It’s fine. Whatever. It wasn’t the best lay of my life or anything...
“Yes.” He hardly looks at me as he storms past, but I pay him no mind. Turning back to Midnight, I pet the only reason I’m back on this damned ranch.
“Oh, how sad. The Princess doesn’t get everything she wants,” I hear one of the ranch hands murmur with enough spite to fill a pigpen with mud. Rolling my eyes, I focus back on the only being who deserves my attention.
“When was the last time the stalls were cleaned?” Oliver’s voice snaps in the muggy summer air. His voice is sharp, and his aura screams, “I’m pissed off,” which makes me want to egg him on even more so but I refrain this time.
The three ranch hands, Harley, Max, and Paisley, snap to attention at their manager. They were cleaned this morning, based on the state of Midnight’s stall, but that wasn’t my question to answer, and I sure as shit wasn’t helping them out.
“Um, this morning.” One of them mumbles.
“Great, now add it again to the end of your list. I want them mucked before dinner.” Oliver orders going to the whiteboard in the barn to add their names to the ranch’s to-do list.
Oliver may not have grown up on a ranch, but he runs as tight of a ship as any good foremen would. He doesn’t fuck around, and that’s why my dad hired him all those years ago. If anyone should get the ranch after my dad goes, it’s Oliver, and everyone but my parents knew that.
“Are you gonna give me something to do, cowboy?” I say as I slide past him, grabbing all the gear to take Midnight for a ride. I sway my hips just a bit more than I normally do, for no reason at all whatsoever.
“Get back before five pm; there’s a thunderstorm coming.” He says as he walks steadfast out of the barn before I can say anything else.
What a demanding little shit.
CHAPTER 2
RENNA
I never gotthe hang of riding a horse at full speed. It was never my thing, and Midnight fortunately had Oliver to do that with. With me, we graze, we trot, we enjoy nature and smell the breeze on our rides.
It’s been this way since I got her the summer I turned 18. That summer was the best summer. I spent nearly every day outside on the ranch with Midnight and Oliver. I even considered staying here at Winehouse. I’m not ranch material, but I could have gotten a job somewhere nearby, and we could’ve been, I don’t know, a ranch family, I guess.
Despite Oliver’s warning, I still took Midnight out way too far. Now thunderclouds are brewing behind us as we race back to the main house. I’m not confident, which means Midnight’s not confident. We struggle on our way back as I panic, pissed at myself for not watching the time.
Even at full speed, we don’t make it back to the house and rain pelts us. There’s nothing to see but rain, grass, and his house.
The ranch’s dream ride got permission to build his own house away from the main house and the ranch hand bunkersa few years ago. It took him a year to build on top of his other duties, but it’s a beautiful one-story house.
I love a man who can build houses. I don’t know why they stopped.
I pull on Midnight’s reins and head toward his house. As much as I want to get out of this rain, I’m not all that excited having to go to Oliver’s.
“You think we can make it in this rain?” I ask Midnight, and she trots faster towards his house, letting me know that was a hell-to-the no.
This house reminds me of the one time I was with Oliver.
I helped him “break in” this house, and by the next morning he was gone.
I’ll never forget the embarrassment and shame that covered my body like hives that morning when he was nowhere to be found.
It wasn’t even as if he had morning chores to do. It was the man’s day off, and I woke up alone. For an hour. My ass waited a whole fucking hour for him, and he never showed.
I wanna believe he was scared, though Oliver Torres being scared is so out of character. I want to believe that since I was going to college maybe he thought I was gonna leave him first.
But my mom didn’t raise me to be the kind of woman that makes excuses for a man.
That was the moment I knew I had to leave. I accepted the farthest college and ran with my tail tucked between my legs.
And here my desperate ass is again, miles away from home.
The rain soaks us for all we’re worth, and I can tell Midnight is getting shifty as the thunder rolls. I lead her to his mini stall where Kolt is, thankful there is space for more than one horse here.
