Susan had driven all day Saturday and finally got to Montana early in the morning. She was bush and the only thing on her mind was getting a room for the night. She heads towards the Hotel where she had made her reservation at to see if she could add today onto it. The clerk at the counter was nice to her and went ahead and added today to her bill. She had paid for a week. She parks the Cadillac and grabs the suitcase she had brought back in Nebraska. She had manage to get a new number for her phone and she found a really nice western clothing store and brought several outfits, boots, hats and everything she needed to present herself like a cowgirl. She opens the door to her room and once she is inside, she heads over towards the bed and crashes, after slipping her new boots off her tired feet.

Susan wakes up later in the afternoon. She pats around on the bed near her body for her cell phone. She knew she had it when she passed out on the bed. She finally finds it and checks what time it was. It was five in the afternoon. Susan gets up and heads into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready to go out tonight. She wanted to meet some of the contestants that would be in the rodeo this week. She dresses in the cowgirl clothes she brought before she got here. She makes sure to only take two hundred dollars with her. Susan looks at herself in the mirror to make sure she looked nice. Susan takes her key card and tucks it in a pocket on her new jeans. She takes her cell phone and tucks that in her new purse.

“Ready or not, it’s time to party.” Susan heads out of her room and down to the Cadillac and drives over to the bar she had been told, allot of the cowboys and cowgirls hang out at.

She hopes there will be people there tonight. Susan finds a nice parking space and parks the Cadillac. She notices that her Escalade looks out of place with all the other vehicles in the parking lot. Susan gets out of the Escalade and heads inside the club. She finds a table and orders a non-alcoholic drink. She gets into a line dance and has fun doing that. An older cowboy comes walking up to her.

“Hey little cowgirl aren’t you kind of young to be in here?” An older gentleman in his forties looks at Susan.

“As far as I know, it’s not illegal to be here. I just can’t order alcoholic drinks.” Susan holds up her glass.

The gentleman just smiles at her “so what brings you in here tonight? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in here before.”

“I thought it might be fun. I wanted to meet some actual cowboys and cowgirls. Plus, mingle some and see if I could find a job. I’m new to the area.” Susan takes a sip of her coke.

“Where are my manners? My name is Jake Meadows. I’m the owner of Triple Bar Ranch.” He holds his hand out to Susan.

Susan accepts it and shakes his weather hand.

Jake watches the young girl. He notices the bruising around her eye and the marks on her throat she was trying to hide with the bandana around her throat.

“So where did you just come from?” Jake stops a nearby waitress and orders himself a long neck.

Susan waits till Jake makes his order before answering his question.

Jake turns his attention back to Susan.

“Virginia Beach, Virginia. I thought a change of location and scenery would do me some good.” Susan takes another sip of her drink.

“Well, I have to say being here in Montana is totally different than being in Virginia. How did you get here?” Jake accepts the long neck bottle the waitress brings him.

“I drove. I just packed up my stuff and drove all the way here.” Susan looks at the people behind Jake line dancing.

“Your kind of young to have driven here all by yourself? I thought you had to be eighteen years of age to have your driver license?” He takes a
swig of his beer.

“Normally, you would be right. However, since I was married” She holds up her ring hand and shows him her wedding ring “I was allowed to get my driver license last month.” She pulls her wedding ring off and let it sit on the table in front of her.

“It was one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I had to marry a jerk who doesn’t know how to treat a woman. I thought the bastard love me and wanted to have a family and go straight.” Tears were ready to leak from her eyes.

Jake could tell that this girl in front of him was ready to cry. He had a daughter at home almost this girl’s age.

“Why did your parents allow you to get married at such a young age?” He takes another swig of his beer.

“My parents had nothing to do with it. I was in the care of the state. They let me get married because I told them I was in love. I guess at the time I was in love, till the bastard started abusing me and caused me to lose our baby.” Susan closes her eyes and tries to calm down and stop herself from crying.

“So? I take it he’s still back In Virginia than?” Jake could see the poor girl was trying to put on a brave face.

“Yes! He doesn’t know where I went. I told him when I talked to him yesterday; I was heading to Texas to get away from him.” Susan reaches for her drink. She wishes it was a stronger one, but she knew there would be no way the bartender here would serve her anything stronger then soda. They had checked her ID when she came in.

“Why did you come all the way out here, instead of Texas?” Jake had spent some time in Texas. He thought the state was beautiful. That was where he had met his wife at.

“I don’t know. I guess because I love the pictures I have seen of Montana. The culture and the fact that there are still real cowboys and cowgirls here, enjoying the open fields and the blue sky over them. Texas is too hot for my taste. I think the temperature of Montana is more suited for me. I believe that people who live in cities get too caught up in punching a time clock and moving fast every day and don’t know what they are missing. Which is something I can relate too? I got so caught up in the moment of being with my husband, that I didn’t see the danger signs or the real him. I was too distracted with the gifts and attention he gave me.” Susan realizes what a jerk she had been to have trusted Robert.

Jake sits quietly and listens to this poor girl. He could tell she was hurting. If she had been allowed to drink, she would be drunk right now.

“So? Are you going to the rodeo tomorrow?” Jake figure she should change the subject.

“I was planning on it. I want to see how you real cowboys ride their horses and rope the cows. I figure I would be around for a week and hope I
could make some contacts with people that might let me come and work for them.” Susan wipes the tears that had started to slide down her cheeks away.

“Do you know anything about working on a ranch?” Jake might consider hiring her if she has any skills; if not maybe he’ll offer her room and broad, in exchange of learning about working on a ranch.

“Very little sir. I did some work at Circle L ranch down in Virginia for the summer, in exchange for room and broad. I enjoyed it. I learned how to handle a horse from one of the workers there and I mucked the stalls and feed the animals.” Susan had enjoyed that summer. She didn’t want to leave it.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a chance. I’m going to be in the rodeo this week. If you’re willing to help me and my hands out during the rodeo,
I’ll give you a job on my ranch and provide room and broad, along with a small salary so you can get yourself something.” Jake liked this girl.

“I’ll take the job, but keep your money. I have money for now. When do you want me to start?” Susan figures the money she is taking from Robert should be enough to live on.

Jake was surprised when she told him to keep the money.

“Where are you staying at now?”

“I have a room for the week at the Best Western a couple of miles away from here.” Susan knew she could extend it if she needed to.

“Okay! I want you to meet me tomorrow morning at 5 at the fairgrounds. Tell John who should be on duty tomorrow that you’re working for me. I’ll leave your name at the gate. Wear something you won’t mind getting dirty, because I am going to work you hard.” Jake reaches into his
pocket and pulls out a business card and hands it to her.

“If you have any trouble, call me.” He hands the card to her.

Susan takes it and looks at it and then at him “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You may not like the work I’ll have for you tomorrow. Do you have a pair of leather gloves?”

“No sir.” She didn’t think about buying any.

“I’ll see if one of the boys has a spare pair to loan you.” Jake thinks he has a spare pair in his trailer that she could use.

Susan looks at Jake “Why are you doing this for me?”

“Let’s just say, I’m a sucker for a pretty face. Do you want to dance?” He stands up and holds his hand out for her.

“Why not” Susan stands up and takes his hand. She follows him out onto the floor.

Susan dances all night with Jake and even tries the mechanical bull. She does well on it. Jake introduces her to a few of his friends as a new employee of his that he is watching over. By the time one in the morning rolls around, Jake looks at Susan.

“You better head back to your hotel room and gets some sleep. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow.” Jake gives Susan a fatherly smile.

“Thanks Jake.” Susan stands up on her tip toes and gives Jake a kiss on his cheek.

Jake watches as Susan leaves the bar and heads out to the parking lot.

“Don’t tell me that you’re smitten for that little tart.” A well dress woman with long brown hair comes walking up to Jake from behind.
Jake turns around to face her “are you jealous of her Brenda?”

“Why should I? She’s a child and I am a grown woman, Jake.” Brenda moves close to Jake and rest her lightly tanned hand on Jake’s chest.

Jake just looks at Brenda” Maybe at one time your charms may have worked on me Brenda, but you’re barking up the wrong tree. I have no interest in you.”

“Oh, come on Jake. You’re still not mad at me for that little misunderstanding.” She leans like she was going to kiss him.
Jake steps back “I caught you in bed with Darrel, Brenda. How is that a little misunderstanding?”

Brenda just looks at Jake “Come on Jake, you know we weren’t really in a committed relationship at the time.”

“You may have thought we weren’t Brenda, but I know I did. Good night Brenda.” Jake turns and walks away from Brenda.

Brenda watches as Jake walks away from her. She was going to make that girl pay for moving in on her man.

Susan heads out to her Cadillac Escalade and climbs in. She couldn’t believe her luck. She starts the SUV up and starts heading back to her hotel room. She gets to go behind the scenes at the rodeo tomorrow and she has a job on top of that. She looks at the time on her center console display and it shows that the time is three in the morning. She needs to reset the clock for Mountain Time. She heads back to her hotel and up to her room. She calls the front desk to wake her at four in the morning. She strips out of her clothes and slips her night gown on and crawls under the blanket and falls asleep.