For about ten minutes, Bradin rode his horse, following Kay as she followed a herd of horses. She finally stopped when the horses ran into a bigger, more open field.
"Shit!" she yelled. she jumped off of Bandit and sat in the grass.
Bradin rode his horse up to her, got off of his horse, and sat beside her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said softly not looking at him.
"Kay, talk to me. The guys on the farm are worried about you."
"So, the only reason you're here is to get me to tell you what's wrong so you can go tell them," she said, "If they haven't fucking lied to me, I'd be talking to them!"
"Calm down," he said, "I'm not going to tell them. I'll lie. I'm good at that." She looked at him and shook her head. "I know that you didn't want to hear that. But, you'll find out eventually. Back to what I was saying, I'm here because I was worried about you. As Hank and I walked to the ranch, I saw you go tearing off as you rode Bandit and I got scared that something happened to you."
"Why would you care about someone that you just met?"
"You gave me a place to work on something that I've missed a lot. How can I not be worried about you?"
"I'm just the owner of the ranch," she said.
"Doesn't matter," he said, "You gave me part of my life back. And, I thought maybe you need to talk to someone your age. If you needed me to, I'd leave you alone. However, I don't know my way back."
She smiled a small smile.
"Come on," he said standing up, "Let's go back. We can go slowly."
"You're not going to rape me or something are you?" she asked.
"I'd never do something like that to any girl. It's an invasion of their privacy, that's how I look at it."
Kay stood up, walked over to Bandit, and climbed onto him. Bradin did the same to his horse. As the rode their horses back slowly, Bradin and Kay talked. "Why were you chasing those wild horses?" he asked.
"To see where they were going or came from," she told him, "Something is going on out here and I want to figure it out soon."
"If you need help, you can call me up. I'll be there for you."
"Thanks," she said as they arrived at the ranch. She stopped Bandit, hopped off, and took him to his stable to feed him and let him rest. As she gave him water, her uncle walked up to her. She didn't want to talk to him at that moment.
Bradin watched as Kay walked into her house. He felt bad that he couldn't do anything to help her. It hurt him a lot. He didn't want to sit back and watch her go through this. He wanted to do something for her.
Six o'clock came around and Bradin was cleaning up before he headed home. As he walked out of the stables, he saw Hank walking up to him. "Come on," Hank said, "Kay is cooking dinner for the workers. Once a week, she cooks for us."
Bradin nodded and hid a smile. He and Hank walked into the house and saw in the dining room. Bradin got up right away and walked up to Kay.
"Kay?" She looked up from the bowl she was putting food in. "Can I use your phone?" She nodded. "Thanks." She went back to preparing the food. Bradin used the phone in her kitchen and watched Kay as she brought food into the dining room by the employees. She walked back into the kitchen as Bradin hung up with his aunt. He noticed that Kay was about to cry. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.
"It's nothing," she said quietly.
"Kay," he said as he touched her arm softly, "please."
"Please don't touch me," she said moving away from him, "I know that you're trying to help. But, please don't touch me."
He placed his hand in his pocket and watched her. He saw her break down harder and run off. "Kay!" he yelled. She ran through the dining room and up to her room slamming her door shut.
"What's going on?" her uncle asked walking up to Bradin.
"I don't know. She just started crying and ran to her room."
"Why don't you all go home?" Jay suggested. "We'll do dinner another time."
As Bradin walked by the stairs, he looked up and prayed that Kay would be okay. Then, he left with Hank.
