The Chronicles Of Juniper Ross

Chapter 8

I was in a deep sleep when a knock on my door woke me up. 

"Come in." I mumbled into my pillow. I was in a tank top and a pair of short pink cotton shorts. 

Someone let themselves in as I sat up, I pulled my hair out of my face and saw it was Nick. 

"What happened to ground rule number 4??" I demanded. 

"Well, goodmorning to you too." He walked round to the side of the bed that I was sitting down on and sat himself down. His eyes roamed over my body, but I was barely awake so I couldn't care less. 

"What are you doing waking me up this early?!" I snapped at him. 

"No need to be so rude Juniper, what huh? Just cause you didn't get any from Dean last night doesn't give you the right-" I cut him off in disbelief. 

"What did you just say to me?" 

"I said, just cause you didn't get any from Dean doesn't mean-" I cut him off once again, and this time I did it by using every ounce of strength I had at that moment to kick him off my bed. 

He landed on the ground with a loud umph, but he instantly shot up.

"Geez Juniper! All I came to tell you was that Charlie and Nannette will be out the entire day, and I was instructed to take you to work at the horse stables with me and that we would be leaving in an hour." 

"Next time why don't you start with that and you won't land up on the floor." I shot back at a Nick who was rubbing his elbow. I dived back into my covers, deciding that if we were leaving in an hour I still had time. 

He walked out of my room muttering obscenities under his breath. The only bit of it that I caught was "Just saying..." 

I didn't stay under my covers for long because I did realise that I had to get ready. I threw on a dark blue t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts. I was lucky that I brought so many because all it was here was hot. 

I walked out putting my sunglasses on my face still not being ready to face the sunlight. Nick was in the kitchen waiting for me, he had made a cup of coffee and was nice enough to offer me one. I took it gratefully and sipped my way to being awake. 

We had both sat down on the stools are were looking at each other. "You're not going to attack me again are you." He asked. 

"Oh please." I scoffed, "That was barely an attack. I can do so much worse." He raised his eyebrows as if to say oh really? 

But we both continued to get ready in silence, which we had both become accustomed to between us. It didn't take long for us to be out of the house and walking down the road. 

Nick introduced me to all the horses at the stables before we got the work. There were 5 horses that were ridden around and then a couple of smaller ones that weren't trained yet. I instantly fell in love with a deep brown stallion that nuzzled up to me when I passed his paddock. we met the stable manager who mainly sat in his office and thanked us for our extra hands. 

The horses needed fresh food and we had to go collect it from the veterinary center in the pick up. That was after clearing their stables and giving them clean water. 

We worked side by side not saying much until it was time to go collect the food, I had convinced Nick to let me drive and he looked as if he was hanging on for dear life. I wasn't even a bad driver though! 

"So Nicholas." I said trying to make conversation. 

"Don't call me Nicholas Juniper!" He said laughing.