Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).

Chapter 26

“Puck! Andy!” It was a full three days after being roasted in the sun before Trisha let me back out into the horse barns, I wasn’t allowed to tend to all the horses on my own anymore either. I was kind of relieved to hear that, it meant I had company and didn’t have to clean out all twenty something stalls as well as hose all the horses down.

During my period of ‘illness’ I had neglected Puck and Andy...really I had neglected them since bringing them back from the pound that afternoon. But someone else had been caring for them, I suspected it was Trisha and Declan but they hadn’t owned up to it yet. I doubt they would, even with direct questioning.

The two puppies came running out of one of the horse stalls that I was yet to clean, since bringing them out into the barn I had learned that they not only liked to sneak off but also liked to eat horse dung. There was no way I was letting their little tongues near my face or hands after finding out that bit of news,  Sonia had laughed at me and said that it was something dogs did. They also liked to roll around in stink things; it was in their nature apparently.

Learning things as simple as that made me aware of the fact that I knew nothing about animals, the longer I had Andy and Puck the more I also realized that I didn’t dislike animals I just knew nothing about them.

“They really do love you, you know that right?” Sonia asked me as she watched the two pup’s come running towards me. I could only nod, the smile on my face too broad to allow talking. If someone had told me that having a pet fixed all your moods, I probably would have laughed in their faces but it was the truth! No matter how bad of a day I was having I could always count on one of both of them doing something cute to put a smile back on my face.

Sure, they didn’t know they were being cute but I did and I always looked forward to seeing what they would come up with next.

“So are we really done for the day? Where’s Devyn? I haven’t seen him all day,” I knew what Devyn was doing but I was still quite eager to speak to him today. It was odd, he was the first guy that actually caught my attention enough for ME to go chasing after him. That might have sounded like I had a huge ego but it was the truth, there was one of two guys back in California but I had been in a wide, open place with a lot of people so I could hide it better.

I couldn’t hide my curiosity out here in Montana; Sonia seemed to realize this as she gave me a knowing smile. Frowning at her I wondered what she was going to say, but she only shook her head in response to my question.

“You’re going to scare him off you know? For all his confidence there is one thing Devyn is insecure about and around and that is his bosses daughter...the daughter he’s never spent time with before. So the last thing Devyn wants to do is hurt you, because that’d be the end of his job and will make his future goal nearly impossible.” Frowning at the sudden change in direction of our conversation I glanced down the barn when something caught my eye.

Devyn was stood down the far end, he looked as if he were ready to walk out again and pretend that he hadn’t seen Sonia or I standing there. Saving him the awkwardness of it all I grabbed Sonia’s arm and dragged her out the nearest exit away from Devyn.

“So he’s afraid of what Declan will think? Is that why he’s giving me the cold shoulder?” I asked, trying to keep my anger under control. I wasn’t really angry at Devyn, if he didn’t want anything to do with me then that was fine. It was the way he was going about it that was really getting me annoyed; I mean...how hard was it to say it to someone’s face? It wasn’t like I was going to bite his head off or anything, I owed him that much.

“I think he’s afraid that if things turn sour that he’ll come out worse for wear, one of the reasons he’s working here is because Adrian was one of the best bronco riders in the rodeo circuit. Devyn wants to be a top bronco rider, he doesn’t want to jeopardize that...it’s hard work to get to the top and Devyn is still pretty green with handling bronc’s so any help or advice he can get from Adrian for as long as possible is going to help him get to the top.” Again I frowned, Devyn seemed to have his life all sorted out or at least his future goals and all I had planned was the outfit I was going to wear tomorrow.

 I left Sonia after that, taking Puck and Andy back to their pen before heading inside. As soon as I step foot in the door Declan was standing in front of me with a frown on his face, “I hope you didn’t over exert yourself today Leah, did Sonia help you? How many stalls did you do? How long did you spend out in the sun?” Rolling my eyes at the amount of questions that Declan fired out I side stepped him and continued on inside.

“I’m fine! I didn’t push myself too hard, Sonia helped me and I really didn’t spend all that long outside and when I was outside I wore the hat.” I hated the hat, but it kept Declan and Trisha from checking up on me too many times. If I had to look a little ugly while wearing the droopy cowboy hat just to get a peace and quiet then I was going to wear it.

“Okay, good. Are you hungry?” Almost laughing at the sudden change in Declan’s tone of voice I nodded, walking down to the kitchen. I wasn’t even through the door when I could smell something delicious wafting my way, either Trisha was cooking or my nose was playing games with me.

But instead of Trisha standing at the oven it was Valerie! I was momentarily lost for words as I eyed her, she was wearing her usual clothes but over the top of her shirt she wore an ugly looking cover thing. I’d never seen one before in my life, it looked like a dress but only covered her front and tied off in the back.

“What are you wearing?” I asked before stopping I even knew I was asking the question.

“An apron, don’t tell me you’ve never seen one before.” Apparently the look on my face answered that as Valerie started laughing, I didn’t take offence to her joke, I wore things that she’d never seen and I had also laughed at her. This time around I was the one floored at what she was wearing and at a total loss as to why she was wearing it.

“It’s to keep food off my clothes; you wear ‘em when you cook.” If ever I was picked to cook while out on the ranch I was never ever going near an apron. Especially the old, tatty looking one that Valerie currently had on.

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Short chapter, sorry it's late.

No matter how much I try and get Leah and Devyn to interact, Devyn always gets cold feet and leaves! What am I going to do?!