Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was a part of her that was both disappointed and relieved to have been sent away so soon after setting foot on Dallas' ranch for all of thirty seconds. She had taken an Uber out there, since it was far, and was immediately struck by a nearly crippling sense of nostalgia at the sights, sounds and smells of the ranch. Upon locating the cowboy, who had been very busy, he already had an errand for her. That was to immediately turn around and go pick up one Ms. Jules and bring her out to the ranch.

That's where Knot found herself now. Once again behind the wheel of Dallas' beloved Mustang, and cruising through the suburban neighborhood of the nurse. Currently alone with her thoughts as to why her short time at the ranch left her reeling. They were thoughts she shelved for the time being as she pulled the Mustang right up into Jules' driveway, and got out of the car. She came around the vehicle, walked along the path, and hopped up to the front door, where she rang the bell and then waited.

Knot heaved a silent sigh, pushing her aviator sunglasses to rest on the top of her head, nestled against the messy top bun she had thrown her hair in earlier.

Knot beamed as the door was answered by one Jules. It was a good thing she was home. She wasn't sure what she'd do otherwise.

"Ms. Payne~" The woman greeted cheerfully. "Glad to see you up and moving." You know, after Dallas plowed her not too long ago. "I'm not one to beat around the bush, so I'll cut to the chase." She smiled still, and bent to give the older woman a knightly bow. Much like the one Beringia had given her the other night, except not as stiff.

"Your presence is demanded right now by one rogue named Dallas at his ranch outside of the city. I'm your carriage for the day, milady." Knot tilted her head up to look at the woman, grinning lightly. "And considering I'm still in the learning phase, failure of me to produce the goods will result in termination, and that isn't acceptable. So please make yourself ready to go, or this will turn into a kidnapping, ma'am."

She beamed.

"Well, I'm not against giving a kidnapping a try." Knot shot back with a grin, but alas, it was an adventure saved for another day since Jules had agreed.

For those two minutes and one purse later, the woman had straightened and was idly looking about Jules' front lawn from the door. The last time she'd been here, it'd been night, and well, it was a lot different during the day. Cute, even. Being in a neighborhood like this was a new experience for her. She'd only ever been in the city proper since she woke up. Knot turned to the woman when she returned, and smiled. "You're a life saver. Again." She replied, and at the prompting, pulled the keys for the Mustang back out. She spun them by the ring on her finger as she made her way back to the car, but paused on her way to the driver's side to open the passenger side door for the woman.

"Because I actually have manners."

Unlike Dallas.

After Jules was in, Knot closed the door, and then made her way back to the driver's side---by Dukes of Hazarding across the hood of the Mustang. Luckily she was wearing jeans today (or else she'd wouldn't be sliding, period), and slid across the polished surface with ease. She landed on the other side, and then got into the car. She started it up, and grinned over at the woman.

"You can go ahead and tell him what I did. I ain't scared."

With that, they were on their way.

Knot was relatively quiet during the drive, unless prompted with a question. It wasn't that she was anti-social, just that she focused on the route to get back to the ranch. While it was something of a drive it was better, actually, since Jules was outside of the city, and the ranch just a bit further instead of a lot further. The woman did speed, too, so soon enough the Mustang was pulling into the long gravel drive of the ranch.

Knot drove the Mustang until she reached the spot Dallas had left it when she took it, and then the beast of a car was turned off. Knot looked over at Jules with another grin. "Ta da." She said, and got out of the car. She came around the car to open the door for Jules, and looked about. "Even though we're here ...I'm not sure where Dallas is, now." She mused. "I was only here for all of ten seconds earlier before he sent me to get you."

Worst case...she'd try to call him.

Dallas had a plentiful morning doing work that wasn't the mercenary sort. The ranch was thriving more now that he had the cattle and horses in, and he had a couple of ranch hands. Young kids that wanted cheap work or free board. He offered both, worked with their school schedules and put them up in the barns in small apartments. His own ranch house wasn't large, but probably for a single man, it seemed so. the 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house wasn't the diamond of the whole thing.

It was the land around that was, and he had gotten lucky buying it for a decent price. Gloved hands came to wipe sweat away. He hadn't thought to take Knot out today and teach her more things, no sometimes....Sometimes good lessons came from working in the good ol' mother dirt and hay.

After shovelling out stalls with his workers, in the blistering heat, Dallas had been feeling like inviting Jules for a nice dinner and had a couple of roast smoking in the back yard. He almost didn't hear her call, and responded only when one of the kids knocked the other saying two hot women were outside. "Get back to work ya mongrels." Dallas grinned at him, "Have the steers in by 5, Hay's set. Make sure to check in on Deliah, she's close to delivering and we gotta make sure the vet is around for it." One of the mares he invested in earlier the year had come with a small surprise in the form of a foal growing in her belly. Dallas didn't have a problem with that, since the Stallion and Other mare did just fine.

As he exited out, a large fluffy tabby meowed at him and shoo'd it away. "Go catch something for once you fat fluff of whole lotta nothing. Get outta here Barn." He grinned at Jules, as he came closer. A whole lotta of sweaty even more bronzed man sweeping her up to give her a deep kiss. Did he care about making her gross? Not really.

Once he was done, he looked over at Knot. "We got some work to do." To Jules, "There's some boots in the shed. We got some stalls to muck." And then he was sauntering off.

The cowboy appeared, looking as dusty and sweaty as ever.

Jules expected him to stop in his tracks when he arrived at where they were standing but it was clear that the Southern gentleman had a different sort of greeting that he wanted to give her. She had enough time to splay one hand out against his chest in startled surprise, his mouth descending on hers and silencing the short, confused noise with his sudden kiss.

She looked mildly dazed when he released her, the confusion spreading to her expression as he barked orders to Knot, then.... to her?

Wait.

What?

"You fetched me all the way out here... to work?"

The young woman at her side was no help either, soon offering a suggestive pose as an alternative of getting her out of barn work. Fingers drew up to pinch her nose as she took in a deep breath.

1...2....3....

"I knew I should have asked more questions."

Shaking her head, she marched her way over to where she assumed the shed was located and was already yanking her purse from off of her shoulder. She could certainly call for an Uber to get the heck out of Dodge but she was already there and things obviously needed to get done.

Next time, though, she'd take her chance with the kidnapping threat.

"Oh wow. You really think she's going to have it tonight?" She wanted to see that.

Knot quirked a brow when the man lifted her chin, and was half expecting another pass that involved her thighs, so color her pleasantly surprised when it didn't happen. She smiled. "You got me in the winter, but I can officially start now too, yeah?" She asked, just to clarify. The thought of working here...even if it was just part time, was very appealing to her. It felt comforting and familiar.

The woman glanced for their other companion to make sure she was still with them and not lost. Her gaze shifted back to Dallas, as he spoke about Barn, and when he ended the statement, she was able to put two and two together.

"...You named your cat Barn?"

Sandy blonde hair popped out of the stalls and looked at Jules. "Barn was from the shelter, was on the list to be put down. Had half a tail so they thought he was useless." Said cat came trotting through, looking at both the women, and gave a deep half meow as he watched for mice to pop out.

"Yeah his name is barn. He's as ******** as big as one."

There was a deep laugh, scratching and hay moved around. From the stalls was Dallas's rich voice singing some country song.

"Six lanes tail lights
Red ants marchin' into the night
They disappear to the left and right again
Another supper
From a sack
A ninety nine cent heart attack
I got a poundin' head and an achin' back
And the camels buried in a big straw stack"

"Pitchforks in the shed too darlin's." He stopped whistle for a bit and then grinned, "I bet you make a mighty fine roast Jules." He waited, "But nothing beats a slow cooked smoked meat."

She had no earthly idea what "mucking" involved and Jules quickly learned she wished she hadn't known what mucking involved.

Nevertheless, she put forth the effort into helping get the stables prepared for the mother-to-be and the soon expected little one. Barn wasn't much help, though he made for a decent break when she needed to take a moment to herself and relax her sore hands with a little bit of chin scritching and back scratching.

By the time the dirty job got done, she'd learned two things:

One, Dallas had a shamefully handsome singing voice. The drawl was soothing, a timber rumble as it only broke from the occasional turn as he shoveled around in the stalls.

Secondly, she was not made for manual labor of such level.

Her poor palms and fingers were feeling raw and sore, no doubt the beginnings of some ruthless looking blisters. Unless a miracle were to happen, she'd probably have to end up calling in for work the following night - there was no way to keep her fingers pinched or her wrists steady with the way the soft skin was aching.

Ah, well. Some people were born for the role - Jules would simply stick to her own vocation and leave Knot to assisting the ridiculous cowboy in his ranch endeavors.

One arm rose up to wipe the sweat from her brow, the other leaning her weight against the pitchfork, the head scraping against the ground. Blue eyes looked over their hard work, the woman personally satisfied with how things had evolved.

"If your mare has an issue with how her home looks now, she's going to have to finish sprucing it up herself."