Jimmy Makes his Point
 

Instead of meeting Nell in Coffs, Jimmy Kelp waited at the Tavern in Millie’s for her to get off work. He’d been thinking seriously about what Travis said about moving her out to Glenridge…that is if she wanted to move out there. He was going to pitch his argument tonight.

Nell came into the Tavern and saw Jimmy at the bar and walked over giving him a kiss, “Hi sweet.” She said and sat down.

“Hey there pretty girl, have a hard day did ya?”

“No not too bad, how about you get trampled by cattle today,” she grinned.

“No…not today, burnt a few though, we’re brandin’.”

“That just seems so cruel.” Steve brought her the usual and she sipped her drink.

“Hafta do though, you got anything you wanna do tonight?”

“No I haven’t made any plans for us did you come up with something?”

“Oh well uh I was thinkin’ you know you’ve never been out to my place and it’s a lot closer so uh maybe we could have a ride out to Glenridge.”

“Well I don’t know um what does your boss think about that?”

“Travis don’t care he’s easy. What do ya say that okay with you if we do that?”

“Sure, I thought you lived in a bunk or something.”

“A bunk,” he chuckled, “bunkhouse nah I got a nice little farmhouse, you um might like it.”

Jimmy drove through the gates at Glenridge and followed the dirt road that forked off the main drive. It wound around a ways to a clump of trees where his house was. He had a great view of the pastureland, but of course you couldn’t see that at night. He’d been cleaning it out for three days so he felt fairly comfortable opening his front door.

Jimmy had a good sized lounge room with a big fireplace and worn leather furniture. Bright woven rugs on the polished hardwood floor. He had one painting over the sofa and Nell walked over to have a look at it.

“Where is this Jimmy?”

“That’s Arizona, Nell that’s where I come from.”

She turned and looked at the room, “This is nice, I don’t know what I expected maybe something a little more rustic,” she smiled a little.

“I might look rustic and work rustic but I like a little comfort.” He took a breath and looked around hoping he hadn’t left something out somewhere. A pair of worn cowboy boots by the door was the only thing out of place in the room.

“Kitchen and eating area is over here,” he led her though and back out into a hallway, bedrooms here, and here,” he opened the doors. Twin beds in one and the other was his room with a large bed and gleaming freshly polished furniture. “This is where I hang my hat.” He grinned.

“Got a bathroom across here and these steps lead up to the loft, I ain’t gonna take you up there, I do some work up there and well that’s where everything that was piled up down here went.”

Nell laughed, “It’s really nice Jimmy.”

“Nell, do ya think it’s nice enough…I mean would you be interested in um moving in here with me?”

That surprised Nell, “Well I…I wasn’t thinking about moving Jimmy.”

“You think it’s too soon…ya see I thought it would be closer to your work and we wouldn’t be missin’ that thirty minutes drivin’ to Coffs every night and I’d be here if something went wrong I needed to handle. It’d just work out all the way around…I thought.”

“You’ve been doing a lot of thinking I see…maybe I need to think about it.”

“That’s fine, take all the time you need…I’d be real honored if you did Nell.”