Chapter 5
Four
Wyatt
I stopped.
What did she ask?
It had been months since I had last seen Quinn Compton, and I still found myself staring.
Her brown hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, long enough to fall over her shoulder.
She was dressed simply with no makeup, just a coat and jeans—but damn—I could still see every curve of her body.
I was still taken by her; I could feel myself wanting to come alive with her.
I still stood by what I thought when I first saw her.
Quinn Compton was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, even when she was looking at me like my very presence in the stable confused the hell out of her.
Pinching my brow, I looked down at myself. Mud caked the tips of my boots, and fresh mud splashed my jeans.
Okay. Seeing what transpired the last time we spoke, her confusion was valid.
I looked back up at Quinn.
“Yes?” I answered, raising a brow to her.
“I’ve never seen mud on you before.” She took a step, reaching her hand out for Hook’s reins. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“Good to see you too, Quinn.” I handed her the lead. “I work here.” I gave Hook a pat on his neck, offering her a smile before moving on to my next task.
When Hawkins had come up with no committees to add my name to, I finally gave in and told Abi to put me on her payroll.
The last two weeks, I had been spending my days with the many horses we boarded.
I mucked the stalls, I bathed them, I would take them for rides—basically anything Abi wanted me to do, I did.
Every now and then, Lachlan appeared asking for an extra set of hands, but more often than not, I went to bed smelling like a horse, no matter how many showers I took.
“You…” she paused. “Work here? With the horses?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, is that hard to believe?”
“Kinda,” Quinn said flatly, folding her arms and cocking her hips. Hook nudged her with his nose, but her emerald eyes just bore into me.
My lips curled into a grin.
“Hey, Wyatt.”
My attention went from Quinn to my sister, who was jogging in from the training arena.
With a quick glance at my watch, I noticed that my shift was almost over, but knowing Abi, she would have one more thing for me to do.
I’d say yes, not only because she was my sister, but because I found myself wanting to.
“I need you to—oh…” She stopped once she reached us.
“Quinn!” Abi smiled, and not seeming to care that Quinn was holding on to a seventeen-hundred-pound horse, pulled her in for a hug.
Quinn hugged her back, the confusion I was getting from her vanishing the moment she embraced Abi.
“Cash didn’t tell me you were coming by. You’re not on his schedule tonight.”
“No.” Quinn pulled away, keeping her hands on Abi’s forearms. “I just needed to see my boys.”
“They’re happy,” I told her. “Hook and I have gotten quite close.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and widened my stance, looking from her to the gelding next to her.
Truth was, he was a needy bastard. He required more attention than any horse I had met.
I spent time with him before any other horse, and once I was done with his stall and went to another, he whined and huffed until I was back over with him.
When he was in the pasture, he would follow me along the fence, changing his speed just to get me to play along.
I would from time to time, and I always rewarded him with a peppermint.
He didn’t act that way with anyone else—just me. And damn, I quite enjoyed it.
“Excuse me?” Quinn’s emerald eyes snapped towards me.
“He really likes Wyatt,” Abi answered, a chuckle in her voice.
“He doesn’t like anyone but me.” Quinn turned to her horse, rubbing his nose. “He was hard to break.”
“Well…” I took a step towards Hook, reaching my hand out. He nudged it, finding the peppermint I hid there. “We’re buds. Did you need something, Abi?”
“Oh, no. Nope. Just wanted to see if you had gotten all the horses in from the pasture. It’s supposed to freeze tonight.”
“All twenty-seven in and accounted for. I’ll get blankets ready.”
“I’m thinking about taking Charming out for a ride. Is that ok?” Quinn asked, giving her horse another pat.
Frowning, I studied the girl in front of me. She was doing everything in her power to avoid my gaze, but I couldn’t stop looking at her.
I cleared my throat. “Now? The sun is setting soon.”
“Well then,” Quinn scoffed, “I'd better get Charming saddled up.”
With that, she gave Abi a grin, put Hook in his stall, and went to her other horse. I worked on the horses, getting them ready for the night, all the while she saddled up her white gelding. The stables were silent. Once she and Charming were out on the field, I went back to the black gelding.
“We’re good, huh, bud?” I asked him, rubbing his nose. “I’ll get your blanket.”
I brushed him, loving the way his skin twitched under the bristles. He huffed once the blanket was over his body and gave my cheek a nudge as I tied up the front. I scratched behind his ear, digging in my pocket for another peppermint. Hook’s nostrils flared, his tongue finding the candy instantly.
“Think you can do me a solid?” I asked him, knowing very well I wasn’t going to get a response.
Quinn was here, and she’d be here for at least the year.
There was the strong urge to turn on the charm, flash my wicked grin, tease her, and taunt her into giving me another chance, but again, after what happened the last time I tried any sort of move on her, that would be the worst thing I could do.
There was something about her—there always had been—and I couldn’t place the way she made my entire body react.
It was different than anything. There was more to it.
Lord knows I wanted to feel every inch of her, but I also wanted to hear her laugh.
I wanted to see the smile I knew she had, even if I didn’t deserve it.
She still had zero interest. She wouldn’t give me the time of day. And I didn’t blame her.
Hook huffed, as if he was waiting for me to continue.
“Put in a good word for me? You know I’m a good guy, right?
Think you could talk to your mom about me?
” I asked him again, tempted to give him another peppermint to get on his good side even more than I already was.
When I got no answer, I chuckled, stepping out of his stall and sliding the lock. “Sleep well, bud.”
And just as I was walking out, I caught sight of the gorgeous girl riding her horse in the pasture, and my stomach flipped.
I was getting used to waking up with the sun.
Did I like it? Not really, but I did it.
At first, it was hard, and I hated everything that came with it.
Especially the hours. I was constantly late, but my body started to get used to it.
I woke up, dressed, made my way over to the main house for coffee and breakfast, and then I’d head to the stables with Cash while Abi got her son, Stetson, ready for school.
The more time I spent working in the stables, the more I found myself enjoying it.
The routine was simple, but with almost thirty horses, it took most of our morning.
Cash took the right; I took the left, which meant I had Hook to entertain.
I’d hit his stall first, and when I finished, he would whine after me until I made it back to him.
He had always made another mess, and my instinct was that he did it solely for the attention.
But I cleaned his stall again. Filling the water he knocked over, putting the hay back into the feeder, and giving him more food, all while he bit at the hem of my coat, pulling me out of the way to get to his meal.
“Damn you.” I pushed his nose away. “Good thing I’m done with your stall.”
He huffed.
“How much does Abi charge to board a horse?” I called, knowing Cash would be able to hear me from the other side.
“Uhhh…” His voice carried. “Wish I could tell you. I want to say between five and six hundred a month.”
I looked at Hook. “I think we should charge more for this one.” I locked his stall, grabbing the bucket before moving to the next stall.
The shrill of my phone filled the space, getting a few reactions from horses around, and it only grew louder as I dug it from my pocket. Sam’s—a fellow announcer whom I hadn’t talked to in months—name flashed across my screen. I smiled.
“Hey Sammy!” I cheered, maybe a little too bright for how early it was.
“Damn, Hartwell.” He chuckled in response. “Honestly thought I was going to get your voicemail.”
“It’s not that early.” I raised my arm, forcing my sleeve down to glance at my watch. Okay, maybe it was still early. I thought it was later. Shit—I was really getting good at the stable hand gig. “Well, I guess it is. Why are you calling me so early?”
“It’s late, depending on how you look at it.”
I could hear his grin. Cocky bastard.
“Who’d you wake up next to?”
Sam was normally my wingman when we went out after rodeos. We’d find bars or hotels to go to after, doing a quick sweep for any buckle bunnies that had gotten left behind. It was easier that way. They wanted to have a good night, and I’d be more than happy to give it to them.
“Runner-up for Montana.”
I raised a brow. It was once a rumor that I was going for all the rodeo queens.
That I had a list and I was checking off each state.
Sure, I’d had a fun time with a few…but Sam?
Sam was the one checking them off his list. Every year, he tried to get the whole country.
Every year, he came close to succeeding.
I pinched my brow, thinking of her name, only to come up short. “The runner-up, huh?”
“Just let her out of my room.”
“And you decided to call me…why?”
“Where the fuck have you been?” He bit out, his tone changing almost instantly. “Last I knew, you were taking some time off, a few weeks tops if I remember correctly, and now here it is, almost two months later, and you’re gone. I miss ya, man. Craig isn’t as fun in the box.”
“Get him drunk and he’s a blast.”
“Come on, man, your sabbatical is up.”
Sam didn’t know specifics. He wasn’t there that night I made the biggest mistake.
He was—if I remember correctly—already up with the rodeo queen for the night.
That night, it was just me, Hawkins, some stupid cowboys, and the head of the Wyoming Rodeo Committee playing a game of pool.
One too many beers in, one too many things said about a certain girl, and I snapped.
A broken nose, a snapped cue stick, and a hospital visit later, I was asked to step away for a bit, promised the whole thing would blow over…
only to be forgotten about weeks after. Hawkins blamed the alcohol; he said I wouldn’t have done that under normal circumstances, but the truth was, I would have.
I had heard them talking before we invited them over to play a game—I knew exactly what I was doing.
Even still, I don’t regret hitting the guy; I don’t regret causing him to miss a few rodeos thanks to his broken nose. I’d hit him again if I heard him say those things about Quinn any time soon.
The only thing I regret is losing my standings.
“This isn’t a sabbatical.” I heaved a sigh, shoving my phone between my shoulder and ear to try to work.
“I haven’t seen your name come up for weeks. People are starting to ask about you.”
“Yeah, well—no one is interested in my name anymore,” I mumbled.
“That’s horse shit.”
I took a step into the stall and slid, looking down to see my boot covered in literal horse shit. Nice timing, Sam. I glared up at the horse in the stall, standing near the back. She wasn’t one of ours, and her shyness told me she was new.
“This is your way of welcoming me, huh?” I whispered to her, dragging my boot against the wood.
“What?”
“I just stepped in horse shit, right as you said horse shit.”
“You stepped in…where are you, Hartwell?”
“My ranch.”
Technically, it wasn’t mine. I owned five percent as of last year, two hundred and fifty acres of land that still needed to be plotted out.
I had a request for when we finally did plot it, it had to be far enough away from everyone that I could have my own space, but close enough that I wasn’t mistaken for the brooding, dark cowboy of Hartwell Hills.
I still had no desire to do more than I was.
Ranching wasn’t what I was made to do. It was just a temporary spot until I could figure out my announcing career.
If I ever figured out my announcing career. I was starting to really miss it.
“Idaho?” He clarified, his voice rising in question, a small squeak with the O.
“That’s where my ranch is, isn’t it?” I dropped the horse's breakfast and grabbed the pitchfork to scoop the hay. She made her way over to the black bowl of food, gave me a small nudge, and slowly began to eat.
“Well, perfect,” he sighed, a grunt in his voice. “I’m heading to Boise. I’ll come visit, pull you out of the stupor you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“I’m not in stupor. I’m helping my sister while she’s low on staff.” Not technically a lie, but not the truth either. Abi didn’t need staff to make the place run smooth.
Sam was silent for a beat, then said, “She asked about you, man.”
“Who?” I asked, my interest piquing.
“Montana. You think I had the runner-up out of choice?”
“Kelly?” I raised a brow. “Why the hell is she asking about me?”
“Come on, man. She told me to remind you of that week.” I could practically hear his wink.
“Okay, this conversation is done. I have stalls to muck.”
“See you in a few days, and don’t step in any more horse shit.”
“Get some sleep.” I slammed my thumb down on the red button, shoving my phone back in my pocket.
Kelly Fugal was the one girl last fall who almost—almost—made me forget about anyone else.
Her year as a rodeo queen had officially started; she was on top of the world, and she took me right there with her for one week.
If I didn’t catch her making out with a bull rider after waking up in my bed that same morning, I swear there could have been something more with her.
Why the hell was she reminding me of the time we had?
Then a voice sang through the stables, getting louder as she approached. Hook neighed, and Charming’s head poked out of the stall. They knew her voice just as well as I did, and the thought of Miss Rodeo Montana, Kelly Fugal, vanished from my mind when Quinn Compton stepped into my view.