Luckily all my dumbass stunts had been done in my youth, and I hadn’t actually been charged with crimes.
That was the only thing that saved my ass.
Right now could’ve been a whole lot different.
I could’ve been struggling to find a job with an arrest record.
I could’ve been lost.
I could’ve been nothing.
“Nobody looks like they’re up,” Waylynn pointed out.
I looked toward the dark house and snorted.
“They’ve gotten too used to me doing all the grunt work that requires them to get up at the crack of dawn,” I admitted. “I’m out here mucking stalls out well before they even crack their eyes open. They don’t even start their day until they’ve had breakfast. And Desi doesn’t even start that until seven.”
She pointed at the bunkhouse.
“They look like they’re up.”
I looked toward the windows where I could see lights shining through, then nodded.
“They’re usually up getting shit ready, too,” I told her. “They’ll be setting out riding fence and moving the herds to a different field here in a bit. Delivering hay to the herds that we can’t move.”
She bailed out of the truck before I’d even gotten it into park.
“The sound of your truck won’t wake them?” she questioned.
I shrugged. “They’re so used to hearing the workers for the house come in and out at such weird times that I doubt it. We had a concrete crew out here at three in the morning once.”
Her face scrunched up into the most adorable of grimaces.
The way she was standing under the single lamp that lit the front of the barn made my heart race.
“Let’s get going,” she ordered, snapping her fingers at me impatiently. “I really am starving.”
I sighed.
“I’d offer you breakfast with us,” I said. “But yeah… not on speaking terms still.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m more than aware of that,” she said. “And, I’m sorry, but nobody can beat Darrel’s cheesecake waffles at Catfish Charlie’s. Nobody. I found the place yesterday by accident. I borrowed GQ’s car to get something from Darrel, who apparently used to be a worker at the Apache when it was in its prime. He told me to wait and grab a bite to eat while he went to the back and handled an emergency… and Jesus Christ. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I didn’t even know that they served breakfast, and I’ve been here since I was a baby,” I told her.
She widened her eyes, and I opened the door to the barn.
At the sound of my voice, horses everywhere started to poke their heads out of their stalls, ready for their treats and a pat-down.
“Ohhh.” Waylynn clapped her hands excitedly. “Look at all the pretties.”
I watched as she went from horse to horse, loving and rubbing on each of them.
While she did that, I went to the fridge and grabbed a bag of apples and carrots.
“Here,” I said as I handed her the bag. “The one in the back corner can’t have any apples. The rest can have whatever you want to give them.”
She looked at the horse in the last stall and her face fell.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Her,” I said. “And I just rescued her from a place off the side of the road. She was tethered to a tree and had been for who knows how long. I’m slowly nursing her back to health, but apples seem to upset her tummy.”
She nodded then started handing out apples and carrots.
Almost all of them wanted the apples, which wasn’t a surprise. They all had a sweet tooth for sure, and would always rather an apple over a carrot.
But I had to try.
Tomorrow I would be giving them carrots.
Usually I didn’t give them a choice, and since yesterday was an apple day, I would’ve normally been giving them the carrots.
But I wanted them to like Waylynn.
That was why I was giving her the good stuff.
The stuff that would for sure give them hearts in their eyes when it came to her.
“When you give them their food,” I called as I started pulling out feed bags, “you can start letting them out. I’ll go open the back barn door for you.”
She ignored me and walked to the barn door herself.
And, since it was about fifteen feet tall and half as wide, I watched with amusement as she tried her hardest to get it open.
Eventually, she did, but since it was old and stuck in its ways, it definitely gave her a run for her money.
“Jesus,” she said, wiping sweat off her face. “That was difficult. You should climb up there and lube those rails.”
I snorted and gestured to them.
“I do,” I said. “Once a week. They’re actually much better now than they used to be when nobody gave a shit about them.”
She made a funny face at me, poking out her tongue as an added bonus.
“Okay, so just let them out?”