Renne was sitting on the porch swing at her Mamaw's house, enjoying the quiet, peaceful, alone time that she was blessed with. She decided to spend the time with the Lord and a cup of some strong, hot coffee. Just as Renne lifted her coffee mug to her lips, she heard a truck throwing pebbles and dirt from it's tires as it made it's way down the driveway. Slowly lowering the mug from her expecting lips, Renne looked at who it was disturbing the first alone time she had in a while.

"Hey, Reagan, get your stuff. We gotta go!" Swayde shouted at Renne, sticking his head out of the open truck window. A huge smile was plastered on his face, pushing up the rims of his sunglasses.

Renne glared at him, letting him know that he interrupted her peacefulness. He wasn't supposed to pick up her until around 5pm tonight, but yet he just showed up at 6:30 in the morning without any warning. "Why are you here so early?"Renne called back across the yard, refusing to move from her comfortable spot on the porch swing.

"Will you just get in the truck? We got thangs to do." The smile never faltered from Swayde's face.

Renne could hardly heard him due to the distance and the loud idle of his diesel. "Not till you tell me why." She stood her ground.

"I just wanted to spend more time with you today, but also, my buddy just got a new horse. She's a crazy one. We thought you would wanna come out and see her." When Renne seemed more peeved than interested, he added, "She's a mustang."

With that, Renne couldn't help herself, but to smile. Setting down her Bible, devotional book, and coffee on the porch swing, Renne threw the blanket off her and ran inside the house to grab her purse, jacket, and cowboy hat. After slipping her boots on over her jeans, Renne ran back outside, grabbing her coffee as she made her way to Swayde's truck. She was glad that she was already dressed for the day since Swayde decided to pick her up so early.

Running down the porch steps, Renne plopped her cowboy hat on her head, flinging open the passenger side door, hopping in. After setting her wallet on the floorboard and putting her coffee in the cup holder, Renne buckled up, turning to Swayde. "Well whatcha waitin' on, cowboy? We got a mustang we gotta go see."

Swayde smiled and chuckled as he threw his truck in reverse. When he backed out, he purposely spun his tires on the gravel, making the truck fishtail some as he sped out, onto the road, causing Renne to giggle at his spontaneous rambunctiousness.

As Swayde drove, taming down to his normal, safe driving, he told Renne, "Now that I have successfully 'kidnapped' you, I'm puttin' you to work. My buddy has about 150 head of cows and heifers that need to have CIDR's implanted, and we have to run a new fence line because the one rail broke. Who knows what else he will have us do while we are there." Swayde smiled, looking over at Renne. Seeing a perturbed look on her face, he chuckled as he asked, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"You said we were goin' to see a mustang. You said nothing about implanting cows, or workin' on fences. If that was the case, I would have stayed home. It's too early to do that kind of work." To hopefully give her some energy, Renne took a swig of her coffee.

"You have always loved waking up early to do ranch work, what has changed?" Swayde asked, driving with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window.

"Nothing has changed; I love doing work on the ranch, but my time here is kind of like a vacation. My working brain doesn't start until at least 8am. Besides, I thought that you wanted to spend time with me today, not put me to work as free labor on your buddies ranch!" Renne teased. Not having eaten breakfast yet, she was a little on the grouchy side.

"I'm so serious about spending time with you that I couldn't wait until 5pm to pick you up. I had to see you as soon as I could. Plus, my buddy is paying us to help him, and I thought you would really like to see the mustang he rescued."

"Is there even a mustang there for me to see, or was that just a ploy to get me to come work?" Renne sipped her coffee.

Swayde didn't answer, instead he just smiled and turned on the radio.

"Why are we stoppin'?" Renne asked when Swayde turned off the main road, stopping in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant.

"Because you need to eat. I can tell because you're grouchy, so you need to eat. So I'm getting you breakfast, and you're not going to argue with me." Swayde plastered on a smile, pointing a finger at Renne as he hopped out of his truck. Deciding to skip the long drive-thru line, Swayde walked into the restaurant.

Less than ten minutes later, Swayde walked back outside with a bag of food and a drink carrier with a couple drinks in it. Smiling, Swayde walked over to Renne's side, handing her the food and drinks through the open window.

"There. I got you food, now you're not allowed to be grouchy anymore." Swayde buckled his seat belt, pulling out of the parking lot, back onto the main drag.

"You got me coffee, too?" Renne asked, taking the drinks out of the carrier, placing them in the cup holder.

"Of course. They didn't have all the fixin's you usually put in it though, so I just got it black for you."

"That's fine, thank you." Renne smiled, pulling out the food out of the bag. Swyade knew her so well, always knowing what food to get her, and how she liked her coffee, and everything. Matt never took the time to learn those types of things about Renne.

Handing Swayde his food, Renne munched on hers as they made their way to Swayde's friend's ranch. The brighter the day got, the more coffee she got in her system, and after she ate, the more excited she got about working at the ranch today. Telling Swayde that, he chuckled as he said, "You're welcome. I knew you would come around eventually."

Shortly after their coffee and food was finished, Swayde turned down the long dirt driveway of his friend's ranch. Turning to look at Swayde, Renne asked, "Which friend is this? I don't remember this ranch at all."

"His name is Kyle. I met him a couple of years ago at a livestock auction. He bought some of my replacement heifers."

"This guy bought some of your heifers? Wow." Renne looked around in awe at the very obviously wealthy ranch.

"You say that like I don't raise good cattle at my ranch. Yeah, he bought them, and he paid me really well for them." Swayde explained, casting a glance at Renne.

"If he's so wealthy, why doesn't he have his own staff to help him out?" Renne asked, not complaining since she was getting paid to help.

"He only hires folks he trusts, which isn't a whole lot of people, but regardless, he has two guys that work full time and live here on the ranch. Then he has about four other guys, including me, that comes and helps whenever he needs us to." Swayde explained, pulling his truck up beside a huge house. Turning off the ignition, Swayde hopped out, opening Renne's door for her.

Renne tried to not gawk at the largeness of the ranch. Sure, she had seen many of this type before in her life, but they were generally the "weekend cowboy" folk who were city boys wanting a life in the country. Instantly, Renne knew that Kyle is not one of those types.

"Hey man!" A 6'6" blonde male called out to Swayde in a deep, booming voice.

"Hey, Kyle." Swayde greeted, leading Renne over to meet him. After greeting Kyle with a handshake, Swayde introduced him to Renne.

Reaching out, Renne shook Kyle's hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Thank you for allowing me to come out and help." She plastered on a smile, looking up at Kyle. Standing next to her, Kyle seemed like a giant. Even next to Swayde's 6'3" frame, Kyle still seemed tall.

"Anytime, darlin'. I'm always welcome to have more help. Plus, Swayde wouldn't have recommended you if he didn't trust you." Kyle's voice boomed. "Well, let's head out there. The others are on their way. They're finishing up in the feedlot, but will be back out soon." Kyle explained, leading Swayde and Renne towards a red pole barn behind the house.

"So, how many acres do you ranch here?" Renne asked, making conversation.

"Right around 102,000. Hopin' to expand more this year, though." Kyle said proudly.

Renne was impressed with the amount of land he owned, but it didn't surprise her too much. It was typical for ranchers in this area to own a lot of land. It came cheap, and with drought season, more grazing land was needed, especially with as big of an operation as Kyle had.

Sliding open the big, metal door, Kyle led Renne and Swayde into the barn. Walking over to the key box on the wall, Kyle grabbed out two sets of keys out of the lock box, handing one to Swayde. "Why don't y'all grab the stuff we need to implant. I'm going to go start moving the girls into the holding pen and check on the guys in the feedlot." Kyle asked of Swayde.

"Yes, sir." Swayde smiled. It was always exciting to help out on other people's ranch. Doing work like this at your own ranch can quickly get monotonous, but helping others never got old.

Kyle hopped in the Gator, backing out of the barn as Swayde and Renne got in the second one, going in the opposite direction of where Kyle was headed.

"You having fun yet?" Swayde smiled, pushing his cowboy hat down further on his head as the wind from the open land whipped around him.

"Oh yeah. Thank you for bringin' me out here." Renne smiled, holding her own hat down as Swayde sped to another barn.

"You're very welcome." Stopping the Gator in front of another red pole barn, looking very smiliar to the one where the Gators were parked, Swayde kept the engine idling as he motioned for Renne to follow him inside the barn. "Can you grab two bottles of lube from that cabinet by that window, please?" Swayde asked Renne, pointing to a large metal cabinet across the barn.

Nodding, Renne obliged. Grabbing two gallons, Renne placed them in the bed of the Gator just as Swayde came out with a handful of other supplies. "I'm goin' to go grab some gloves, but I'll be right back." Swayde said, jogging back in the barn. Coming back out a minute later, Swayde tossed the box of gloves in the bed, hopping back in the driver's seat. "You ready?" Swayde smiled over at Renne. With a grin, Renne nodded. Swayde floored the Gator, making the tires spin on the dirt and gravel until they caught traction, speeding away from the barn.

The ride out to the pasture where the heifers and cows were was a long ride, but Renne didn't mind it one bit. She was loving every moment of this, even if Swayde picked her up almost 12 hours earlier than planned.

Looking to her left, Renne laughed at every obnoxious sound effect Swayde made as he drove out to the chutes. For the first time since she came back to Alpine Ridge, Renne questioned why on earth did she have the gumption to leave in the first place.