“Great!” she exclaimed. “Today really just couldn’t get any worse could it?!”
“Need some help, Miss?” a voice asked from somewhere in front of her and Amber’s head snapped up, but the sun was shining in her eyes and she didn’t quite get a good look at the stranger.
“No, clearly I’m just peachy, thanks,” she snapped angrily and then gasped. “My phone!” She collapsed to the floor and grabbed her phone which had been flung into the puddle and was now caked in the foul-smelling brown liquid.
Ugh, this cannot be happening! she lamented, in the verge of tears.
Chapter Four
With tears threatening to fall, Amber hobbled over to a nearby fence to lean on it as she reached down and tried to fix her broken heel, but nothing worked. It was only hanging on by a thread. She’d managed to get most of the dirt off her phone, however, but she still had no network or service to contact anyone. Great, just great!
“My name’s Jesse, by the way, Jesse Wyatt,” the stranger said as he took another step closer, and Amber noticed this time that he had a dog in tow. She looked over at Jellybean and noted they were quite a good distance apart.
“Amber,” she offered in a quiet, grumpy voice as her eyes darted back down to her dress and she tried to pick off the drying mud and salvage her appearance.
“Maybe I can help you get home? Where are you staying, Miss Amber?” The kind stranger named Jesse offered as he finally got close enough that she could see him properly.
Amber huffed and looked up at him, noticing for the first time that he was a muscular, young, and handsome guy with an English Shepherd dog beside him on a leash. His eyes were a striking cerulean color, and his hair was buried under a wide-brimmed hat, but the roots looked like a lush mahogany color. His face was angular, and his skin was tanned. Under normal circumstances, Amber might have been tempted to flirt with him or just strike up a friendly conversation, but right now, she wished he were anywhere but here. She really didn’t need a witness to her utter humiliation and imminent breakdown.
“Can you pass me my dog’s leash, please?” She finally asked, and the stranger walked over to grab Jellybean’s pink, diamante-encrusted leash with a smirk on his face.
“I don’t know if you can really call it a dog, but here’s the leash anyway,” he teased as he handed it over to her.
Feeling anger boil inside her, Amber snatched the leash from his hand and glared at him. “She is a dog, thank you, and I’m sure she’s better trained than your mutt anyway.” Amber once more tried to scrape the dirt off of her dress with her nails and noted that the material seemed to be staining.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you don’t exactly have dry cleaners in this crappy, backwards town, do you?” She growled in his general direction.
Jesse’s whole demeanor seemed to change and he stood still, his body tensing. “No, we don’t. If you’re so worried about your clothes, why don’t you head back to wherever you came from and waste a month’s salary on another silly little dress?”
Amber scoffed and stared over at the man with an open mouth. “I don’t see what business it is of yours as to how much my clothes cost,” she retorted, and gripped Jellybean’s leash tighter in her hand.
“It’s not my business,” Jesse agreed in a sharp, acidic tone. “I guess me and my mutt will just get on our way now. Come on, Bud.” The happy and oblivious black and white dog at his side stood up and began panting, tongue out and moving rapidly.
As Jesse went to pass Amber, Bud trotted toward Jellybean and took a surreptitious sniff of the other dog. Jellybean excitedly darted forward to meet the other much-larger canine and they began to dance together happily, hopping from foot to foot until Bud got a little too close and made Jellybean whimper in fear.
“Careful, baby!” Amber cried and lifted Jellybean by the waist to hold her close. “That dog is much bigger than you. He could hurt you.”
Jesse rolled his eyes at Amber. “You’re unbelievable. Bud wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I’m unbelievable for being careful?” Amber shot back.
“You’re unbelievable for being a conceited city slicker who is more interested in how she looks than the people around her,” he retorted and continued to walk down the road past her.
“Hey! That’s not true!” Amber called out, feeling offended, but Jesse just carried on walking.
The nerve of him, she groaned to herself. With tears pricking her eyes, Amber turned tail and returned to the ranch. Thankfully, Billy wasn’t around to see her awful state, and she ran upstairs to her secluded apartment, locking the door firmly behind her. She stripped her clothes off quickly and ran toward the bathroom. After turning the faucet on, Amber lamented the presence of a weak stream of cold water. She decided to leave it running for a little while as she scrubbed at her clothes and tried to get as much dirt out of them as possible. Thankfully, eventually some lukewarm water came from the faucet and the bath began to fill up with enough water so that she could bathe in it.
Amber tried to take comfort in the water around her, but she couldn’t. It was nothing like the luxurious, large, and round bathtub she had at home, and the water was nowhere near as warm. With a sigh, she began to scrub the remnants of mud from her body and hair.
“Amber!” Billy’s voice called from outside the door as he knocked on the wood. “My neighbor is here, if you still needed help with the Wi-Fi!”
Shit, Amber cursed internally as she looked down at her wet and naked state. “Um… I’ll be right there! One sec!” She began to scramble out of the bath after washing the suds of shampoo and soap off of her body.
Amber reached for a towel and wrapped it around her body before running to her Louis Vuitton suitcase and rummaging through it for her bathrobe. Where is it? she wondered with worry in her eyes.
“Oh, well, never mind, Amber. I think he’s got to leave now to take care of something back home. I’ll try and get him over tomorrow…” Billy’s voice yelled again.
“No! No!” she cried and ran to the door, pulling it open wide despite being dressed only in her towel with her wet hair clinging to her neck. Billy’s look of surprise said it all. “Please send him up for me? I don’t want to come downstairs dressed like… Well, you know.”
Billy chuckled. “Sure thing, Miss Amber.” He turned away from her and began walking back down the steps. “Jesse! We need you up here!”
Jesse… Why did that name ring a bell? Oh... Oh, no. Sadly for Amber, the same man she had bumped into on her failure of a walk around the neighborhood appeared at the bottom of the stairs. His friendly expression soon darkened when he caught sight of the redhead waiting for him, though a hint of a smirk remained.
“Ah, Miss Amber, it is so lovely to see you again,” he said sardonically.
“Yes, it’s just wonderful,” Amber managed to say despite the blush on her cheeks and the chill of the air on her wet, naked legs. “Can you just hurry up? I’m getting cold.”
Jesse chuckled under his breath as he climbed the wooden stairs and bypassed Amber. “It’s not all that hard; Billy just doesn’t know where to get the Wi-Fi password from. If you have a bit of paper, I’ll copy it down from my phone?”
“Oh, sure,” Amber said as she looked around the lounge area, noting how her clothes were still strewn on the floor from where she’d been looking for her robe. “Excuse the mess, I couldn’t find my robe.” Self-consciously, she held the towel tighter around her chest and coughed awkwardly. She saw one of her bright pink Victoria’s Secret thongs laying on the coffee table and she balked.
Before Amber could reach out and snatch it up, Jesse beat her to it and lifted the lace material into the air. “This is definitely not your robe,” he commented with a devilish grin in her direction.
With a huff, Amber snatched it out of his hands. “Please, just give me the password and then leave,” she muttered as her cheeks flamed bright red and she looked down at the floor.
“I told you, I nee
d something to write on.”
Avoiding his eyes, Amber ventured into the kitchen area and found a discarded piece of paper from an old letter, and turned it over to the blank side before presenting it to Jesse. “Here you go,” she said.
Without another word, Jesse took it, and pulled a pen from his jeans pocket before scribbling down the password on the paper and handing it back to her. “Here you go, Ma’am,” he said with a nod in her direction before heading toward the door.
Amber watched him go, feeling a mixture of resentment and gratefulness.
“I take back what I said before,” Jesse said as he reached the door.
Amber’s eyebrows drew together, puzzled. “Which part?”
“The part about you going and buying a fancy new dress,” he explained, turning back around and grinning at her. “This is a much better look for you.” He winked at her.
“Get out of here!” Amber huffed in embarrassment, throwing a random t-shirt she’d found on the floor in his direction.
Jesse left the apartment then, but his laughter could be heard long after the door closed behind him.
Chapter Five
The next morning, Amber woke bright and early to the sound of birds squawking and singing outside her window. She bolted upright and spooked Jellybean who had been sleeping soundly next to her. It was the first night she had slept through ever since she’d broken up with Mike, and she smiled. Then her hand traveled to her hair and she groaned loudly. No, no, not today… Her curly hair was wild and unruly after not being brushed when wet, and she groaned.
She padded to the bathroom and began her usual morning routine of cleansing, exfoliating, and moisturizing her skin before trying to deal with the knotted mess that was her hair.
Once Amber believed she was ready, she checked her appearance in the only mirror available — the tiny one above the sink in the bathroom. She patted down her white Chanel blouse and pulled at the hem of her Hugo Boss A-line skirt, and then squinted at her make-up, scrutinizing it for any smudges or errors.
Thinking she looked wonderful, Amber left the house clutching Jellybean’s leash, and today, she remembered to be wary, and began looking for any rocks or debris she might trip over. The air around her was pungent with the foul stench of fresh manure, and she had to pinch her nose to try not to gag. She headed in the direction of the town center where Billy had said she might be able to find some of the supplies she was after, but upon arrival, Amber couldn’t stifle her disappointment.
The town center was nothing more than a fruit and vegetable market, a tiny, privately-owned convenience store, and a statue of some historic figure she didn’t recognize. She sighed and looked around over her shoulders for any sign of home, but there was none. There isn’t even a Starbucks! she bemoaned, and crossed her arms over her chest.
Amber was really beginning to regret taking this job opportunity.
As she walked toward the grocery store, the redhead noticed a familiar figure exiting it and she rolled her eyes. Really? Two days in a row? she asked herself. Are you trying to test me, Lord? She tried to duck her head, but with her vibrant red hair and the little yip of her dog beside her, she stuck out like a sore thumb.
“Miss Amber,” Jesse called out with a grin and tipped the brim of his hat in her direction. “You’re wearing clothes for a change today! And they aren’t covered in mud. It must be my lucky day.”
Amber resisted rolling her eyes. “What do you want, Jesse?” she snapped, as she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. She already felt like a fool for having been seen in such awful states by the man already. Couldn’t he be a gentleman about it and just never bring it up ever again?
“Nothing, little lady,” he answered with a toothy grin, and looked her over from head to toe in a way that made her pulse race. “I’m just getting my groceries, same as you, I imagine.” As though to indicate his honesty, he lifted a paper bag up with the hand that wasn’t holding Bud’s leash.
Amber stiffened in response, feeling a little disgruntled by the farmer’s presence. Would she really be seeing him this often every day for the next three months? Surely not. Lord have mercy!
“Yeah, well I’m just going to get on with that now. If you don’t mind,” she replied, feeling a little flustered as she tried to walk past him and into the small entrance of the shop.
But when Jellybean got closer and closer to the larger dog, she began to cower and whimper. Thinking something awful had happened, Amber let out a gasp and kneeled down to pick up the Pomeranian. “Oh my God, Jellybean! Are you okay?!”
A loud burst of laughter came from her left, and Amber’s head whipped around. Jesse was almost doubled over and clutching his stomach as he roared and chuckled.
“What is so funny?!” Amber cried in anger. “My dog is clearly scared of yours! I didn’t expect anyone around here to be so cruel.”
Jesse stopped laughing and straightened up. “I’m not laughing at your dog being scared. I just… I can’t believe anyone would name their dog ‘Jellybean’. It’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard!”
Amber narrowed her eyes at him. “And ‘Bud’ is so very original is it?” she retorted. “You know what, I don’t even care what you think. Stay the hell away from me.”
With that, she stormed off into the store without so much as a backward glance at the irritating farmer outside. Once she entered the store, Amber noticed that there was only a small amount of shelf space which meant a small selection of products. She sighed and began to scour the racks for the items she needed. She found a few cheap make-up products, and sighed. She supposed she could go without them, but what she needed the most was food for Jellybean.
After a cursory look around the store, Amber was distressed to find that they only sold one type of dog food. She approached the counter. “Excuse me, do you have any other types of dog food available?” She asked.
“‘Fraid not, miss,” the man behind the counter told her with a shake of his head. “If you’re desperate for it, there is one of those supermarket chain stores a little ways up the road. About half a mile.”
“Seriously?! Oh my God, you’re a lifesaver! Thank you!” Amber cried with a wide smile. “My name is Amber, by the way. I’ve just moved in with Billy Harding. I… I know his niece.” She smiled over at the man behind the counter, noticing his aged appearance, but also his kind countenance.
“Oh, well, welcome to the neighborhood! My name’s Peter Dawson,” he replied.
“Ahh, Peter as in Peter’s Groceries,” she said, remembering the sign outside. “Must be nice owning your own store and all.”
“It has its ups and downs,” he commented with a sigh. “Well, I hope I’ll see you soon, Miss! If you come in and let me know what food you need in future, I’ll try and order it in especially for you.”
“That would be so kind of you,” she replied with a gracious smile. “And thanks so much for the tip.”
“Anytime. It would be a real shame if folk stopped helping other folk in this Godforsaken world. You take care of yourself, Miss Amber.”
“You too, Peter.”
With the ding of the tiny bell above the shop door, Amber was out into the open air of Valley Springs once more, and on an adventure to find the specialist food Jellybean needed.
***
After finding a Walmart tucked away roughly where Peter had indicated, Amber was just entering the town once more and she had almost reached Billy’s ranch again, when she spotted Jesse in the field opposite. He was stood there using a hoe to turn over the dirt on the field and when he wiped his face with the back of his arm, he spread mud over his forehead.
Unable to resist, Amber approached him with a smirk. “You’ve got something on your forehead,” she told him with a chuckle, pointing to the dirt smeared across his face.
Jesse’s head snapped up and he sent her a curious glance before reaching up and feeling the mud stuck to his brow. He wiped it away with his gloved hand, and then glanced over at her with a
deep frown.
“What? You’re Mister Serious now? Or is it only funny when something bad happens to someone else?” Amber quipped with a grin.
“You didn’t buy your groceries from Peter?” he asked, ignoring what she said, and instead choosing to stare down at the white plastic bag clutched in her hand.
“Oh…” she muttered and looked down at her hand too. “Yeah, I ended up going to the supermarket down the road where —”
Without letting her say another word, Jesse rolled his eyes. “Of course, you did. You’re nothing more than a pampered princess, aren’t you?” he accused and tossed his hoe to the floor before turning and retreating.
Unsure what had just happened, Amber turned away from him with a sinking feeling in her gut, and strode back toward Billy’s ranch. Just when she was starting to figure out the mysterious enigma that was her neighbor for the next three months, he did something new to confuse her.
Chapter Six
It was Amber’s very first day of working on the ranch, and she was startled awake by a bang at her door. Once more, Jellybean jumped up and let out a little frightened yelp before Amber reached over and pet her soothingly.
“Rise and shine, Miss Amber. We got a lot of work to be getting up to!” Billy called through the door.
With a groan, Amber rolled over and blinked in the darkness. Jellybean had lied back down and gone fast to sleep and so, she crept around and got dressed in the most appropriate outfit she could find, which was hardly appropriate at all. She was wearing her brown leather Jimmy Choo boots over the top of a pair of Levi’s jeans, and a black Gucci bodysuit. She tied her hair back in a messy ponytail before making her way downstairs and out onto the ranch lands.
Billy was standing there, already getting his equipment ready for the day, when he heard Amber’s footsteps and turned. “Well, now, I wasn’t sure if you’d be getting up so early, but you’re full of surprises, Amber.”
Straddling States: A Contemporary Ranch Cowboy Romance (Western Valley Love Book 1) Page 3