Trying to actually find your brother was one of the hardest things you ever had to do. It wasn't as though neither of you didn't try to keep in touch but he was to move around so frequently and sometimes so spontaneously it meant that it was hard to actually stay on top of where he was supposed to be.

You did your best to keep track of your older brother but between you working even though society didn't appreciate having a woman working outside of the home even with women gaining a lot more control and power in society. You had tried to follow up with the last place you had heard that George had been but terrible stories were told to you about him and his friend, so you had to look further out until you found that they were working on a ranch in California.

It was a fair way for you to travel, but with you male colleagues not accepting that you were actually their equal not just a maid or secretary that would run around after them, they didn't have much problem with you leaving as they assumed it was for womanly issues. Although these actions made you want to murder them all, you were fine to just leave even without a justified reason only to track down your brother.

Finally, you found the ranch you were pretty sure he was living and working at but you had no idea how to go about finding the annoying man you called your brother.

You looked around to see if you could find him but instead you saw a fair-haired man walking towards one of the buildings.

"Hello, excuse me," you called out waving a hand trying to gain his attention.

He turned towards you with a warm and welcoming smile.

"Hello ma'am," he smiled walked towards you. "How may I help you?"

"I am not certain if I am in the right place, but I am looking for George Milton," you responded fondly.

"You're certainly in the right place. However, he isn't here at the moment but he should be back by dark. He never mentioned such a beautiful wife," he charmed.

You couldn't help but laugh at the charming man.

"He'd be lying if he said he had a beautiful wife. Just an average sister actually. Y/N Milton," you smiled stretching your arm out to gesture for him to take your hand as a greeting.

The man took your hand and raised it to his lips, pressing a light kiss to the back of your hand. As he lowered it, he still held a warm smile on his lips and kept his hand lightly holding yours.

"Slim," he said flashing his teeth in his light grin.

"Nice to meet you," you stated. "Is it okay if I wait until my brother returns I have been travelling for some time and I'd hate to turn back now without seeing him."

He gestured his other hand towards the building he had been heading to before you interrupted him.

"Of course, we have nowhere overly nice to let you wait but you can come to the bunkhouse for the meantime."

He led you there. It wasn't the nicest of rooms but it was fine for you to wait for George to return. You did assure Slim that you would be fine to be alone to wait as you were certain he had work he needed to get done, but he insisted to stay with you. In the time, you had spent together you had become surprisingly fond of him, and he seemed genuinely interested in having you stay at the ranch longer than you had originally planned to.

"You should stay. I am sure your brother would love to have you around. And I'm sure Curly's wife would like to have another lady around," he offered trying to hide the fact that he would like to have you company. "I'm sure she'd like having someone keep her company. I don't know if you'd get along though."

"From what you have told me of her, I doubt we have much in common. However, I'd very much enjoy keeping you company," you smiled innocently.

~*~

Written by Charlotte.