Love Unexpected

Chapter 3

"So that's pretty much it. We breed and then sell them. The vet comes around every two weeks to check up on them. And if you want, we can go over the books to know every expenditure, transaction and dealings that has occurred over the past five months."
The thirty-six-year-old foreman of the Golden Bow Ranch finished, taking off his stetson.

They were out in the pastures, the final stop after showing Halyn around and thoroughly elaborating on what was done on the ranch on a daily. His eyes, which were trained on the grazing cattle subtly shifted to the woman who was a distance away, avoiding him like he was a plaque. Kasey still couldn't wrap his head around the reason why she was cold and rude to him.

He actively searched his mind trying to remember if he had in one way or the other offended her to warrant such behaviour but came up empty. And to say that her prudish and snobbish attitude wasn't getting to him would be a lie. For someone who was laid back and had a wide reserve of patience, she had, in two days successfully gotten on his nerves, each one of them.

Kasey internally sighed to himself, the mental image Chayton had so gloriously painted of her, shattering into pieces. The woman he was getting accustomed to was far from the sweet, caring, loving and kind "girl" his father had talked about. If anything, she was the exact opposite, at least to him, she wasn't any, other than those which brought him to the conclusion that maybe she naturally hated him.

"So what kind of cattle does the ranch breed." Halyn's voice broke into his spiralling thoughts, drawing his attention back to her.

"Mostly beef cattle." He replied his fingers tracing the hem of the hat in his hands.

"Alright then. That's enough for now. What activities do you have doing today?" She asked still looking straight ahead.

"Cleaning the stables, feeding the horses, fixing the east fence and later going into town for some stuff." He listed them out wondering why she would be interested in what he had done but what followed next had him in apparent surprise.

"Good. Let's get started."

"Started on what Miss?" Kasey turned to fully face her, placing his stetson back on his head. The intention her words came with was fully grasped by Kasey but he fringed confusion. There was no way in hell he was going to allow it. First of all, this wasn't some menial task, this was heavy labour she clearly wasn't cut out for and secondly, he didn't want her or her smart mouth anywhere near him. He was already drained from having to spend the better half of his morning in her cold presence.

"Did you not hear what I said this morning or do you want me to repeat myself?" She snapped, cold whiskey eyes squaring off with pale green ones.

"Look here Miss Halyn, I don't think you are cut out for heavy and tedious work, it will be best if you just.." He tried to reason with her but was stopped.

"If I just what? You think I can't do a man's work just because I'm a woman?" The stubborn woman argued, the hint of anger slowly creeping into her features.

"Not that but.."

"Enough, stop wasting time." She gruffly spat out and headed towards the stables, leaving Kasey to stare after her.

Left with no other choice, he followed behind, exercising his patience that was waning thin. Did she think this was child's play or that manual labour was like taking a stroll in the park? Kasey furiously thought to himself displeased by the fact that she had blatantly ignored his words. By the time he got to the stables, he had come to a standpoint, if she was going to be as stubborn as a mule then he had no other option than to treat her as such.