Page 5 of Coiled Tight
It would be depressing as fuck to hire someone to cook just for me, too. The ranch hands had been given the option, but they had a good system between them, taking turns. I’d been offered to be part of it, but given how many people had left because I was around? I preferred the woes of solitude to the risk of losing more of the workforce.
They were all great with the animals. They could be whatever they wanted with me.
“You came straight from the airport?”
“Yeah.” Cam fidgeted with his hands while I took Swiftheart to the smaller stable by the front of the house. I supposed it would be an impressive sight for someone who hadn’t grown up here—Colonial style, it had been used to house entire families at a time. A big family could fit comfortably between the two expansive floors, and the attic gave it more height. “Well, I took a couple of buses here and then I… walked.”
The nearest bus stop was about ten miles away from where he’d been.
Why the fuck hadn’t he called before? There wasn’t anydanger in this area, per se, but I could’ve grabbed my truck and picked him up.
Hell, if I’d known he was coming, I would’ve gone to greet him at the airport. The connection was spotty here at the best of times, and he wasn’t the first person to have ever gotten lost for trusting GPS systems that hadn’t updated their data about these parts in the past decade.
“Take a shower, then. I’ll grab some food in the meantime.”
“A shower sounds good.”
I bet.
“Come on, then.”
If I’d wanted or I remembered what it was like to feel proud of this house, I would’ve given him a grand tour that could’ve taken us the better portion of an hour. I didn’t, so I simply pointed to the rooms on the first floor—living room, dining room, kitchen, a bathroom that I never used because the toilet kept clogging no matter how many times I’d fixed it up, and a sunroom that used to be a library but now I’d repurposed to get some quiet, bonding time with the cubs that couldn’t yet be introduced to the other animals.
The second floor was even more straightforward—a study I either loved or dreaded, depending on my reason for being there, three bedrooms, and three other bathrooms. I hated the long hallways and thought whoever built it didn’t think it through because there must’ve been a more compact style, but hey. I had a home, and it hadn’t cost me a kidney and a half.
“So… which one is your room?”
“One furthest to the left. That’s the bathroom I use, too.”
Cameron nodded sharply and quickly headed to the right.
I could appreciate someone who respected personal space, so I left him to it and went back downstairs. I didn’t have a lot of food in the kitchen, but I had had the wits to unfreeze a shepherd’s pie Ma had left behind after one of her biweeklyvisits. It was certainly a blessing that her moving away didn’t mean she had abandoned me to my fate.
I didn’t mind cooking—I could even find it relaxing when it was something I’d mastered, like my spinach and cheddar quiche—but the schedule of an animal refuge this size didn’t leave a lot of time—or energy—for it. Hence why most places had an in-house cook, but I was the stubborn jackass who was going without one.
While the pie reheated in the microwave—no, I couldn’t be arsed to get the oven working—I grabbed an apple from the bowl in the middle of the granite counter, cut it into pieces, and headed back outside to give my mare the treat. It wasn’t as if Cameron would finish showering—and unpacking—in the two minutes I’d be outside. If he somehow did, he could figure out how to find me.
It could be a test of sorts, to see how he responded to uncertainty. There was plenty of that to go around these parts.
For better or worse, though, when I headed back to the house, the water was still running upstairs.
three
cam
Isplashed cold water over my face after I’d gotten out of the shower and dried up.
The shower had been good. The water stayed hot longer than I’d counted on, and the floor seemed to either be one of those fancy floors that heated up, or it was more insulated than I would’ve expected for a house that had to be a few centuries old, minimum.
That didn’t erase the fact that I’d made a fool of myself for the past, what, hour? Thirty minutes? I didn’t know. My watch had died halfway from the airport to the refuge, and I’d felt too anxious to grab my phone and give an even worse first impression.
It would be deserved, but he’d have time to figure it out on his own. I’d already annoyed the man—Saúl—enough for one day.
Yes, this was a—potentially misguided—punishment on myself, but the animals shouldn’t be to blame for it. Or Saúl. Or any of the other workers I hadn’t met yet. Saúl’s dad had said I’d be working with a team to care for the animals, but I didn’t know when I’d be meeting them or how exactly we weredistributing tasks. The older man had joked that there would be time to discuss that kind of thing with the other vets. All I knew was that I was going to be in charge of the big carnivores, and there were two other vets—one for the horses and a nutritionist. The rest of the team was made up of volunteers, assistants, and temp students who either spent the summers and a few weekends here or came after class during vaccination season or at any other time we needed more hands on deck.
I wasn’t sure how doable it was long-term, and I wasn’t sure about having a supervisor role, but if it had worked for them this far…
Maybe I wouldn’t be the best at handling a team if they were the kind to cause trouble, but I did know I was good with animals.
