A/N: Je suis désolé! I'm sorry my lovelies for the endless wait. Getting back to school has been so crazy! School work has consumed all of my writing time. I know I said before I would update soon and this time I mean it, I've gotten ahead in writing this story before school hit so I'll work on remembering to update much sooner. Tomorrow I should be posting the next chapter… until then enjoy!
~TheScarlettBandit
Chapter 7
A Gift
The next morning we wake up in a tangle of limbs, pillows, blankets, and Ruby. "Hey, get off." I push Red off of me and turn my alarm off.
"Does anyone else have a killer hangover?" Belle asks stretching out as much as she can in the bed of the pickup.
"Yes." Red and I groggily say at the same time.
"We have our wonderful friend Jack Daniels to thank for that."
"Thank you." Red says and we giggle a little before dragging ourselves up to get back to the house before my parents wake up.
When we get back the sun is just coming up and I can feel this is going to be a long day. "I call dibs on the shower upstairs, you two can fight for the one down here."
By the time I get out of the shower the coffee maker has already kicked on and Ruby just got out of the shower and joins me for coffee. "Feel better?" She asks slinging an arm around my waist.
"Are you referring to the killer headache from the whiskey or our talk last night." I say nudging her with my hip. "Yeah I feel better."
"Good."
"So I was thinking when I was in the shower, what if we could find an apartment that has three rooms?" I say a little hesitantly.
"Are you actually suggesting you care about Belle?" Red fake gasps in astonishment.
"Shut up." I thunk her with my spoon I pulled out for cereal. "She already knows too much." I say jokingly.
"Yes! I think that's a great idea! I just didn't want to overwhelm you because I know how you like to run away when you get too close to people." She says with a knowing look.
"I do not! I didn't run away from you. Or Belle." I say a little quietly at the end because she's right to a certain extent.
"So you're saying you didn't live in my truck for a whole week when you realized she wasn't going to leave you?" She pokes me in my ribcage.
"Everyone always ends up leaving…" I say flipping the newspaper open trying to hint Red that this conversation is over.
Just then we hear multiple footsteps on the porch, Leroy who's a little grumpy, Michael who's always happy, Tom who owns the pharmacy, Jake who's always dopey, Marc who's a bit bashful, Gabe who always sneezes, and Adam who always falls asleep walks into the kitchen.
"Hey sister, long time no see." Leroy's the first one to speak up.
"Leroy!" I jump up to give him a hug, well a group hug because they all join in.
"Hey guys, nice to see you again." Belle emerges from the back of the kitchen.
"You too, sorry we weren't able to come to your graduation party, the boys and I were at a rodeo out of town."
"Oh it's not a problem at all."
As we're chatting and eating a makeshift breakfast mom and dad both come down to join us. Dad announces a new project for the fields to keep them irrigated better, a new training program for the horses, and another project that will include clearing out some of the woods and building cabins.
"Why do we need cabins back there?" Leroy asks confused.
"Excellent question Leroy, as Mary Margret and I are getting older we've decided that as soon as this project is done she's retiring from teaching, and we're going to start our own business by renting out cabins and giving guests horseback tours of the mountains."
"And what about the farming and other horses?" Red pipes up.
"The farming will still be done I have the guys to help me." He motions to Leroy, Michael, Tom, Marc, Gabe, Adam, and Jake. "And as for the horses you and Emma will start taking that over, and Belle can help you with the records and book keeping if you'd want the job?" He says turning to Belle.
"Of course! Books are kinda my thing." She says a little embarrassed.
"Great! Than we can start selling most of the riding horses and keep the stock and lower energy horses for the trails. Of course you girls can keep your horses, and I know this is going to be a lot of hard work to get these projects done but if we can pull together and work as one I know we can get these done before the ground freezes."
There's a pause at the end of his little speech and I can't help but say, "Nice pep talk."
"Oh hush it, shouldn't you be feeding the horses?" He says looking at the clock.
Noticing that it's already six thirty I poke my tongue out at him before dashing out of the house only stopping to put my boots on at the porch and running down to the barn to feed all of the horses. Red and Belle join me soon after I get to the barn and we have all the horses fed in under ten minutes.
"You know with all of these new projects even with the eleven or twelve of us working on, all of it, I doubt that we can do all of this before the ground freezes." Red says placing the wheelbarrow we use to carry the grain buckets from stall-to-stall down in the feed room.
"Maybe he's hiring someone else to help?" Belle offers a suggestion.
"I don't know I've seen the books of all the financial records and even though we had a lot of money come in, with all these projects they wouldn't get paid very well." I doubt someone would want to work that hard for hardly any money.
The rest of the morning we chat idly, turning the older horses out in one pasture, the broodmares and their foals out in another and the stallions have their own field on the other side of the house. The younger horses are all in training so we turn half out in the morning and work the other half, and in the afternoon switch them, and they go out in the pasture behind the broodmares which have the field that touches the road out front.
I take the indoor arena for the morning while Red lounges the younger ones in the corral, and Belle takes the more broke-in horses for trail rides and works with them on "spooky" objects they don't like. We work the horses every other day which seems to work pretty well.
During college it was harder since we were never home for most of the year so the summer was busy, but it gave dad a break which I'm sure he enjoyed. The gelding under me 'spooks' at the wind that comes through the arena taking advantage of me lost in thought for a moment and almost throws me out of the saddle.
"You little shit! Now you're gonna have to do twice the work before I put you out with your buddies. How do you like that?" I scoff at him as he shakes his head in annoyance. He's the last horse that stands between me and lunch so I try to take my time with him and relax.
"Hey Ems hurry up Mary Margret made lunch!" Red comes jogging up to the gate that separates the arena from the barn.
"Yeah, yeah this guy was being an asshole, give me a minute." I grumble finishing the last of the workout with him I pull him to a walk to start cooling him down.
"Oh speaking of assholes I'm pretty sure I saw Killian's truck up at the house. I don't know what he'd be doing here, but play nice Emma I have to run home for a second Granny needs me for something." Before I could say anything she already ran out of sight leaving me to the troublesome creature beneath me.
"Don't you laugh at me." I grumble to him looking clearly amused at my uncomfort. I hop off him and lead him to the cross ties outside of the tack room. As I'm untacking him Belle returns with one of the fillies she was working with.
"You know I saw Killian as I was coming back from the woods with this girl." Belle says as she copies what I'm doing and returns the tack back to the tack room.
"Red said he was here, you know why?" I say shortly, annoyed that he would come back here so soon.
"No but I think he might've been headed down here." She ducks into the tack room and no sooner did she do that Killian comes in sauntering down the aisle toward me.
"Wonderful horse you have here." He says stroking the muzzle of the gelding I was working with.
"Yeah a pain in my ass, you two would complement each other perfectly." I snap clipping a lead on the horse and leading him father into the barn into one of the two wash stalls. I try to ignore him as I start hosing down the gelding patiently waiting for me.
"I'm sorry love, for upsetting you last night. I didn't mean for you to get that upset, I was just having some poke fun with you that obviously didn't work out so well." He says with a half sad smile. "I know it isn't much of an apology but I thought that maybe you'd like these." He says a little apprehensively, taking a hand from behind his back to offer me a small handful of Siberian Irises.
The look of indifference on my face turns to more of a neutral look as I feel myself slightly relaxing. No one besides my father and Graham have ever given me flowers, not that they really count anyways.
"So can we try being friends?" He asks hope in his eyes as he holds out the flowers to me.
"Alright." I say slowly. "I'll try to tolerate you more." Taking an empty jar that was between two stalls I fill it with water and put the irises in it and return it between the stalls. "Don't ask, my mom likes to "decorate" the barn." I say laughing a little bit.
"Well don't worry love I don't judge." He says grinning from ear to ear. That probably has something to do with our new 'friendship'.
"Oh hello Killian, nice to see you again so soon." Belle says returning from putting her house out to the pasture.
"Ah nice to see you again love." He says with a sight bow.
She gives me a knowing look behind his back meaning she heard everything we were saying and I try not to glare back at her. I leave them chatting about nothing while I take my horse out to his buddies.
Coming back from the field I notice Red's truck is back in the driveway and I run up to the house. Everyone already inside and it looks like they were just waiting for me to get here so they can eat.
"You know you guys didn't have to wait for me to eat."
"Your father has an announcement to make." Mom says. Taking a seat next to Leroy and Red I nibble on my food waiting for dad to speak up.
"You've all met Killian, and with these projects this summer we're gonna need all the help we can get, so Killian will be working here in the afternoon and evenings to help around the ranch for a while. So welcome aboard Killian." My father toasts and we all hold up our glasses and bottles.
"Yeah welcome aboard the crazy train." Leroy grumbles and we laugh at him. After we eat Killian actually does go out to help in the fields with the rest of the guys and Red Bell and I switch jobs. Red gets the arena, Belle lounges the yearlings, and I take the horses out for trail rides.
"Hey Belle where did you put the shotgun?" I call out the barn to the corral right out front of it.
"Oh I hung it up on the back of the door!" She calls back trying to stay focused on her colt.
"Thanks!" I call back dashing back into the barn. Hopefully I can get my horses done so I have enough time to take a dip in the creek that runs in the back of our property.
I grab some water out of the fridge and tie the shotgun on my saddle and head up to the house and out back, taking a beaten trail I've been on countless times. All of the rides go smoothly, the horses already being broken-in quite well. By the time I get back with my last horse Red and Belle are already done and we still have a few hours until dinner.
"You know we're all hot, sweaty and gross so what would you guys say to taking a dip in the creek?" I ask knowing the answer anyways.
"Do you really have to ask Emma?" Red says in her duh voice.
"Then let's go!" Belle shouts excitedly running to get one of the old trail horses.
We ride triple on an old draft cross named Al and I get stuck between Belle who's in front and Red who's behind me. "If you say anything sexually suggestive while you're this close behind me I'm going to push you off." I tell Red only to have her press as closely as she can against me.
"Belle…" I whine.
"Ruby..." She says in a motherly disapproving way.
"Emma!" Red complains. We bicker until we reach the creek and tie up Al to a low enough tree branch that he can graze while we swim. We strip down to only the essentials and lay the gun close enough to the bank in case we need it before jumping in.
We swim until late evening and let the sun dry us before putting our clothes back on. By the time we reached the house dinner was almost ready and Killian had already left. Throughout dinner we discussed plans for the cabins, where to build them and how things were coming along with the fields. Belle returned home and since the horses weren't going to be worked tomorrow I brought them in and fed them before going to Ruby's house.