by M. E. Parker
“Claire!” I jumped when I heard Jack calling my name. “What are you doing?” I looked at him and he had a wide smile on his face.
“Filling Billy’s water bowl.” I hoped I had the right bowl and was doing it right.
“Yeah? And where is Billy exactly?”
“In his pin around the corner,” I said hoping I had put him in the right place. Jack walked around the corner as I filled the bowl with water and came back.
“How in the world did you do that Claire?” He asked with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“It wasn’t that hard Jack. I put his leash on him and told him we were going for a walk.”
He roared with laughter, “Unbelievable. Do you know the last time I tried to put the leash on that old goat, he dug in his hoofs and wouldn’t budge an inch? I even tried to bribe him with a peach and he ignored me.” He bent down and kissed me taking the water bowl out of my hands.
After getting Billy settled, I followed Jack back in the barn. “What’s next?” I asked.
“I’m gonna load this stuff on the back of the gator and we’ll go over to the chickens.” He handed me a pair of work gloves, they were tan leather on the outside, but the palm was light pink. I looked at him with a raised brow, wondering why he had women’s gloves. “Sarah, Ted’s wife keeps them in stock. Don’t worry they are new. Try them on, I don’t want you messing up those pretty little fingers.” He said with a panty-dropping smile. I tried them on and they fit perfectly.
“I don’t want to take her gloves,” I said, thinking I should take them off.
“Don’t worry there were five or six pairs back there.”
I followed him to the back of the Gator and saw a ten-gallon bucket sitting there along with empty baskets. He picked up the stack of baskets and put them on the back. I immediately went to grab the bucket, seeing that it was chicken feed. It was much heavier than I expected, probably about fifty pounds, but I could manage since it was just a few steps to the Gator. Jack looked back at me, “Claire, don’t that’s too heavy. I’ve got it.” But I pretty much had it on the back before Jack got to me to help me slide it in. I wanted to show him that I wasn’t afraid of hard work. He smiled at me and shook his head and I followed him to the Gator.
We road over to feed and water the chickens. I was glad to see them in a big open pin instead of inside a dark barn. There was a long row of hen houses that made up one side of the pin. We filled the feeders with seed and I rinsed out the giant water trough and filled it with fresh water. Then we threw some whole corn out for the chickens. Jack explained that it was good for them during winter, helping them to produce more eggs. My favorite part was collecting eggs out of the hen houses. There was at least five dozen.
We took them back to the barn and placed them in crates in one of the refrigerators. It was already full of eggs. Jack explained they were to be shared by everyone who worked on the farm and whatever was left over at the end of the week were taken to the market in town to be sold. When he told me the same was true with the pigs and cattle, I asked how the farm could make a profit, giving all that away to employees. He explained that the animals were just a small part of the farm, mostly kept as a perk for employees and their families. The real money, according to him, came from the soybeans. I realized then that I was seeing only a tiny portion of what the farm really was. After we got the pigs fed, Jack let me drive the Gator over to horse stables. As soon as I walked in, I knew I was where I was meant to be. Memories of boarding school flashed back to me. There was a stable there and a hand full of times I got to go down and see the horses and I even got to ride a few times. But it was very rare. My father would not agree to let me take horseback riding as an elective, he thought I should concentrate on academics.
I stopped at the first stall and saw the most beautiful horse, it was a white palomino with grey spots. I immediately reached up to pet her mane. My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. “What’s its name?” I asked smiling at Jack. He was looking at me so intently. Our eyes connected, and I could feel my pulse racing. There was no way I was imagining this. He was looking at me like I was the only person in the world.
“Her name’s Sunshine.” He said grinning.
I looked back up at the spectacular horse and rubbed her muzzle just below her forehead. “Hi Sunshine. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. I wish I had a treat for you.” The next thing I knew Jack was standing behind me with a box of sugar cubes.
He whispered in my ear, “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” He kissed my neck and I giggled, turning around to take a couple of sugar cubes from the box. He caught my lips with his and we kissed until I finally tore myself away to feed Sunshine the sugar cubes that were making my hand sticky. The next thing I knew I heard a deep voice that wasn’t Jack’s.
“Hey, Boss.” I turned to see a young guy about my age, with a body almost as hot as Jack’s. He had wild blonde hair that stuck out from under his black cowboy hat. I wondered if every man in Tennessee looked like them. My face reddened as I wondered how long he had been standing there and whether he saw me kissing Jack. He cleared his throat, “I just thought I’d come by to see if everything was alright—”
Jack interrupted him, “Luke, this is Claire, she’s visiting from up north. Claire, Luke. He’s here on his day off and I’m not sure why.” I could see some unspoken communication going on between them, but I wasn’t sure what it was, and Jack didn’t look so happy. But Luke’s smile widened as he looked back and forth between Jack and me.
I smiled at Luke, “It’s nice to meet you, Luke.” He tipped his hat in a movie-worthy way and replied, “Good to meet you too, ma’am.” I giggled, and Jack wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me towards him and I blushed again. Luke chuckled, “Looks like love at first sight.”
I could tell that Luke was teasing Jack and I thought it was funny, but I looked up at Jack and he wasn’t laughing. In fact, his face red and he was glaring at the guy. “Luke,” Jack said through gritted teeth. Luke interrupted and nodded his head towards Sunshine, “I mean Miss Claire and Sunshine.” Luke had a definite smirk on his face as he continued to look between Jack and me. I giggled again. It seemed ridiculous for him to call me “Miss Claire,” I mean, we had to be practically the same age.
“Luke weren’t you about to tell me what you were doing here on your day off?”
Luke cleared his throat. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was a little nervous. “Oh yeah Boss, I just came by to make everything was alright here, but it looks like you’ve got it under control.”
“Yeah, we do Luke, see ya’ later. See you tomorrow.”
“Ok. Bye Miss Claire.”
I laughed, “Bye Luke.” I watched Luke walk out of the stable shaking his head.
As soon as Luke was out the door, Jack wrapped me up in his arms and started to kiss me. I almost got lost in it—lost in his kissable lips and magic hands that were making their way under the hem of my shirt. But then I realized where we were and backed up. I smiled at him, “We better get back to work.” He looked down at me and shook his head and kissed me on the cheek and walked towards the back of the stable.
I watched him as he reached the stall in the back of the stable. He opened it and hooked up a lead to a massive brown horse with a jet-black mane. He stroked the horse’s mane, “Hey buddy, long time no see.” I watched as he led the horse out of the stall and they stopped in front of me. Jack introduced me, “Claire, meet King. He’s been my best friend for a long time.” I reached up and patted his mane and grinned at Jack. Jack kissed me on the cheek again. “I got King on my birthday when I turned twelve, he was just a foal.”
My eyes widened. “He’s yours?”
Jack chuckled, “Yep, we’ve been together a long time.”
“Where are you taking him?”
“I’m going to take them out to the paddock to get some exercise and graze, so I clean out the stalls. Do you ride, Claire?”
/> “Not well, I’m afraid. Just a few times when I was younger.”
He handed me the lead. “Hold this for a second. I’m going to put a lead on Sunshine and you can walk her out behind us. All you have to do is barely hold on and she will follow King, she is definitely a follower.”
Once all five horses were out of the stable, Jack smiled at me, “Take a seat, I’m gonna muck out the stalls.”
“No way Jack. I’m helping today. I’m not going to sit around while you work.”
“Claire, this is a gross job. You don’t want to do it. Just take a break. It shouldn’t take very long.” There was no way I was sitting this out. It’s not that I was very excited about shoveling horse shit, but I wanted to prove to him and myself that I could do it.
We argued for a while, but I finally won, telling him we could finish twice as fast if I did it. He reluctantly gave in and handed me what looked like a snow shovel and rolled a wheelbarrow just outside Sunshine’s stall. I went straight to work hoping to finish mine before he finished his on the opposite end of the stable. My arms were getting tired and it stunk like nobody’s business, but I wasn’t going to stop. When I finally finished Sunshine’s stall, I moved the wheelbarrow down a stall and saw that Jack was almost finished with his second stall. I went to work straight away, and I was about halfway through with my second stall when I felt Jack’s hands on my hips. I was bent over shoveling and I jerked up and let out a yelp.
He laughed, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just your ass looked so perfect, I couldn’t help myself.” I giggled. He pulled me closer to him, my back to his chest. I could feel his hardness against my ass and he started to kiss my neck. The next thing I knew his hand was over my breast, his thumb strumming over my nipple. I tried to hold back, but a little moan escaped my lips. I almost gave in, but then realized where we were.
“Jack are you crazy?” I asked breathlessly, breaking free from his hold and taking several steps back. “There’s no hanky-panky happening in the stable. Luke was just here a little while ago. Someone could walk in.” He looked at me with a smirk on his face and took a step towards me. I managed to run by him and then turned back again quickly. My back was facing the stall exit and Jack kept walking towards me with a mischievous grin on his face. I took a couple of steps back laughing, “I mean it Jack, it’s not happening.”
I took one more step back and I felt my leg hit something, which turned out to be Jack’s shovel that he had leaned against the wall of the stall. I lost my footing and fell backward. I saw Jack try to catch me, but it was too late. I ended up on the floor of the stall, sitting in a giant pile of horse manure and straw. He lifted me up in about two seconds, but the damage was done. I looked at him and his face was white as a ghost. I burst out laughing.
“Claire, oh my god, I’m so sorry. I tried to catch you. Are you okay?”
I kept laughing, “I’m fine Jack.” I said as I tried to look at my ass to see how bad the damage was.
Jack led me out of horse stall and came back with a whisk broom and began brushing off my ass and the back of my thighs while I giggled. “I’m so sorry Freckles.” After he finished, he looked into my eyes like he was searching for something.
“It’s all good Jack, don’t worry.”
“I can take you back to the cabin right now if you want to clean up.”
“Hell no. We aren’t finished yet. I’ll clean up after we are done for the day.”
He chuckled. “I swear to god Claire, I don’t know what to make of you. There’s a sink over there in the corner, go wash up and meet me outside by the paddock and get some air. I’ll finish here and then we’ll have lunch.”
“No way, I’m finishing.”
“Claire, I literally just caused you to fall into a big pile of shit. You’ve gotta give me this one.”
I laughed at him. “Okay, suit yourself Jack. I’ll go visit with Sunshine.”
I was surprised to see Jack carrying out a saddle a few minutes later. “What are you doing?”
“I’m gonna saddle up King and Sunshine—they’re gonna to be our transportation to lunch.” I think I actually let out a squeal, I was so excited.
“Are you sure we are allowed to do that?” I asked.
“Of course, Freckles, that’s what they’re for. They’re horses. They’re for riding.”
I rolled my eyes at him as he went back to the barn to get King’s saddle, a saddle bag, and blanket.
“I hope I can remember what to do.”
“Sunshine is gentle, and she will just follow King. All you have to do is barely hold onto the reigns. We won’t go very far, and we won’t go fast.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and peppered his face with kisses while he tried to keep working on King’s saddle. If he was trying to get me to not like it here and want to go home, he was doing a terrible job.
We rode up to a small clearing. The view from the clearing was gorgeous. I had forgotten how much I loved to ride. He helped me off the horse and then I watched as he spread out a blanket for us. He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out turkey sandwiches, a container of sliced pears, another piece of Suzie’s apple pie, and two bottles of water. I stared at him while we ate quietly. I wondered if he had any idea what our time together had meant to me. I felt free for the very first time in my whole life.
Chapter Ten—Jack
God, she was beautiful. All I could think about was getting this “work” over with so I could get her someplace where I could touch her again. She had been driving me crazy all day. We managed to get the horses brushed down and back in their stalls. All we had left to do was check on the cattle and that would be quick. I just needed to lay eyes on them and check their water troughs.
As I drove the Gator down the path towards the gate to get to the cattle pasture, I saw a downed tree. “Damnit!” I cursed under my breath. A fifty-foot maple had fallen and was completely blocking the gate. I missed it yesterday and I hadn’t even scheduled a crew to come remove it.
Claire looked at me, “What’s wrong Jack?”
“I missed that tree yesterday, it’s blocking the gate. I’m sorry Claire. I’m going to have to clear it. I can’t leave it all night. We have to be able to get in and out of the gate, it’s the only one.”
She looked down at the clock on the Gator, “It’s okay, right? It’s just 2:30, we’ve got time, don’t we?”
I smiled at her. “Yeah. It’s just I was hoping to finish up, so we could—anyway, I can run you back to the cabin and come back and do this. You don’t want to hang out while I try to get this cleared.”
“What? No, Jack. I’m not going to hang out, I’m going to help.”
“Claire—this is hard work, you’ve done enough of that today. You’re not even getting paid.”
“Yes, I am Jack. You’ve been feeding me for two days. Let’s not argue about who owes what. Just tell me what to do.”
I smiled at her. She was stubborn as hell and I loved it. I turned us around and drove back to the barn to get a chainsaw. I was still trying to think about how to get out of doing this, but I sure wasn’t going to call Luke in and I knew it was unlikely that I could get a crew out before dark because they were busy clearing the six other trees down I discovered yesterday morning.
As soon as we got back to the gate, Claire jumped out and started moving all the broken limbs to form a brush pile out of the way of the gate and I went to cutting the large limbs and trunk into small enough pieces, so they could be moved aside. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see how hard she worked, because she had been like that all morning. But as soon as she got the brush cleared, she started to carry the logs I had cut and begun stacking them neatly beside the brush pile. Some of them were damn heavy. I tried to tell her to leave them, but she just rolled the ones she couldn’t pick up. She never asked me what to do, she just went to work. It took us over two hours to finish enough so that the gate would open and then another half hour to check on the cattle and drain and refill t
he water troughs.
When we finally made it back to the barn, it was nearly five thirty and the sun was getting ready to set. I unloaded the Gator and parked it back in the barn. Then I grabbed two cold beers out of the cooler and the blanket and spread it on top of a bale of hay outside of the barn and motioned for her to sit beside me. “Come on Claire, we worked hard today. We deserve a cold beer while we watch the sun go down.” She sat down beside me, and I handed her a beer and watched her take a sip and savor it.
I put my arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. We sat quietly for a while. My mind was reeling. I looked over at her. She smelled like horse shit, she had dried leaves in her hair, a smudge of dirt on her forehead, and still she was, hands down, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I think that was the moment, the moment I realized I was in love with her. Of course, I couldn’t tell her. It was crazy. It was too soon, but I knew it and I felt it.
My mind replayed the day. I figured we’d work an hour or two and she’d be done. Hell, if it were Tiffany, she wouldn’t have lasted fifteen minutes. But god, she worked hard. She carried feed buckets, mucked out stalls, and helped me clear that tree with a smile on her face. She was so natural with the animals. I can’t believe she got Ted’s old goat in that pin. I loved watching her eyes light up when she saw Sunshine. I bought Sunshine about five years ago hoping Tiffany would ride with me and she wouldn’t even bother to come down to the stable to meet her. When I helped Claire up on that horse, I could tell she was natural. I saw it in her eyes. She loved riding as much as I did. She was too good to be true.