I remove the Air Pod. "What is this horseshit?"
She scoffs, grabbing it from my fingers. "It's not horseshit. It's actually very helpful."
"That what you've been doing up there all day, listening to this?"
She smiles. "Why? Were you imagining me doing something else up there all alone in the hayloft today?"
"Maybe," I say. I look her over. "Yeah, actually I was imagining you doing plenty of other things up there by yourself."
"Oh yeah? Like what?" she asks, moving closer and wiggling her eyebrows and lifting her shoulders to tease me. Tempt me. "What kind of things, cowboy?"
"Things that could get you in trouble."
"Have you been sent here to Buckle Down Ranch because you’re in trouble?" she asks. She runs a hand through her golden hair. Long tresses, like Rapunzel. Princess. In the distance, the dinner bell rings, signaling it's time for us to get to supper.
"I’m not in any trouble. I’m here to do honest work. But what about you? You in trouble?" I ask her.
She sighs, letting her shoulders fall, showing me she is more talk than action. "No, not that kind of trouble. I'm trying hard right now to act cool around you, but I'm a good girl through and through. And this idea you have of me up in the loft, that's all an act too. I was up there listening to this on repeat.”
We walk out of the barn. I turn off the lights and slide closed the big heavy doors, locking up for the night. The horses are ready for bed but I’m walking with royalty, headed for dinner.
Princess keeps talking as we walk. "You may think it's phony or whatever," she says. “But I guess I'm hoping this meditation will help ease my anxiety or something. I'm looking for peace. That's why I'm here at the ranch."
"At your uncle's ranch," I clarify.
"Yes, my uncle's ranch. Uncle John and Aunt Louisa are good people. Salt of the earth. True blue. The best."
I smile. "High praise."
She shrugs. "They really are. They're good people. You haven't worked here long, I'm guessing," she says, looking over at me.
"I've been here about eight months."
"Pretty long," she says, "I've only been here a week."
"Oh, I know."
"You keeping tabs on me?" she asks.
"Not tabs exactly, but I've been watching."
She lifts her eyebrows, "Watching. Should I be worried?"
"Not worried," I say, chuckling, "but warned."
She presses her lips together. "I know nothing about you."
"I hope that changes," I tell her honestly.
"Well, you could start by telling me your name."
We're at the dining hall now, all the cowboys and ranch hands are here, sitting down at long tables, ready for supper. It's one of the perks of working at this ranch: dinner and dorms. Still, it's not like it'll be one day when I'm managing my father's ranch.
"I'm Ledger Starborn."
She smiles, "I'm Liv, Livingston Young."
"Livingston," I say with a smile, "you don't hear that often."
"Yeah," she says, "well, I'm one of a kind."
"I can tell," I say, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks, wishing I weren't at the dining hall, wishing she and I were still at that barn all alone, because if we were, if there weren't eyes watching, I'd pull this girl close.
Hell, she wouldn't need a guided meditation to take away her anxiety. I'd give her one kiss and that would melt away all her worries.
Instead, I tell her I'll be seeing her around.
"I hope so," she tells me.
"Oh, I know so, Livingston."
When she walks away to eat with her family, I keep my eyes on that ass, knowing someone as cute and curvy as her will not be out of my line of sight for very long.
2
Liv
It's the smell of the freshly brewed coffee that has me getting out of bed in the morning. Truth be told, it’s the only thing that gets me out of bed these days. It's been like that for a month now.
Ever since I lost Chestnut, I haven't been myself. I used to be the kind of person who would get out of bed with a smile on her face, bouncing at the chance of starting a new day.
I’d put on my breeches, check the calendar app on my phone to confirm my riding lessons, my competition schedule, make sure my plans with my best friend Catherine were noted, and my appointments with my trainer were maintained.
I had a schedule that I took seriously. My whole world revolved around it. Chestnut and I, we were a perfect pair and nothing got in the way of that. Why would it? It felt like we were on top of the world – and we were, at least I thought we were.
And then everything changed. My whole world fell apart in the span of a few weeks.
Chestnut got sick. Colic. And it happened too fast to help him.
He was gone before I could even come to terms with it all.