Page 8 of Love, Hate, Love

“Thank you so much.” I sipped the coffee, and it might’ve been the best cup I’d ever had. Or maybe it was because it marked the end of my worst day and a new start, of sorts. Well, at least itwasa new day. I had to take what I could get at this point.

“Do you live here?” I asked, wondering how little Kade paid if his foreman had to live in the bunkhouse with the hands. When I’d known him, if I’deverreally known him, he’d been too poor to pay anyone. He’d had his hands full not losing this place.

“No, I’ve got a place down the way. I just come and get the coffee on and make sure the boys are up so they don’t start slacking. Come on, take your coffee and I’ll give you a tour before everyone else gets up—unless you want to get something for breakfast first?”

“Not really hungry.”

“Yeah, me either. Give me one second and we’ll head out.”

He walked to the first of the closed doors and gave it a pound. “Get up!” he yelled before doing that two more times and then lapping the room, back to me.

His eyes shot to my shoes. “You got anything a little sturdier than those?”

He was looking down at my designer combat boots. They were more for looks than work, but theywerestill boots. Wardrobe hadn’t been high on my list of concerns this past month.

“You don’t think they’ll be okay?”

He made a humming noise before he said, “I’ll have someone pick you up some things to make it a little easier to get by.”

“Thanks.” I wasn’t used to having to depend on anyone to get my things since I’d been in grammar school, and even then it had been sporadic after my dad had passed.

Chuck pointed to some buildings I hadn’t noticed last night, farther away. “Those are the first stables, and then the newer stables are behind it. That one is only about half filled, but with Kade’s breeding plans, it’ll be full soon enough.”

“That’s a lot of horses.” More than a decade ago, there had only been one. Kade had used to talk about how he was going breed a dynasty of cutting horses. I’d never even heard of a cutting horse until Kade explained how they were used in ranching to “cut” a cow from a herd. I’d never have imagined how much money they could be worth, either. He hadn’t been kidding about building a horse dynasty.

“Considering you’re new to ranching, I’ll probably have you mucking out stalls and tending the chickens initially,” Chuck said with a kind voice, as if apologizing in advance.

“Understandable.” He was looking at me, spending an extra couple of minutes staring at my boots. Maybe the embroidery was just too much for him to handle? I might’ve looked like the princess Kade called me, but I’d never had an aversion to dirt or hard work.

I might’ve been living in a high-rise apartment in New York when I rose to infamy, but I hadn’t grown up with a silver spoon. There was no point in telling him that, though. People tended to believe what they saw, not what they heard.

It didn’t matter much to me anyway. At this point, as long as I wasn’t near Kade, I’d be more than happy shoveling shit. I’d actually consider it an upgrade.

“You got any other clothes? Those look like some fancy jeans you’ve got there.” Chuck was eyeing them up, and not in the way most men looked at me in jeans.

“They won’t work?” I mean, jeans were still jeans, right?

“They’ll work fine, but they’re going to get ruined. I’ll get some stuff ordered for you. I’m sure Missy has some stuff she could lend you in the meantime. You look close to her size. I’m going to have you shadow her for a while until you get used to the place.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” For as rough as he appeared, Chuck had the feel of someone who’d been weathered by a lot of sun and fresh air and it had left his soul clean and bright, and a little soft around the edges.

“Oh, speak of the devil. Here she is now.”

Missy was walking toward us, bright red hair up in a messy ponytail that was more of an authentic mess, than being intentionally styled that way.

“Leah, this is Missy. She’ll show you the ropes.”

“Nice to meet you.” She had a smile that hit as fresh and open as a flower field and had gone extinct in the big cities. Although I’d grown up here, I wasn’t sure I’d ever had that bright a look in my eyes. She reminded me of a Rockwell painting, ice cream sundaes and rolling up your jeans for a wade in the creek.

“You too.” I tried to muster up a fraction of her freshness and enthusiasm but was fairly certain I fell short.

“Maybe you could lend her a couple things to get by for a few days?” Chuck asked, as if instinctively knowing I never would.

Missy gave me a quick once-over, as if measuring my size, and nodded quickly. “Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, I’ll check in later.” Chuck was already disappearing, as if he had no real concern over how I actually performed on the job, making me wonder what Kade had told him. Was I supposed to be useful or just keep busy?

“So you’re from New York?” Missy asked.

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