hands raised in surrender . as much as striker exercised a gentle hand , a softness that was often overlooked within most cowboys , there was a part of him that was incapable of lying about anything worth lying about . â alright , missy , iâll keep it cold , hard and truthful when speakinâ with you . my tires are on their last legs as is , â with the car door open the male swung up into the passenger seat . it was a whole lot fancier than his ford pickup , a car older than him and spluttering on its last choking gasoline breaths . whenever he took a seat on his own front bench there was the strange lingering scent of chinese takeout , manure and grot , punctuated by a collection of month-old parking fines and paperwork that he would look at soon , if you just stopped mithering him about it !!Â
â yeah , i like it , â striker responded , open mouthed , as his tongue was loaded with a mash of half-chewed potato , spewing out across his jeans and the dashboard that was now home to his shredded workboots , â itâs the only thing iâm any good at for a start , anâ i love cows . i could tell you anythinâ you wanted about them . this right here is country boy heaven , â without an education it seemed manual labour was all striker could busy his time doing . what else would he do , now that he was on the wrong side of forty without a qualification to his name , with a roof over his head that shuddered in strong wind and , every few months , required a tarp or a bucket to catch leaking rainwater . â anâ they ainât so bad . i guess they look like brutes from the outside but theyâre gentle , theyâre like big dogs , and iâve existed more or less in one piece since i started workinâ at puhlmanâs . my boss looks after me , â and striker was sure that , if it was possible , guillermo would pay him more , but with a struggling ranch on his hands he couldnât blame the owner for handing out paychecks that barely covered gas . with another flurry of chip salt like a grease-scented first snowfall , he mumbled : â i wish i could look out fer you half as much as you look out for me . â
âyou better,â she cautioned, though her smile lingered. âhard no bullshit policy in the stanton household, for better or worse. did notice your front passenger tireâs lookinâ a little fucky â place just outside of town sells used tires for like, twenty bucks. theyâre shit, but theyâll do it if youâre in a bad spot. if you need a ride, i need to replace the spare on the old girl, anyway. think iâm one pothole away from fucking up the ecosystem or whatever.â the tires were the least of the lebaronâs problems, but they were, if she played her cards right, the cheapest.Â
she understood the sentiment â it didnât seem like there was a place in roswell where she hadnât worked, at least for a little while. waitressing, bartending, secretary, custodian. she hadnât been particularly great at any of them â jules thought it had been a long, long time since she was great at anything. so she worked jobs so few wanted to do, because at least there was some security in just being there. she felt a smile threatening the corners of her lips, watching striker settle in in his element. only when he mentioned âbig dogsâ did she chuckle, gripping her burger with one hand to free the other as she rolled up the leg of her jeans and awkwardly positioning herself to show the jagged scar on her calf. âthatâs from a doberman,â she said, still half-chewing as she pointed to it. truly, it wouldâve healed a lot better if she hadnât tried to superglue it and waited for hours before accepting it wasnât going to stop bleeding, and she found herself at roswell general with two dozen stitches. âdogs are brutes. but iâm trusting your judgment. kind of.â her conclusion was half-hearted, more to prove her earlier point. âyou ever have to use a lasso? or is that full on john wayne bullshit and just a movie thing?â she tucked her leg underneath her, carefully the most burned french fry from the cup. his quiet sentiment threw her again, and julia had to find a way to stop letting sincerity surprise her. if asked, she wouldâve quickly said she doesnât do shit for anybody, lifeâs a whole lot easier that way. she didnât have time to unpack anything to the contrary. âgiving me too much credit and youâre not giving yourself enough. you do just fine.âÂ