Chapter 26
When I came to work at the ranch, I was given a tour then, too, but it was Chavez who led me around, and only to the places I needed to know for the job I was hired to do. The bunkhouse, the barn, the creek where the men bathed, and a quick ride on horseback around the perimeter of the property, which took a full two days. We camped out in one of the small shacks scattered around the ranch for that purpose—whenever a cowboy needs to stay out overnight, he bunks down out in the field instead of riding back to the main house. The shacks sleep four comfortably, and it was just the two of us, Chavez and me. We slept in what we wore that day, he on one side of the room, me on the other. It was easier to hide my body from him than it would’ve been in a bunkhouse full of men, which wa
