the barn alone with the bull. Doing the roundup with Barry had been successful, the ranch hand not speaking much and especially not referring to what had happened back in the tack room with Laurelai. The rest of the day had gone by smoothly, no immediate danger, and Jeremy is finishing up by putting this unruly bull in the barn to sleep for the night.
This isn’t an easy task, having to be very careful of the angry bovine situated in the barn. He uses his body to tempt the bull and get it in a certain direction, trapping it in a metal railing system. He opens a gated chute and it goes running through metal alleys and into a pen that Jeremy’s quick to trap him behind. Dusting his hands off, Jeremy’s turning to leave and grab some grub when his phone dings. Checking it as he walks, his footfalls slow as he reads the text from Merle.
“hey, gonna be in Colorado this weekend. Can I see you?”
Not sure how to respond, Jeremy quickly becomes distracted when he hears a squawking from behind him. Pocketing his phone and searching the dusty barn floor, he finds a baby barn owl tweeting madly on the ground and flapping its tiny nugget arms. Gently scooping the creature up in his hand, he checks to make sure it isn’t hurt. Seeming to be fine and nibbling at his thumb, Jeremy puts it in his shirt pocket as he looks up for the nest. He spies a mess of branches and debris clumped togetherin the crux of a support column right above where he found the little owlet.
Looking around, the beam is next to the hayloft. Climbing up the ladder to the secondary platform, Jeremy knows he still won’t be able to reach up there. There’s a stepladder somewhere up here in the storage area, being mindful of the small creature in his pocket as he leans over to move crates away from the wall. He finally spies a full ladder and decides to test his luck. Extending it from the elevated platform, he leans the top against the post and shakes the ladder to make sure it’s stable.
He starts his climb up the precarious incline when footfalls echo below. A shadowed figure walks into his view from the dimming light that spills in through the open barn doors and nearly knocks Jeremy right off his ladder, calling down, “Hey! You scared me!”
“Jeremy?”
“Clark?” A whole different fear chills Jeremy’s blood at hearing that familiar voice.
“Yeah, it’s me!” he confirms from below, calling out, “Why are you up there?”
“Oh, uh,” Jeremy suddenly feels vulnerable, explaining himself as he continues to climb the ladder, “A baby barn owl fell, I’m putting it back in its nest!”
“Be careful!”
