Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).

Chapter 14

By the time Devyn and I reached the lake, my butt was numb, and I was ready for a swim, I was sure Devyn had shown me almost everything there was to see on the ranch. From the hill that Declan had taken me up to the previous night, right down to a secluded waterfall and pool it was all beautiful and lush.

"Oh my god, my butt is dead!" I complained as I slid off the horse as soon as Devyn had pulled it to a stop. Maybe not so surprisingly Declan and the family were already at the lake and looked relatively comfortable doing what they were doing. Declan tried to look surprised when he saw Devyn, and I come along the shoreline, but when I saw Trisha rolling her eyes, I knew this was the plan all along.

"You two took your time." I couldn't help but laugh, yep. Declan was an overprotective dad again; he eyed me suspiciously as I came nearer and I could only offer a shrug.

"Is it illegal to stop a few times and stretch? I'm not used to horses." Up until the other day I didn't even know what a horse was, I knew the name and what it looked like but had never connected the two. It was safe to say I felt like the biggest idiot in the world but kept that fact to myself in case Val used it later down the track.

"I guess not, come on! We have sausages on the open fire, are you hungry? Trisha's packed a huge lunch." Nodding along to the offer I left Devyn to deal with the horse if I had to, I'd probably have left him standing on the stones or something.

"Though, did Devyn try anything while you two were out?" On hearing the question I began laughing, it wasn't a quiet laugh either. I rarely ever laughed like this, I guess people could describe it as full bellied and carefree. So many people stopped and openly stared whenever I smiled like this, so it was a rare occurrence.

"Do you think I'd let him try with me Declan? He's a good looking guy, but I'm not up here to fool around...ya know?" I said once my laughing was under control. My mom had never asked any questions so it was amusing now, though I should get used to those sorts of questions because so far that was all Declan had been asking me.

"Well, you make sure to get that across to him. That boy has lust written all over his face, and the last thing I want is for you to run back to California crying." Rolling my eyes at the dramatics, I pushed against Declan's shoulder playfully as we made our way towards Trisha....who sat with Valerie.

"How was the ride? Did you get to see a lot of the place?" I nodded as Trisha fired off several more questions, it was odd that Valerie didn't even acknowledge that I was there. Usually, she'd have glared holes through me, but so far she hadn't even moved her head an inch my way, it was refreshing.

"I did, and it was great, I wasn't expecting it to be so green around here." From the ride out to the ranch I could swear much of Montana was a dry dust bowl but here we were, sat around a small lake that was nestled in the middle of a large stand of trees. It amazed me; there were birds and insects everywhere.

After a few awkward moments, I took the paper bag that Trisha held out towards me if I weren't careful I would start gaining a lot of weight fast. This was the best I'd ever eaten, and because I wasn't surfing or running in the mornings the food I ate was beginning to settle, I could feel it.

"So you still need to hand your cell phone over, you know that right?" Pausing as I took the food from Trisha, I gave her a look. There was no way she was getting my cell phone this early on, and not because I'd defended myself...no way in hell. But instead of responding I gave a forced smile, took the paper bag and walked off to the other end of the small beach.

There was no way I was going to let these people bully me into something I didn't want to do. Besides, Trisha wasn't my mom so she couldn't get me to do something that I didn't want to. I might have felt a little more compelled to hand my phone over if Declan had demanded but by the looks of things he wasn't going to demand anything off of me anytime soon.

"Hey Leah, I know this is going to be hard. It's hard for everyone, but we need you to comply with the rules so that you don't upset the flow of things in the house." Turning my attention briefly to Declan I bit back my response, and they had another thing coming.

"What? You might as well say what's on your mind." Instead of answering Declan I dug through the bag of food, trying to distract myself from swearing at 'dad' as I was sure that'd land me in more hot water than hitting Val had.

"You can't just expect me to hand anything over, I was defending myself, and if that is so wrong, then you might as well ship me back to California because if Valerie comes at me again, she's going to get a black eye and broken nose." I couldn't care two hoots what Declan might think about the way I was acting; he couldn't just change me or the way I was.

"Leah! It's not all about you, you've been here a week, and already things have gone pear-shaped. Valerie isn't listening to Trisha, and the kids are starting to act up too, can't you just get along with people and at least try and listen to what Trisha and I tell you?" Okay, I couldn't pretend that didn't hurt. Blaming me for everyone else acting up was the lowest blow I'd been dealt, and Declan seemed to realise as soon as he'd finished talking what he'd said.

"Send me back to California then! At least I won't be blamed for other peoples issues; mom said this might happen, but I didn't want to believe her outright. Guess she was right." Declan's mouth was fighting to form words as I stood and began walking back down the track that Devyn and I had not long come up. Sure, it was probably childish to leave after an argument but lately, I felt like I was being blamed for everything.

"Leah! Come back! I didn't mean it that way!" I could hear Declan yelling from the beach, but I continued walking. I wasn't angry at what he'd said, more disappointed that he was using me as a scapegoat.

But I was already too far away and too angry to change my mind and go back and act like nothing had been said. Instead, I continued down the track; I was fairly sure where the house was...or at least the dirt road that leads down to it. After a half hour walking, I did reach the dirt road, feeling some satisfaction that I didn't get entirely lost on the way home.

No one followed me that I was thankful for. As soon as I made it to the house, I went and had a long shower, before going back to my room and laid in bed. The room was quiet, which was a huge change to the volume that could usually be heard, having no one inside was pure bliss, and I planned on lapping it up for as long as it lasted.