Beneath the Country Sky

Chapter 3: Breaking Barriers

The next morning, Scarlette was woken not by the warmth of the sun, but by the heavy, insistent knocking at her door. Groaning, she buried her face deeper into the pillow, hoping whoever it was would take the hint and leave her alone.

But the knocking persisted. Louder. More demanding.

With a growl of frustration, she threw the blankets off and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "What?" she snapped, her voice hoarse and thick with the remnants of sleep.

"Get up, Scarlette," came Cooper's voice from the other side of the door. "I'm supposed to show you around the hacienda today. Remember?"

Scarlette scowled. Of course, her grandmother hadn't been bluffing. She had really meant it when she said Cooper would be her tour guide for the day.

"I'm not in the mood," she called back, hoping that would be enough to send him away.

But Cooper, persistent as ever, simply replied, "I don't care. Lola's orders."

Scarlette gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to scream. She knew there was no getting out of this. Victoria wouldn't let her off the hook that easily, and the last thing she wanted was another lecture from her grandmother.

"Fine," she muttered under her breath, throwing on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She didn't care how she looked. If she had to endure a day with Cooper, she wasn't about to make an effort for his sake.

When she finally opened the door, Cooper was leaning against the frame, arms crossed, his expression infuriatingly casual. "Took you long enough," he said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Scarlette snapped, pushing past him. "Let's just get this over with."

They walked in silence as they made their way out of the house and onto the dirt road that wound through the hacienda. The sun was already high in the sky, casting long shadows over the sprawling fields. The air was thick with the earthy scent of soil and the distant sound of bleating goats.

Scarlette wrinkled her nose. It wasn't the smell she was used to. In the city, the air had a crisp, metallic edge, the scent of gasoline and concrete. Out here, it was all...natural. Too natural.

Cooper led the way, pointing out various parts of the hacienda-the barn, the stables, the wide fields where crops grew in neat rows. "This is where everything happens," he said, gesturing to the vast expanse of land before them. "Lola oversees it all, but I help out when I can."

Scarlette barely listened, her mind wandering as she stared out at the endless horizon. To her, it all looked the same-boring, monotonous, and completely uninteresting. She didn't understand how anyone could live like this, let alone find it fulfilling.

As they walked, Cooper's voice broke through her thoughts. "You know," he said, his tone casual but pointed, "you might actually like it here if you gave it a chance."

Scarlette scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Like it here? Are you serious? This place is a nightmare."

Cooper shrugged. "Maybe it's not the place that's the problem."

Scarlette stopped in her tracks, glaring at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Cooper said, turning to face her, "maybe you're the one making things harder than they have to be. You're here for a reason, Scarlette. Whether you like it or not, this is your life now. You might as well make the best of it."

Scarlette felt a surge of anger rise in her chest.

"Make the best of it?" Scarlette repeated, her voice rising. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, and she took a step closer to him. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You think because you've lived your whole life in this sleepy, boring place, that it's so easy to adjust? You don't know anything about me, Cooper. You don't know what I've been through."