The day was a long one. Most Saturdays were. Mateo had spent the last few hours shuffling around some horses for Ella’s lessons. She had been a little behind schedule, but Mateo had managed to give her a hand to get her back on track. Finally, he could take a break. The sun beat down on his shoulders as he leans against the fence of the small sand ring that Ella was coaching from. He listens to her words, and despite having watched her teach horse riding lessons for a few years now, he still doesn’t know the first thing about riding.
The student arrived with a friend, and Ella had politely told her that she could watch, but only from outside the ring. Safety and all that. Mateo’s bag of green grapes dangled from one hand, taking one and plopping it into his mouth as he watched the girl come over to him after Ella had instructed her to do so. He’s dressed in dirty jeans with a few rips in them, a pair of well worn work boots, an old t-shirt that’s stained, and a bandana sticking out of his back pocket. He’s clearly a farm hand of some kind, leaning against a fence, one foot on the lower rung on the fence, his arms draped over the top of the fence casually. He looks like he belongs there.
“You can stand and watch here, if you want.” Mateo offers, sliding over a little bit as if there wasn’t an entire fence line she could stand at. But still, he makes room for her regardless. “I’m leaving soon anyway.” His break wound be over in 15 minutes, and he’d need to get back to working on the broken fence at the other end of the cattle pasture.
