Chapter 1-3
600 Words
On her way back down the plane’s aisle, Tina stopped at their row, took out her cell phone, and asked, “Could I take a selfie with you guys?”
“Sure.” Jake gave her one of his friendly smiles. “How do you want to do this? We could all stand and—”
“No, no, I’ll just sit between you two and if you lean in…”
Barry got the idea, so stood and gestured for Tina to sit in his place.
Jake’s smile disappeared. “We come as a threesome.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “If you want our photo we can stand up and you can stand between two of us and take it.”
“Uh, yes, of course.” Tina’s professional smile remained firmly in place. “That would be wonderful.”
Jimmy and Jake got to their feet, Jake took hold of Barry’s elbow, stepped forward, and turned them around, their backs resting against the row of seats in front of theirs. Jake then wrapped an arm around Barry’s waist and motioned for Tina to stand between Barry and Jimmy.
Tina bit her lip. “Uh, could I ask you to put on your cowboy hats?”
The overhead locker was opened and the hats were taken out. Barry had debated not taking his Stetson to Britain, arguing he wasn’t a real cowboy, but Jimmy and Jake had insisted he take it.
Hats in place, the men leaned in and Tina snapped their picture.
“Thank you,” she said, reviewing the image. “This’ll prove to my girls that I really did meet you guys.”
“No problem,” Jake said, putting their hats back in the locker and retaking his seat. Barry could tell his red cowboy still wasn’t happy.
“Would you like our autographs?” Jimmy asked.
Tina looked around, no doubt making sure her boss wasn’t watching to see what the holdup was about. “Could I? That’d be really cool.” Her perky personality was starting to grate on Barry’s nerves.
“Sure,” Jimmy told her. “Got a pen?”
Tina produced one and gave it to Jimmy, who asked, “Who’s your favorite cowboy character?”
“Rory,” Tina said immediately.
Barry saw Jake unsuccessfully hide a smile.
“But my youngest, Emma, she likes you best,” Tina bubbled.
It was Jimmy’s turn to smile.
Jimmy slipped the in-flight magazine from his seat pocket and wrote, To Emma, from Jimmy, your favorite Ranch-O-Rama cowboy.
“She’ll be so pleased. Thank you,” Tina said, smiling down at Jimmy’s neat penmanship. Barry had always admired how well his cowboys could write. It put his own chicken scratchings to shame.
After learning the name of Tina’s youngest daughter, Jake reached for his motion sickness bag and scribbled something on it. Barry wondered about the appropriateness of the writing material, but Tina didn’t seem to mind.
“Here, Barry, you can write on this,” Jake said, laying a paper napkin on Barry’s knee. Looking up at Tina, he said, “Without Barry there wouldn’t be a game.” Was there a note of challenge in his voice?
“Oh, yes.” Tina nodded in agreement.
Barry was uncomfortable, as much for Tina as himself. He felt like putting, Sorry I’m not a cowboy, but in the end he wrote, Tina, thanks for being the flight attendant for the men of Ranch-O-Rama. Barry. Though as he handed over his napkin, he wondered if maybe he should have been the one to have written on the barf bag.
“You didn’t have to push me on her like that,” Barry told Jake once Tina had moved on.
“The f**k I didn’t,” he growled. “Without you…” He shook his head and took Barry’s hand. “You’re everything to me ‘n’ Jimmy.”
Barry swallowed and managed a quiet, “Thank you.”
“We fuckin’ love you, Barry Logan,” Jimmy leaned in and whispered. “Without you, me and Jake would’ve probably lost the Double J.”
Barry shook his head. Okay, the ranch had been struggling when he’d first shown up, but he hadn’t done that much.
“Yes,” Jake insisted. “You saved us from starving, from bein’ kicked off the ranch, from…lots of things.”
Barry found himself in the center of an awkward three-way half hug with Jimmy’s right arm and Jake’s left holding him from behind.
- Writer
