CountryCore Series: The Ranch Hand (WLW)

Chapter Ten

"I told ya before, I don't need help!" Chris stumbled back and clutched her unbuttoned pants around her waist.

She stood in the kitchen after telling Hayley she could manage. She could have sworn she heard her leave! No, she had heard her leave so why was she back now?

"And I told you to take off your pants!" Hayley slammed something down onto the kitchen table and Chris recognized it as the first aid kit from her truck.

"How the hell--" She felt her pockets for her keys, then heard their chime from Hayley's direction.

"I called Dan. Turns out you had one and he told me where to look." Hayley sat down and gestured to the chair beside herself. Chris didn't budge. "Look, if you really want me to, I'll go, but not until Dan gets here. He said he'll take you into town so you can get properly checked out."

Chris wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. On their walk back to her cottage, not a single word passed between them, but their hands never left each other's. At first, she'd only done it to make Hayley feel at ease, but then it became a comfort for her as well. Her leg was definitely hurting and her head pounding, yet she was relatively calm.

The longer Hayley stayed with her, the more she unwound. Even when she had raised her voice, it'd been so soft and gentle toward Chris. Hayley walked a bit further away than normal as they walked home as if she were making it impossible for herself to hurt Chris for even a fraction of a second. Now, she wanted to take further care by keeping her in her sights until someone else could come and take over.

All of it rang an all too familiarly chipper bell. This was exactly what she'd done for Hayley when she was sick, but was she just trying to return the favor or was there more to it than that? When Chris had done it for her, it'd been hard to admit afterward, but it had been done out of care only for Hayley. She would like to have thought she would do the same for anyone else but the truth was Hayley... Hayley was special.

She couldn't have let anybody else in her house, much less her bed, so easily. Letting someone rest in her mother's sacred wicker chair without batting an eyelash and holding Hayley as they both drifted off. There was no way Chris would do any of those things for anyone else other than Hayley and while the realization shook her, making something deep in her chest tingle. Instead of fighting it like usual, she let it be.

Chris sat down across from Hayley after shedding her trousers, not very gracefully at all. Hayley was blushing and hadn't even looked at her uncovered legs. She took the alcohol from the dining table where Chris left it and some gauze from inside the kit. Chris' pants still rested around her ankles so Hayley got out of her chair and to the floor, pulling each of her feet free from them. She pushed them aside and finally looked at Chris' legs.
She could visibly see when her breath hitched. Hayley definitely did her best to try and hide her reaction, but Chris lavished in the glowing heat in her chest. Hayley's cheeks were bright red as well as her ears which she had tucked her blonde waves behind. As if sensing exactly where Chris was looking, she pulled her hair down over her ears again. Chris felt herself slightly grinning and let it happen.

She winced when Hayley first applied the alcohol to her cut, but the pain rapidly dissipated. It wasn't nearly as bad as Hayley would have had her believe. The cut just happened to be in a place that bled a lot, but was shallow. Same with the cut on her head, however, she couldn't deny the fact that she'd gotten very lucky.

What if she had been hurt worse? She wouldn't be able to work on her ranch and most likely wouldn't get to see Dan, Austin and Lee on a regular basis. She wouldn't be able to check how the orchard or crops were doing in person. She wouldn't be able to check on how Hayley's work was progressing when...