Page 65 of The Rancher’s One and Only

“Great. In the meantime, I’m proceeding as if this is correct. And in fact, I may have it independently surveyed. Because if what she said is true, then you do owe me thirty thousand dollars.”

Oh, he had not made a friend today. And he wasn’t upset about it.

He turned around and faced Ernestine as Trent got in his truck and left. Then he picked Ernestine up and spun her in a circle.

“That was great work,” he said.

“But nothing for a human supercomputer,” she said, sounding flat as he set her down.

“I’m sorry, why did that upset you? I can see that it did.”

“Oh, it’s just…people think I’m robotic. That’s not the first time someone has called me that. Ernestine GPT. But it takes away from how deeply I actually feel. And it makes it seem like I don’t actually have to work to figure things out and fail like everybody else. Like I don’t have feelings. And I do. I just have a hard time showing them. Because there’s so…”

“I definitely didn’t mean that you don’t have feelings. I just meant that you have a lot of information stored in that amazing brain of yours. And it is an amazing brain.”

“Thank you. I’m pretty proud of it.”

“You should be. But you know, I like a lot of the things that aren’t your brain.”

“Like my boobs?”

“Big fan. But also, that you’re collecting those horrible little gas station creatures.”

“They’re not really gas station creatures, it’s just that they’re a knockoff version—”

“It’s okay, I don’t need an explanation.”

“They’re a knockoff of a trendy designer toy. People clip them to their purses. But I like knockoffs because they’re strange and original. The mistakes are what make them interesting.”

“Okay, so you had to finish that. And now I know. That’s the thing. I like all these things about you. I would never diminish any of your qualities, because I think they’re all equally amazing. But wow, what a particular skill that you have the entire elevation map of my ranch memorized.”

She smiled. “I love it when I get to use my powers for good.”

“I don’t mind when you use them for evil.”

She hesitated for a moment. “There’s a diagnosis, probably. For me. And why I am the way that I am.”

“Yeah?” He wasn’t shocked by that. He also hadn’t given it much thought. He was less interested in categorizing her as a species than he was in learning about who she was as a person.

“I haven’t gotten a diagnosis, to be clear, but I’m…peer reviewed.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m probably autistic.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t…you don’t care?”

“I know you. What you call the way your brain works doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. I have labels too,” he said. “But with or without them, I’m me. Even though mine are from trauma, at this point they’re part of what makes me me.”

“I wish you didn’t have trauma.”

“Thanks. I wish you didn’t feel like there was something wrong with you just because your brain works differently.”

She frowned. “You know a lot of times I don’t feel that way. I’m happy in my bubble. I don’t need to be around my family all the time, and that taught me something. I don’t have to stay around people who don’t like me. Sometimes for work, I do. But I can minimize the time I spend with them. I can make a life that feels happy. That’s full of the things I like, that plays to my strengths.” She looked up at him then, just for a moment, before her eyes slid away. “But sometimes I’m lonely. That’s the one thing I can’t quite fix. I haven’t been lonely here.”

His chest went tight, because he’d never related to anything more.

Even with Dakota and Rowdy, sometimes he was lonely too.

“Thank you,” she said. “For always making me feel like I’m okay.”