Chapter 7
Hawk
S o now I knew Carter’s secret. Because it had clearly been one, given how he’d taken his time to share it with me. I could understand that. He didn’t know me at all, and vice versa. Hell, I still knew him only marginally better than I knew his PA.
Since Tommy was loitering in the barn when I sent Carter on his way, I gave Niko to him to take back to the stock barn.
The boy was a hard worker, but I also knew he had a crush on me and that was a bit tricky to maneuver around.
He beamed every time I gave him a task to do which meant that he’d do his best to do well, but still.
It was… awkward. For me, because I would never let him know I knew about his feelings.
I wasn’t going to humiliate him with that, not when I would also then have to let him down gently.
Jesus, I could remember my first real crushes. You were so fragile with emotions in your teens. I would never hurt Tommy on purpose. The kid had enough on his plate already working for us part time to support his mom and siblings after his dad, one of our hands, passed away.
I gave Humphrey a good brushing, given that I’d interrupted his leisurely post-exercise afternoon with more exercise. Not that I could claim that the slow stroll on the trail was anything like work to him.
Now I knew where Carter was in his horsemanship. I’d need to treat him like a newbie, but I’d also learned why he wanted Ramona in particular, I couldn’t help but to feel my initial annoyance fading a little.
The context clues were there. I was good at listening and reading people.
If I was right, he’d grown up less well off than he was now. He’d also had a tricky family situation. Being sent somewhere for two weeks and that being the best time of your life? Yeah. Home life must’ve been difficult.
I could vouch for the healing power of horses firsthand. My dad was a horseman through and through, and I’d learned a lot from him and Russ. I’d also absorbed their work ethic, just like all of my siblings.
There wasn’t a person in the family who’d gotten anything easy. Sure, some of the nasty gossip back in the day about how Mom and Dad “took advantage of poor Fern Harrington” suggested that Gigi Fern had just handed over things to them.
In a way, she had. But not because of charity.
No. It’d been because of love and because she’d been a good person.
I only had stories, of course; she’d been gone before I was born.
But it was her spirit of love and generosity that had been instilled in us kids.
It certainly wasn’t anything our parents had been taught by their own parents.
Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw any of my grandparents.
We’d never had a proper relationship with any of them, and none of us really needed that, either. We’d had everything we needed on the ranch that Gigi Fern had helped our parents purchase back when it was still mostly undeveloped and worth so much less than it was now.
I didn’t know how Carter had grown up, but if two weeks with a pretty, kind horse had changed something for him, I could respect that.
As long as he respected what I did and would do as I said, because I was the professional and he really needed to learn.
I could admit—if only to myself—that I’d been a bit too short with him. But he was also in pain already, as much as he’d tried to not show it, and he wouldn’t benefit much from taking care of the horses after the ride.
If I were completely honest, I also felt like I needed to get away from him. Apparently his honesty and this glimpse of who he actually was messed with my brain a little.
Logically I knew that the preconceived notions I had of him weren’t all true. But I had my reasons to dislike him. Well, not necessarily him , but I knew men like him, and I wasn’t going to repeat my past mistakes.
So I’d keep things professional. I would try to be friendly. That’d be enough.
He called me the next morning as I was doing some of the more annoying parts of my job—the monthly reports I did for each horse I was training. Some of them were for the owners, especially those who didn’t want or need the more casual messages. Most of them were for the ranch.
We had files for every horse on the ranch.
The system was really handy and we had information on injuries, training, behavioral changes, hoof and teeth health, vaccinations and dewormings, the mares’ cycles, pretty much anything you could think of, sometimes going back more than a decade for the older horses.
It was something everyone was grumpy about on occasion. It wasn’t easy to remember to add the small details sometimes, but when that one detail from two months ago explained why something else was happening right now, well, the system had its perks.
Plus if the clients we had, whether one of mine or someone else’s—we’d had a lot of positive feedback from buyers for our recordkeeping—were happy with it, it was definitely worth the hassle.
That said, it was still annoying trying to remember details when you accidentally-on-purpose forgot to update something and—my phone rang.
I grunted and scowled. Of course it was Carter.
“Yeah?” I tried to hold back my tone without success.
He snorted. “Is that how you greet all your clients?”
Only the annoying ones. “What do you need? I’m in the middle of something.”
“I wanted to know when would be a good time to come hang out with Ramona? I read that it’s a good bonding activity, just being around them.”
He wasn’t wrong there. “I’m working with her in”—I looked at the time—“a couple of hours. After lunch. Whether you want to see what we’ll do is up to you. It’s going to be about an hour of work at this point.” I didn’t want to overwhelm her, after all.
“So two hours if I want to watch, three if I don’t.”
I turned the chair to look out of the window. “Right.”
“Will I get an actual goodbye and see you later today?” he asked, and I couldn’t read his tone well enough if he was joking or not.
I snorted. “Depends on how well you take instruction. I don’t have time for games and I don’t give a fuck about how much money—”
“I’ve gathered that you’re not impressed by wealth, Hawk.” He let out a sound that could’ve been a huff of amusement as easily as frustration. “But I’m paying you well. I would appreciate it if I wasn’t treated like—”
I could almost hear the way his mouth clicked shut. Like what? I wasn’t going to ask.
“How about this,” I said slowly into the silence.
“I’ll try to be more… polite if you try to trust that I know what I’m doing, and that I also have the rest of my business to run.
You might be my highest paying client right now, Carter, but you’re not my only one.
I also work for the ranch. My schedule is insanely tight, and I rarely take time off because there’s just no possibility to do that.
” Before he could comment, I added, “And that’s not a complaint.
I love my job. When I can do it at my own pace. ”
The “without anyone trying to mess with me” was implied. Heavily.
“I’ve promised to train your horse to your liking, and I’ve also told you I’ll make sure you’re the kind of rider she’ll need once we get there.
” I sighed. There was one more thing to add.
Damn it. “I’m also not proud enough to be the first person to admit that I’m not a people person.
At all. I don’t see the point of trying to be, either. ”
He chuckled wryly. “It’s your way or the highway?”
I snorted. “Pretty much. There’s a reason I don’t normally allow owners to visit very often.”
That was news to him, clearly. “You don’t?”
Ah, something his PA hadn’t caught, then.
“No. I prefer quarterly visits. Every month sometimes, if it’s necessary or the owner lives close.” But not this. Not what he was going to do. “Which is part of why I’m snappy when I need to keep the business running like the well-oiled machine it normally is.”
He made a thoughtful sound. “All right. I can respect that.”
“Good. I’m saying you’re welcome to come to the ranch since you live very close, but don’t expect company.
You can observe Ramona, hell, I’ll even make sure you get to hang out with her and eventually go on walks with her to bond.
But if you’re going to be around, then you’ll also take riding lessons, and it won’t be me teaching you, either. ”
Because like I’d told him, I already had my plate full.
“Who would teach me, then?”
I decided to ignore the “would” instead of “will.”
“Normally, that would be Demi, but she just had the twins so she’s not available. It’s likely going to be Gemma or maybe Mal, if he has time. They work for me so I can see if they have time in their schedules.”
“So you’re pawning me off to your minions to keep me out of your way?”
The humor in his tone was the only reason I didn’t snap at him.
“Pretty much. But if you ever call anyone on the ranch my minion again, I’m going to terminate our contract immediately.” Yeah, I didn’t quite snap, but….
“Noted.” He cleared his throat. “I guess I’ll have to come up with other things to do as well, since I’m living here now.”
I rolled my eyes, glad that he couldn’t see me. “That sounds like a rough life to have.” I glanced at the time again. “Look, I need to get to work.”
“All right. I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah. Bye.” I ended the call before he could say anything more.
It felt both a victory and a bit childish at the same time.
Because Ramona was such an inquisitive horse, I decided to take her to the agility course. She’d need to be solid on various surfaces later anyway, given that Carter would probably mostly do trail riding with her, so I thought why not let her familiarize herself with some of this stuff.
I hadn’t ridden her yet, because she didn’t have the muscles needed for that after being a broodmare for years. Having her do different exercises both in the arena and out of it would help with that pretty quickly.