Her gaze darkened. “You’re going to start this again?”
“What? All I said was, I didn’t think you’d like animals.”
She rolled her eyes. “And I guess I can’t sing country music because I’m from the city too, right? You can’t always judge a person by where they’re from. Obviously, you were raised in a barn, but I’m not holding that against you. Now where do you want me?”
She was a spitfire; I liked it. It took all I had not to laugh, especially when I pointed at the rake. “Snowflake’s stall needs to be cleaned out. You can take her shit and put it in the dump truck over there,” I said, pointing to the old truck. The look on her face absolutely priceless.
“So it’s literally a dump truck?”
“Yep. And once that’s done, I’ll need you to clean out the rest of the stalls. Think you can handle it?”
Sucking in a breath, she blew it out and headed straight for the rake without acknowledging my question. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her slip into the stall and get to work. I would’ve given anything to take a picture. She looked like she’d blow chunks at any moment.
While she finished up the stall, I went about my morning workout with Snowflake and moved on to Nightshade, my black stallion. My grandfather had bought him for me a couple of years before he died, hoping we’d be a good match for each other. He was strong and fast, perfect for rounding up cattle.
After I finished my chores for the day, I sat on a hay bale and watched Hadley finish up in the barn. My hat sat low over my eyes, as if I was snoozing. She glared and flipped me off a few times, but I kept a straight face. When she was done, she stormed over to me and hit my boots with the rake.
“I’m done cleaning the stalls. What’s next?”
Taking a deep breath, I scrunched my nose. “I think you need to take a shower. You smell like shit.”
She turned on her heel and grumbled the word ‘asshole’ under her breath. I burst out laughing and followed closely behind her. When she got inside, she quickly rushed upstairs and slammed the bedroom door. I wondered how long it would take her to break.
Hadley
One Week Later
Blake was a fucking prick. There was no way I could survive being with him for months. Hell, just a week with him was torture. The physical labor I could handle, but the mental jabs would be my downfall. I needed support more than anything and I wasn’t going to get it from him.
Luckily, I had the phone Logan left me. I needed to hear Felicity’s voice. She answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
I cleared my throat. “It’s me.”
“Oh my God, Hadley, you sound horrible. Are you okay?”
“Trying to be. It’s been a long day. How’s Nick?”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “Still the same. He hasn’t woken up yet. You wanna talk to him?”
A tear slid down my cheek. “Yes.”
The phone shuffled and I heard her voice in the background. “He’s on.”
“Hey Nick, it’s me. I wish I could be there with you. I miss you and Felicity so much. When you pull through this, we’re going to celebrate, okay? It sucks not being able to hear your voice. I could use it right about now.” The line grew quiet and Felicity got back on.
“How’s it going out there?” she asked.
I had just gotten out of the shower and my arms were on fire from shoveling all day. All I’d had to eat were a bowl of carrots and a cucumber. “It’s horrible,” I answered honestly. “The guy they have me with is a complete douche. I’ve tried to be nice, but he’s still an ass.”
“What have you been doing?”
I snorted in disgust. “You don’t want to know. Let’s just say I hate the guy I’m with more than I hate Lydia Turner.”
“Wow,” she gasped. “That’s pretty bad.”
Lydia was my nemesis and it was no secret we had bad blood. When I started winning more awards than her, she openly trash talked me to the media. The paparazzi had tried to get me to retaliate, but I refused to fuel the fire.