A/N Below. Please review, as reviews are love. And, really, that's all the world needs. That, or a can of soda.
A few days after her presentation, Sam was sitting in the living with Cody and Jake when a suped up pickup pulled into the yard. Everyone had gone out, and Sam had volunteered to watch Cody so they could shop for him. Even though he didn't understand the concept of Santa, it seemed important to uphold the ruse, if only for the benefit of the adults. Jake had finished up working on the car early with Darrell. He was glad to have skills that meant something, a hobby that was a decent investment of his time, unlike Bryan who'd been a video game addict. He and Darrell been making decent money selling to the baby boomers, and had joined Cody in a rousing game of stacking things up high to knock them down. When he heard the car pull up, though, he went to the door to see a man get out of the car, and walked up to the porch. Jake, noted the man's self important swagger and went to open the door so he could get out of there sooner. He needed to get a read on the guy, who looked speculatively over at the barn and the land, as if he were assessing it for something. When the man was in earshot, he snapped his gaze to Jake.
The man spoke "I'm looking for a Mr. Sam Ely."
"Excuse me?" Jake wasn't sure who this guy wanted, him or Sam, but until he got more information the guy wasn't coming inside. His early read on the guy was confirmed. The older man's mannerisms screamed sleezy.
"Samuel Ely. The boy's been training my horse. Chickadee." The man spoke to Jake as though he were stupid.
"Oh. Come in. There seems to be a...I'll get he..Uh, Sam." Jake's mind was whirling. Who would they be working for that wouldn't realize Sam was female? She never intentionally allowed there to be confusion after an incident in the sixth grade. His brothers still teased her about it.
"Sam?" Something in his voice allowed Sam to pick up Cody and come into the kitchen.
Sam had heard another voice, and was unsurprised to find a strange person standing in her father's kitchen. "Hi, I'm Sam Ely. Who are you?"
"Frank Smithe." The man rose Jake's hackles. He looked at Sam fleetingly, and dismissed her. Sam didn't seem to notice, and Jake wasn't about to let the insult slide when he sneeringly continued, looking at him instead of Sam "Where's the man who's been working with my daughter's horse? She dotes on the beast, misses him, she says." The man was stern. "She says she's been talking to Sam and that her horse is ready to come home."
A lightbulb went off for Sam. "Oh, Mr. Smithe! Nice to meet you. Would you like to see Chickee? I've been working him and he does seem to miss Roxy." Sam was happy to see the man. Chickee was indeed ready to go home.
But the man glared at her and turned turned to Jake, "Young man, my friend Linc recommended this ranch as the only place who could help my precious daughter's horse, even though he has little respect for your outfit. I can see why! Letting a slip of a girl work with my prized horse?"
Jake's eyes were cold. "I see. We didn't know you were a friend of Slocum." Jake's tone said it all. He added, "Friends of his aren't welcome here." Granted, this wasn't his ranch, it was Wyatt's and he couldn't make that call, generally. But the horse was their client, and he could choose clients.
"Jake, we couldn't have turned away Chickadee." Sam implored. "Mr. Smithe. I...may be young, but I have been working with horses like yours for years. Chickee just needed assurance that he was safe and that the fire wasn't anything to do with him."
The man spluttered, "Girl, that horse is an animal. It no more needs psychoanalysis than your cat on the stair there! Now, who is responsible for my horse? Surely not you. I will not fund your girlish ideas."
Sam began, but Jake, who had remained silent through the tirade, cut in. "It was my wife who oversaw Chickadee's recovery. You have a healthy horse with only my wife to thank. As it turns out, the last thing we want is your money. We'd have to put up with you long enough for you to write the check. Please leave."
The air crackled with energy. Jake simply met Frank's eye for a second, after which Mr. Smithe stormed out of the house.
Sam was shocked, "A bit wordy there, huh, Jake?"
"Couldn't let him think you were incapable. God knows you yell at me enough about it."
"I do not!" Sam scolded.
Jake was still a bit ticked when his phone rang. "Hello?"
"Jake, my buddy! Look, I got a really good lead on a car for sale through one guy I know. You up for another project before going back to school?" Darrell sounded enthusiastic, but what else was new?
He ran his hand through his hair. On one hand, they really needed the money. Moving from the dorms was going to be a tax on their savings, no matter how glad he was about it. On the other hand, it sounded like a larger job from what Darrell was saying.
His friend cut into his thoughts. "Jake, you there? Look, this is a one time offer. He's going to walk away. Are you in, man?"
"Sounds like we could flip it." Jake ventured.
"I agree. So I should do it, then?"
"Yeah, set it up. I'm on my way." He sighed. He was going to have to leave Sam and Cody to go to Three Ponies and pick up his checkbook and meet Darrell to go and see this car. Granted, they survived on the partnership between him and Darrell, so it was a good thing. Their partnership hadn't exactly started out that way. Darrell had gotten in over his head with a car he'd fallen in love with and just had to restore. He'd been lost with some the problems the car had, and Jake had bailed him out, using skills Nate had taught him over the years. In gratitude, Derrell had split the profits with Jake and they'd slowly turned a hobby and a mess into something that made sense with their schedules and didn't take a whole lot of time during the semester. It did take considerable skill and patience, as well as a nose for what cars would be worth fixing up and restoring. Jake did that part. Darrell made the contacts and smoothed things over with the parts people and buyers. Never in a million years would Jake be a part of these projects if he'd had to deal with people on a regular basis like that.
"Sam, I've got to go." He called as he hung up the phone.
She turned from filling Cody's sippy cup. Her brother dropped it on the floor and the lid, not fully tightened, fell off. She sighed and grabbed a bunch of paper towels as she asked, "Where?"
"To see a car." Jake grabbed the toddler away from playing in the sticky mess.
"Good luck, then." She swiped a soapy rag across the floor for good measure and took Cody. "Don't let Darrell fall in love with an absolute mess and demand you fix up a money pit."
Jake cracked a slight smile as he placed his hat on his head and turned away. "Naw, he only does that if he's not eaten yet. It's after dinner."
Her snort of laughter was muffled by Cody's demands to be played with, and Jake set off knowing he wished he could play, too.
The next day, a foreman stopped by to pick up Chickadee. He congratulated Sam on standing her ground with his boss as he passed her a check from the sexist idiot. Jake, once again, put it into perspective. "What else did you expect with a buddy of Slocum's?" Then he muttered about Slocum's for a good hour. Still, he was glad to see they'd get their cut when Wyatt cashed the check. Jake would have walked away from the deal as a matter of honor, though he knew honor didn't pay tuition and grocery bills.
I was going to wait for another review to upload this, but I figured Friday is Friday. Also, I wrote this chapter for two reasons. One of my first forays into creative fiction was about a girl who is continually mistaken for a guy on the telephone and letters due to her name. So, that had to be included. The sippy cup dropping comes from experience with toddlers.
My main reason for writing this chapter was to get inside Jake's head. I've been trying to do that, more and more. As a woman, it's somewhat ungainly to frameshift like that. Even in writing, I don't understand men. But, I also wrote this to answer questions I asked myself about where they were getting money and how they walked the fine line between dependent on their families and an independent couple. It seems to me that Jake would be the sort to turn a hobby into something lucrative.
So, yeah, fluff.