Darling

10. a long night

"I love you too Spence," Sawyer smiled as she pulled the redhead into a hug. "Now save some of that bourbon for me, we're gonna need it while we get ready."

The girls had agreed to get ready at Greenquest, mostly because Spencer wanted nothing to do with her family at the moment. Her father was trying to force Monica and Kayce to move back to the ranch after Kayce got arrested; Beth was trying to sleep with Dan, and Rip brought back a God awful new hand from state prison. Plus John was trying to work an angle on Monica to get her off the reservation that Spencer didn't agree with, even if it was better for their family. It seemed that anything and everything that could be going against Spencer's family was, and she didn't know how to help. She was good for two things on the ranch, wrangling cattle and making problems disappear. So all the commotion that was occurring was out of her league, leaving her to focus on a task that Beth had taken upon herself to fix.

Greenquest Estate Ranch was one of the newest big time ranches in the state of Montana. Where Yellowstone had its roots firmly settled in their seventh generation, Greenquest and the Taylor's were only on their third. But that didn't stop the ranch from continuing to sprawl on the other side of Bozeman. And the Taylor's were good people. Grant Taylor was born and raised in town, and his wife Ella was from Billings. But the largest difference between the Dutton's and the Taylor's was their children. The Taylor family wasn't tied to their ranch in the way the Dutton's were, which had never really made sense to Spencer. Her whole family had been born on the ranch, and were buried on the ranch, and the cycle continued. But Sawyer and Jackson had been encouraged to leave Montana, see the world outside of Bozeman. In some ways Spencer wished she had the same push from her father, but in many ways she was glad she was able to stay on the ranch.

"Afternoon Mrs. Taylor," Spencer greeted as she walked through the kitchen door with Sawyer. She hugged the woman before waving to Grant who had walked in as well.

"I know you did not just Mrs me," Ella feigned shock. "Just call me Ella, Lord knows my mother-in-law is rollin' in her grave hearing you call me Mrs."

"Yes ma'am."

Ella shot Spencer a look before a smile broke over her face. Mrs. Taylor hadn't been raised in the world of Bozeman and its formalities. In many ways she reminded Spencer of her own mother in that way.

"Spencer, Sarge," Jackson greeted as he entered the kitchen. Sawyer rolled her eyes at the nickname that her brother had come up with in their childhood.

Spencer chuckled at the girl, "Hey it's better than Tiny."

"Fair point," Sawyer agreed, "Okay we're going to get ready, no one bug us thank you!"

The girls ran up the stairs like highschoolers excited for their first big dance. But it was an exciting moment for both of them. Neither had planned on getting any recognition for their musical abilities, leaning into bigger passions early on in life. Yet here they were, getting ready for a concert- albeit it a small one- because people wanted to hear them.

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Spencer and Sawyer arrived at the bar an hour before they were supposed to start performing, the goal to set up and do a small sound check before they got started. It seemed Kristy had gone home not feeling well after they left, which made Spencer and Sawyer share a look and chuckle.

"That poor girl is terrified!" Sawyer whispered.

Spencer merely shrugged. "It was all true honey, ain't my fault she got scared."

"Who'd you scare this time Darlin'?" Rip asked as he and Ryan walked up to the girls. John had been kind enough to let Rip leave the ranch early, and Ryan all but begged Rip to let him come with him. From the wide-eyed look the boy had when he saw Sawyer, Rip figured out why real quick.