Cowgirl Up 2 (Sequel) ✔️

Chapter Thirty Four

Wishing everybody a happy and safe Easter! 🐣 🍫

The lights were still on, on the jacked up vehicle, but were turned down, thankfully not being too much of an assault on my retinas.
The shadowed figure of a man, was standing a few feet away from the car, his feet at around shoulder width apart and he was currently stuffing his hands into the pocket's of his jumper.
He wore a dark Cowboy hat, which casted most of his face into darkness, but the thing was, even wearing a jumper and standing in the shadow's of the almost complete darkness of our outback surroundings, I'd know Blayze Riley anywhere.
My breath caught in my chest.
I was frozen on my spot, simply staring, even my eyes unblinking.
What the hell is he doing here?
He didn't tell me, or anybody else as far as I know, that he was coming back!
Or did nobody tell me so seeing him would be a surprise?
How was I meant to prepare myself for this if I had no clue it was happening?!
"H- umm, I- uhh, you're back!"
Hayley squeaked.
I snapped my head to the left to look at my best friend.
She just about looked like she was seeing a ghost.
But it's no ghost.
It's Blayze Rowan Riley, even though he hasn't opened his mouth yet.
"I- I'll l-leave you guy's t-to it a m-moment!"
Hayley stammered.
She turned on her heel and ran the few paces back to the Suzuki.
She hurriedly closed the double boot doors, much to my bewilderment.
"What-what are you doing?"
I asked, my voice barely working.
My heart was hammering inside my chest and I legitimately wasn't sure if it was from anxiousness, or nerves.
Even my knees felt like they were about to buckle.
"Giving you two a minute."
Hayley said quickly and practically ran down the car to the driver's door.
She yanked the door open and jumped into the seat, closing the door with a thud behind herself.
Oh holy crap...
I stared after Hayley, stunned that she would leave me in this position.
She know's I haven't seen Blayze in literally almost a week.
Worse than that, was that I hadn't even had contact with him in that time.
Why would a best friend leave their best friend in this position?
I wouldn't do this to her!
"I don't know how we're supposed to go about this, but considering it's dark and you look cold, for now I'm gonna go with: is there a reason you two are pulled up on the side of the road and were rummaging around in the back of the Suzuki?"
The deep, yet slightly husky tone of his voice sent an all too real shiver running down my spine.
His voice was like music to not only my ears, but also my heart.
It tugged at my heart strings like apparently nothing or nobody else could.
Swallowing thickly, I twisted around to face Blayze, wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to gain some warmth, considering Hayley had taken away my windbreak.
There were a multitude of things I could have and needed to ask and say.
Yet I couldn't put my thoughts nor my feelings into chronological order.
My throat felt thick and my eyes were stinging with newly and rapidly forming tears.
"Are you back?"
I internally cringed at the weakened rasp that was my voice.
Clearly he was standing in front of me, but did it mean he was actually back with the intention of staying?
"If you wanna talk about that, I want ya to go to the Ute and find a jacket. You look freezin'."
Wear one of his jackets?
My heart clenched painfully.
I wouldn't do that if he wasn't planning on sticking around.
How could I do that to my heart?
Pressing my lips together firmly, I shook my head.
I might be feeling cold, but if he wasn't staying then I didn't want his damn jumper's.
That would make the caring gesture a lie.
Silence stretched between us, like the gradual, painful tensioning of an rubber band as it's stretched to it's limits.
Blayze sighed audibly.
"What's wrong with the car?"
Of course he'd have figured we weren't pulled over onto the side of the road for the fun of it.
I clenched my hands into fists, until my nails bit into my palms.
As much as part of me wanted to be stubborn and deny that we needed his help, the more realistic side of me knew that Blayze could have that fan belt swapped over in probably under twenty minutes.
"Fan belt snapped."
I admitted, dropping my gaze to the dirt floor.
"We found a new one in the car, but emptied the damn car and couldn't find tool's."
Silence.
Why isn't he offering up help?
Surely he's got tools in his Ute!
I lifted my gaze from the ground to get a look at his face.
Well, the shadowed mass which was so far his face.
"Where'd ya look?"
Blayze finally asked.
Where?
In the car obviously!
Like, the boot!
I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, attempting to hold myself back from making a snippy comeback that I'd wind up regretting, because he'd likely just climb back in his car and leave us here.
Slowly, I reopened my eyes.
"In the boot... where you'd expect to find tool's..."
I explained.
I glimpsed the faint flash of white, which indicated that Blayze smiled.
What's he smiling for?
None of this is amusing!
"I'll show ya where they keep their tool's."
Blayze's shadow moved forward and as he got closer, I caught sight of a Bullzye logo on his jumper and glimpsed his tanned chin, jaw and cheeks.
A whiff of his signature cologne reached my nose as he stepped past me and opened the passenger side back seat door on the Suzuki.
Feeling absolutely bewildered, I followed so that I could see where he thought he was going to pull these tool's from.
Hayley twisted around in the driver's seat, also looking curious.
Blayze popped a lever and pushed the back of the bench seat down.
Then, something else made a click noise as he fiddled around at the front of the seat.
Suddenly he pushed the base of the seat up so it met the back and the base and the back moved back to reveal a hollow space beneath what had once been the bench seat.
He reached inside and pulled two things out.
One, was a yellow rectangle shaped container that I was familiar with as a socket set box.
The other thing appeared to be some kind of a bag rolled up.
Hayley gasped.
"No way!"
I stared, shocked.
What the hell?
"Socket's and Spanner's."
Blayze declared, placing the rolled up item atop the socket set.
"Why the hell did nobody tell me we stash those things under the freakin' back seat?!"
Hayley exclaimed, looking legitimately mad as she glared at the tool's.
"It's because it's the least likely place that somebody lookin' to steal shit is gonna look."
Blayze explained.
"How the hell did you know?"
I asked, frowning slightly.
Was there a lot to Blayze's past that I didn't know about?
Was he some kind of a thief back in the day?
Thanks to the interior light of the Suzuki, I caught Blayze roll his eyes.
"Keegan's been my best friend for ten years remember and he's been workin' at Sam and Della's about as long."
So his knowledge was innocent then.
"Thank you sooo much! You're a life saver!"
Hayley declared, now kneeling on the driver's seat, facing the back.
I was literally cold enough that my body was gently shaking, but I did my best to swallow that discomfort and reached for the tool's Blayze was holding.
Considering the way things have been with us lately, I can hardly expect he'll just go ahead and fix the problem for us.
He raised a questioning eyebrow at me, but handed the tool's over anyway.
Sighing deeply, I walked around the open back seat door and up to the front of the car.
Now that it was dark, I was cold and we'd been here for hours, I really did not want to see if I could remember how to change a fan belt.
But, I didn't exactly have a choice.
Apparently Hayley doesn't know how to do one.
I only know because Heath took pity on me and talked me through putting the new one on the Hilux.
Feeling exhausted and defeated, I placed the socket set onto the edge of the front of the car and popped the lid open.
Next, I unravelled the bag item which held a set of different sized Spanner's.
Cowgirl Up Bailey.
I coached myself.
Get this done and then you can go home for a hot shower and another night of nowhere near enough sleep.
Boot's crunched on the ground behind me.
I clenched my jaw and studiously focused on the task in front of me.
First thing's first, find a socket or a spanner that will fit those bolt's.
Except, I'm not a mechanic or mechanically minded, so I can't exactly just look at the bolt and think 'there we go it'll probably be that size!'
"I'd try a fifteen mil spanner."
Blayze's voice suggested.
Tear's pricked at my eyes.
I felt like I still needed to protect my heart from him, so I hunched my shoulder's as if that might help.
Was he seriously not even just going to offer to do this for me?
Maybe he didn't fix himself.
Or, he did but he's come back different.
He was gone just shy of a week.
Could one seriously fix themselves in that time?
Maybe because he know's you he think's you'll just bite his head off if he offer's to take over.
The sensible voice in my head countered.
But I want him to take over.
I'm cold.
I'm tired.
I'm mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.
A light suddenly beamed on the engine space, making it easier to see what had to be done.
Where it came from, I don't know.
Maybe Blayze had a torch.
With slightly trembling finger's, I reached into the bag for the 15ml spanner.
"At the risk of you biting my head off already..."
What did I even do?
I grabbed the damn tool he'd told me to!
I'm not an idiot!
Clenching my jaw in an attempt to hold in my unravelling emotions, I turned on my heel so that my back was to the vehicle and I was now facing Blayze.
"Hayley told me you guys have been here since just after four."
He stated.
Yes.
That's what happens when you can't find the tool's to do the job!
"I need to get the horses unloaded, but I definitely don't want to leave you on the side of the road."
Blayze explained.
"So what exactly are you suggesting?"
My traitorous voice came out as little more than a whisper.
He held his hand's up, palms forward as if to hold off an attack.
"I'm puttin' the offer out there now... to put the new one on for ya."
About damn time he offered.
Except, I'm stubborn.
"And if I say no?"
I asked, wrapping my arms around myself again in an attempt to keep somewhat warm.
Blayze sighed, his exasperation audible in the sound.
"Then I'll keep on my way and settle the animals in and you'll have to call me when you decide you've had enough of being stubborn and pretending you've got no choice but to do everything on your own."
It will still take him close to an hour to get back to the farm (if that was even where he was intending on going), because he had the horses on board.
Then, it would take time to unload them, settle them in and park up the float.
An overwhelming wave of despaired loneliness and defeat washed over me as I thought about probably at least another two hour's of being stuck out here.
Even then, because I'm stubborn, I'd probably call Mum and get somebody else to come help.
Except, Blayze is here now and could easily get us back on the road fairly quickly.
Like I was surrendering a sword of submission, I held the spanner out towards Blayze's shadowed figure.
"Can you please get the car going?"
I absolutely hated the teary, defeated wobble in my voice.
Blayze stepped forward, but he didn't yet take the spanner from me.
Swallowing thickly, I blinked against my tear flecked eyes and tipped my head back until I could see the shadowed form of his face.
"Can you just tell me that you and the baby are okay?"
His voice wasn't quite right either.
It was still deep like normal, but there was a raspy edge to it which I couldn't quite place.
Okay?
How could I possibly be okay?
I swallowed thickly.
"I'm standing aren't I? And the baby is okay. I had another checkup today."
I couldn't be that much of a bitch that I just didn't even tell him.
He nodded and slipped the spanner out of my hand.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how he was doing, but my mouth would no longer work.
My body was frozen as he slipped the spanner's head onto the bolt and twisted.
Suddenly, Blayze set the spanner onto the open socket set and stepped back from the car.
What the?
What's he doing?
I frowned in confusion as he pulled his hat off his head.
Since when does he take his hat off just to work on a car?
Even more bewildering, he set his hat aside and pulled his jumper over his head.
Okay he definitely couldn't have worked up enough body heat to be feeling hot!
He hasn't even done anything yet!
Without sparing me a glance, he held the jumper out to me.
"Why'd you take your jumper off?"
I finally managed to make myself speak, taking the material with lightly shaking hands.
"I can see you shaking."
He muttered, leaning back over the front of the car to do what he had to.
"Wear that or climb in the car with Hayley please."
Biting into my lower lip, I looked down at the dark fabric of the jumper.
I could smell Blayze's cologne on it and already feel the lingering warmth of his body heat on the material.
He always run's at a higher body temperature than me.
I slipped my arms into the jumper, searching out the sleeves which would of course be too long for me.
Next I pulled the whole thing over my head and wriggled my way in, finally poking my head out of the top.
The hood cascaded around my head with ample coverage, immediately encasing me in a significant increase in warmth.