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Jr. wasn’t a man,” Ty said as they headed down the gravel road. “I thought you said it was all guys out here on the ranch.”
    “I could have warned ya,” Swede wheezed between chuckles. “But thet would’ve spoilt half my fun. Sides, we all think of the boss as one of the guys.”
    “So what’s the story with Lex Jr.?” Ty asked. He figured by the time they reached Burns, Swede would tell him all he needed to know about his new employer. No one ever said Lex was a man, Ty just assumed. It was the last time he would make that type of mistake.
    “The boss is named after her daddy. His mama was from Kentucky and named him Lexington, for her hometown. Lexington Joseph Ryan was his given name. Everyone called him Lex. When he up and married one of the prettiest lil’ gals to ever be born, they wanted a baby somethin’ fierce.  They tried and tried, looked into adoptin’ and finally jes gave up. That’s when they found out Lex Jr. was on the way. Good goshen, that was back a few years. Almost thirty years ago. Anyhow, Lex jes knew thet baby was going to be a boy and had the rest of his life all planned. Little League, football games, college sports, and then takin’ over the ranch. Ol’ Lex was left spitless when the doc told him it was a girl-baby.”
    Swede took a deep breath and went on. “They named thet baby gal Lexi Jo, and everyone called her Lex, jes like her daddy. When there weren’t more babies, people added on the junior, knowin’ she was as close to a boy as ol’ Lex was gonna git. He taught her everythin’ he knew about ranchin’ while her mama tried to teach her how to be a lady. Her mama died when she was seventeen from kidney disease while waiting for a transplant. It was a sad, sad thing to see. Lex Jr. got it in her head she was done with ranchin’. Quick as she finished high school, she skedaddled off to Portland, put herself through college and managed investments for a bunch of snooty rich folks. When her daddy got sick last year with the brain cancer, she come home thinkin’ he’d get well. But he didn’t. Thet is not a good way to die, my friend. Not a good way at all.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Ty said quietly. He couldn’t imagine how awful it would be to have your brain slowly consumed by disease.
    “Lex Jr. promised her daddy she’d keep the ranch runnin’ so she went back to Portland, packed up her stuff, left her fancy job, and come home to the Rockin’ R permanently. She’s been tryin’ to git things straightened out since November. Her daddy’s head was off longer than any of us realized and the ranch books are a mess, along with many other things. She’d have the dealers work on the equipment, but she decided it would be less expensive fer us to hire a mechanic and have one on hand should somethin’ break down instead of being at the mercy of someone else’s schedule. Her daddy was a fine, fine mechanic but never took the time to teach Lex or any of the rest of us. We’re mighty glad ya come when ya did. We got about six weeks before everythin’ needs to be up and runnin’.”
    Ty absorbed the information. He admired Lexi for leaving her life in Portland to keep a promise to her father. It showed she was a person of honor and loyalty.
    He also realized he was really going to have his work cut out for him if he had to get everything up and going in little more than a month’s time. If he was familiar with the equipment, that would be one thing, but this was going to be trial and error as he went. Tractors, swathers, combines, balers, and all the other farm equipment he’d discovered manuals for this morning were foreign to him.
    “I’ll do my best to make that happen,” Ty said, wondering for the fiftieth time that day how he’d get all the work completed. Maybe things weren’t in that bad of shape. The tractor he was working on now looked to be a simple fix. Maybe the rest of the equipment would be as easy to repair.
    “I know ya will, son. I know