In her line of work, Laura Fitzpatrick has two strikes against her. She´s a woman in a man´s world, and she´s a half-black and half-white one at that. She is a prominent cattle rancher in Arizona, taking most of the business over from her Irish-born father when he semi-retired. Laura is very good at what she does, and fights those who think she doesn´t know what she´s doing. She has made some enemies, but she has made twice as many friends. Those who finally realized that Laura was very good at what she did, they became loyal to the bone.
Laura was born in 1974 in Dublin Ireland to Sean Fitzpatrick, a white man with pale blonde hair and sparkling green eyes, and Katherine Johnson, a black woman from a prominent family in New York. The two met while Katherine was in Ireland for a five-year medical exchange. Instantly smitten with one another, the two married a year after meeting. A year after they were married, Katherine gave birth to their triplet sons. When the boys were three years old, Katherine found out she was pregnant with Laura. Due to her pregnancy, she was given an extra three-month extension on the medical exchange. Neither Sean nor Katherine wanted her to travel in her condition. They thought she was too far along for that kind of move. After Laura was born, the family moved from Ireland to Arizona, building a homestead about twenty-four miles outside of Four Corners.
Laura grew up on the ranch, finding that she had a way with all the animals, but she was amazingly able to spot a good piece of horseflesh even at a young age. She loved to go with her father to auctions when she was little, and would always tell her daddy to “buy that one daddy, he´s purty.” Sean who was a doting father would laugh and buy the ones his daughter picked out. He soon found out that Laura´s “purty ones” were the best horses he had, and would sire the best foals and colts. As she got older, this “gift” she had didn´t go away, and Sean trusted her choices.
Sean was already a wealthy man from the ranching he did in Ireland with his family, and Katherine herself had a good size trust fund, but with Laura´s horse choices and Sean´s business sense, their wealth grew. The Fitzpatrick Ranch is now one of the best-known ranches in the country. Sean taught his daughter his business sense, and she got her bachelor´s degree in business from the University of Arizona before joining her father again. Her brothers all work on the ranch as ranch hands, two of them married, and the other with a steady girlfriend. When her father announced he was semi-retiring, and turning the reins of control to his daughter, her brothers where right there cheering her on. Laura has since added a barn and riding arena for those wishing to board their horses and have a venue to ride them in, as well as breeding them for the rodeo circuits. Laura drives a Ford excursion that has a trailer hitch for her trailers, and she also has a mobile home she´ll use when she goes to out of state auctions. Laura´s oldest brother Mark lives in northern Arizona where he keeps the cattle end of their ranch for the rodeo circuit. Laura urged her father into this a few years back. Laura will often travel up there to work with the cattle, and sometimes will range-break some of her horses by herding the cattle.
Laura and Nathan have been friends for a few years now. The two probably would have been a couple when they met, but he was involved with a woman named Kelsey, and Laura was engaged to a man named Riley. The couples always hung around together and were close. Laura was there as a shoulder to cry on when Kelsey told him she was in love with someone else, and they broke up. Laura knew it broke Nathan´s heart, and did her best to be a loving friend to him to help him through.
Nathan had his chance to support Laura when her relationship fell apart. Blissfully unaware, she had gone out of town for an auction, and came back early as a surprise to Riley. Only it was Laura who was surprised. She went to his apartment and walked in with her key, only to find him in bed, making love to Kelsey. Putting two and two together, she realized that Kelsey had left Nathan to be with Riley, while he had remained seeing her as well. Getting angry for her intrusion, Riley struck her hard, giving her a fat lip and a bruised cheek, and said she was nothing but a worthless mixed whore and he wouldn´t stay with a woman that wouldn´t sleep with him. You see, after all these years, Laura has remained a virgin, wanting to save that deed for her wedding night with someone she loves.
Running from the house after throwing her ring at him, Laura headed to her best friend´s house. Nathan took her in and wiped away her tears, keeping his anger down when she told him what happened. He stayed with her and soothed her heartbreak as she fell asleep in his arms on the couch. It´s been almost a year since that happened, and the two are incredibly close even still. Her parents love Nathan as if he was one of their own, and he always visits Laura at the ranch. Laura´s parents have high hopes for the couple, ones that they seem oblivious to.
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