She

Billie Bob Jones

"I'm sorry I have to take this," Benedito sighed as he stood up from the table then walked away to answer his phone.

I looked towards him with curious eyes as I noticed his shoulders visibly tense. For a moment I had forgotten Dita was there as I just continued to study the man. He turned around and looked right back at me, but I did not look away. That caused him to have a cocky smile on his face.

I rolled my eyes before looking back to my plate of food. Even though anything delicious made my soul happy, I barely had an appetite and wished for the minutes to go by faster. I was itching to get back to the ranch and ride. Something I knew and somewhere I belonged. Not a five star restaurant surrounded by people who had too much money for their own good.

I felt suffocated and being under Dita's gaze did not help. She was just as judgmental as Benedito. Being around him was already enough for a person to deal with but now with her as well made things harder. She was more beautiful than one could ever describe and her poise was textbook.

She took her gaze off me and watched him with a calm expression. I wondered what was she thinking and did she approve of his business decision to invest in a ranch. Not that she had a say in anything but if I was going to work with her I needed to know if she respected our work or not.

Benedito finally ended his call and walked back to us. "Unfortunately I have to leave," he sighed. My heart fell to my stomach when I realized he was leaving me alone with her. "There's an emergency back at the office that I have to attend to."

"Of course Benny, I'll handle everything here," she smiled.

"Thank you Dita," he leaned down and kissed her forehead almost making me choke on air. "Bobby my apologies."

"No problem Dito," I grinned hoping it covered my nerves. Dita looked at me almost in surprise before looking away.

"I'll see you at home," he said to her one more time before he left.

If my suspicions were not confirmed before about them being together they definitely we now.

"I guess we can head to the warehouse. There's so many goodies I'm so excited to show you," she smiled as she called the waiter and paid for the bill. We headed back to the parking and I was surprised to find a black Rolls Royce Cullinan standing before us.

We both climbed in, the interior of the car matched Benedito's and his scent still lingered. He must have trusted her a lot to allow her to use his car so casually.

The warehouse was nothing like what I imagined. It was the state of arts with its design and different sections. There were so many gadgets and scientists walking about in their white lab coats that I secretly wished Benedito was here. If I could have asked him nice enough he would have probably given me full tour.

Dita led me to their security room and showed me different types of cameras, fencing and reaction protocols the systems had. The cheapest system alone was worth two hundred thousand dollars and from the one the ranch would set up with was double that.

I had never been into futuristic technology but spending two hours in the warehouse brought out a fascination I never knew I actually had in me. I found myself asking Dita and the two tech guys with multiple questions, I did not even understand half of the answers but they sounded pleasing to me.

All the worry I felt from before completely vanished and I found myself getting excited about the ranches renovation. If this was simply for the fences I could imagine how the barns would be changed.

"Are you pleased with the progress we made today?" Dita smiled as we made our way back to the office.

"Absolutely. I must admit I am a bit old school but my soul, I can't wait to get back to the ranch to tell Clyde about this," I grinned.

"I'm very happy. I'll send the documents for Clyde to sign off after I've briefed Benedito and we can start construction hopefully next week if everything goes to plan."

"That would be wonderful," I nodded. She stopped in front of my truck. "Thank you for the ride."

"My pleasure. I look forward to our meeting next week."

"Same to you," I titled my hat in her direction before I climbed out of the car.

By the time I jumped back into my car I felt much more relaxed. The soft maroon material of my seats instantly comforted me as I started the car and drove out of the parking filled with fancy cars. I played music on my stereo and continuously tapped my fingers on the steering as I looked forward to driving into Bloom.

Even though the day went really well I still felt agitated. I wondered why Benedito had never cared to mention to me that he had a partner. Not that I expected him to because of how private he was but it would have been good to know.

He and Dita seemed incredibly close. Someone in such a serious relationship would not even entertain the idea of being interested in a man, especially me out of them all. In his word I was worth a cup of coffee. I was not even close to rich but at least I lived comfortably.

She was like a bull everyone died to ride. Flip even I would have been tempted to be with her. Even though the whole situation made no sense to me Benedito was one lucky man that was for sure.

Halfway through my drive home I lit a cigarette needing the nicotine to calm me down. I had practice later on that afternoon and my meeting with Clyde would probably take an hour or two if he did not ask too many questions.

"How was the meeting?" Clyde clapped as I sat down in his office and put all the files Dita had given me on the table.

"It was good," I smiled sparing him the details of Beneditos interaction with Dita, "The manager is very friendly. She's just as good as her boss."

"That's excellent. I'm happy he gave us someone we could communicate directly with. I heard he's helping NASA launch a new rocket tomorrow. I'm surprised he even had time to have a meeting with you," Clyde shook his head with a grin as he paged through the file.

I stared at him in shock and wondered the same thing. The rocket compared to the ranch was a huger task to take on. No wonder his phone was ringing every five minutes and his stress. Why in the world would he sacrifice important hours to just have a meeting with me?

"I guess he wanted to make sure our transition to Dita went smoothly," I cleared my throat and smiled.

I hated lying to Clyde but I felt sparing him my useless drama and thoughts was for the best. What happened Benedito and I would simply stay that way.

"So tell me about the cameras they want to install."

"They are heat sensitive cameras that will detect any heat signal coming close to the fence before it even reaches it. They will be placed at multiple intervals throughout the fence. If it detects a heat signal the mechanical fences will go up creating a tall wall that the cows or anything can't easily jump over," I explained as I took out the test pictures.

"From there it will send a signal back to the ranch with the exact coordinates for us to react to. It's all very neat if I do say so myself," I smiled.

"It will help us a lot and make things much faster if one of these maverick bulls decides it wants adventure," he chuckled. "Benedito mentioned guards last time?"

I nodded, "from what Dita explained to me there will be a team of guards at each corner of the ranch to make sure no intruders would enter. The equipment they're going to invest into the ranch is worth a lot of money so I suspect it's more about the safe guarding of their technology than us."

"Either way it's a benefit for us. The less time we have worrying about escaping bulls or intruders the better. You'll have more time for training to become the great star you already are and your Ma will continue bugging me about luxurious holidays," he sighed.

"With lots of free time comes great responsibility," I joked making us both laugh.

"Why you two laughing like drunk horses?" Ma popped out of nowhere making both Clyde and mines face flush red.

"I fell off my horse," I quickly lied.

She eyed me, pursed her lips then raised her eyebrow after scanning my body, "Hmm, you don't look like someone who fell off a horse."

"Jordon did you see that we ran out of cream?" Clyde quickly diverted her attention.

She gasped because to her that was the greatest tragedy of all time than her son falling off a damn horse, "I'll pop out to get some. Thank you for telling me I was about to start baking."

"My pleasure love," Clyde smiled before she quickly disappeared.

"That was a close one," I grinned.