Chapter 1
Travis
I stood there underneath my covered front porch as I gazed out over the vast amount of land that could be seen from the front of the house and that was only a small fourth of my property. Not only did I own a decent-sized spread, but I also owned property on both sides of county road eighty-one.
I had been able to obtain all of my land because I had literally been busting my ass since I was twelve. I didn’t want to work for anyone else. I wanted to provide a place where people wanted to come to work.
Ever since I was six; I have been saving my money, every single penny. I had read about a rancher that had gone a certain route, and I knew that was the man I wanted to be when I grew up. So, when I turned twelve my parents had asked me what I wanted for Christmas.
I told them that I wanted a little barn with enough room for a horse, that I wanted them to take me to an auction because I had saved up my money and I was buying a horse.
It had also just happened that the horse I had been watching on the television at the races was one of the horses that would be at the auction.
Sure, I had only been twelve, but I had struck up a bargain with the neighboring rancher that I had read about, who just so happened to live right there smack dab in Silver Springs.
The man would help me train the horses so I could learn, he would trailer them and race them for twenty-five percent of my winnings.
We had kept up with the deal and the bargain until I had turned eighteen.
By that time, I had already obtained a hefty amount in a little account that my mother was second on.
The day I turned eighteen I also bought my property, and I handed my mother fifty grand to go along with her retirement fund.
Since my father had passed away when I had turned nineteen it was a huge help to my mother.
Sadly, she had never gotten to enjoy her retirement. My mother had been a firm believer that you didn’t go to see a doctor unless it was absolutely necessary. So, when she had found a lump in one of her breasts, she assumed that it was a swollen milk gland.
The day after I turned twenty-one, I had rushed my mother to the emergency room because she was pale, and she could barely hold her own head up.
The moment the doctor had entered her room with a drawn face, I had known that it wasn’t going to be good news, and it hadn’t been. They had made my mother comfortable.
Three days in the hospital and with me by her side, she had slipped away peacefully in her sleep in the middle of the night. She had passed away from breast cancer.
It was also that night that I had vowed to honor her last wish.
To wait for love to find me. To give it all to one woman. That I would truly feel the magnitude of what it meant to find that one person that was meant for you.
It had also been three years later that the neighboring rancher that had mentored me had been killed in a tragic accident that had taken his life and the life of his wife along with one of their sons.
His other son had been too swamped with grief and had sold their land to me.
That was the land that was on the other side of county road eighty-one.
That night that my mother had passed, I had also made another vow, that whether my future wife liked it or not, I was rushing her to the emergency room regardless of whether a small cut needed stitches or not.
I wasn’t losing someone else that I loved. Not on my watch.
Thinking about the past used to upset me to a point where I would be in a horrible mood for days, however, I knew that it was up to me to live my life to the fullest I could. And to live it for the ones I had lost.
The horses grazed in the greenery they kicked, bucked, and whinnied. I had finally obtained my dream. But could this all really be called a dream when it was my reality?
The cup of coffee that I held in my hand as I stood leaning against the white post was probably burning my calloused skin; however, due to years of hard work on the land, I didn’t even notice it.
More times than not I would remember doing something to my hand and the pain would never register, not until I had blood pouring from my hand, my arm, or even my leg.
“Boss, everything went well last night, even Champion didn’t stir not once.” My foreman Parker said as he meandered up to the front porch with his own cup of coffee.
Parker had his own cabin that was a little farther from the stables and the bunkhouse that I had built. The bunkhouse held ten rooms, a kitchen, main living room, with their own laundry room.
I knew how hard it was to live in crummy situations and still expect to work and perform to the best of my abilities.
That wasn’t how you kept good hands. On a good day, we had one hand for three horses, on a bad day, we had one man to six horses.
I had been planning on expanding and moving the bunkhouse to house five more rooms and bring on five more hands since my business seemed to be expanding.
I was also planning on separating the hands so that one set worked with the client’s horses and the other set worked at another stable that held my own horses and my hand’s horses.
Now Champion is my pride and joy. I bought that horse over ten years ago when at a race the owner didn’t have a clue what he was doing and ran a horse without warming it up first. Champion had turned up lame.
However, after a solid year of therapy for the horse, he came back better and stronger than ever, that owner had offered to buy Champion from me seven times so far.
Over my dead body would I ever sell one of my horses to someone like that who had more money than they knew what to do with and would risk harming something that depended on them for their wellbeing.
“That’s a first.” Champion also hated to be in his stall. He wanted to be able to move when he wanted to move, and now that he was retired and a stud, I agreed with Champion, but it was better for him to be brought to heel every so often.
“Are you planning on going to that sale this Thursday?” The only other person that would know my whereabouts at any given time other than myself was Parker.
“Yeah, a couple of the horses could use forever buddies to help them when their owners are not here. Going to give a couple of old-timers a safe place to land.” I murmured as I took another sip of my coffee.
“I noticed an old grey gelding on the auction list, looked like he has had a rough row to hoe.” In other words, Parker had taken a liking to one of the horses already.
“I’ll check into it.” It wasn’t often that Parker stuck his neck out for any of the animals that weren’t on this property and when he did, I tended to listen.
Because nine times out of ten, Parker was right on the marker.
I had two clients due to show up, one at nine the other at ten.
I made my way to the stables after I rinsed out my coffee cup, I ate my standard breakfast of fried egg, bacon, and cheese on toast with mayo times three.
The rest of the morning I worked with my first client and secretly hoped that my second client wouldn’t even show up.
So far so good, since she still has yet to arrive.
My good mood however had just now ended all because of a screeching halt that was due to the small white car that was driving recklessly up the paved driveway that had cost me my entire winter earnings, but it had been worth it.
Well, it had been worth it until it made this particular person reach me a hell of a lot faster than it would have if that person would have had to dodge potholes.
“Well, I’m off to the stables. That woman gives me the hives.”
“Traitor.” I said it loud enough that I was sure that Susan had to have heard me seeing as her window was rolled all the way down.
Susan Waters leaned her head out of her open window and said, “Hi handsome. I’m ready for my lesson.”
“Susan.” Some would say this woman was a catch with all of the blonde wealth atop her head and a figure that could give a man an instant hard-on, but not this man. This woman didn’t even stir a single thing inside of me.
However, there was one woman that I had met that had. However, I never allowed anything to come to it, except for twice a week, twice a week I indulged myself in allowing just the vision of her to calm my nerves.
I looked down at my watch, and yes, like always she showed fifteen minutes late. There was nothing worse than showing up late somewhere even when you have been coming to this place for almost six months.
Then when I saw her climb out of her car, I wanted to shake the woman and ask her what the hell was she thinking when she dressed herself this morning. How in the hell did she plan to ride her horse in a mini leather skirt and heels.
I have always prided myself on keeping my composure and never allowing my emotions to show however, I had already bitten my tongue one too many times with this woman and I would do it no more.
“And just what in the hell kind of lesson were you expecting to be receiving today. Being dressed like some common hooker?” I heard a couple of my hands snickering behind me and for once I didn’t berate them. They were accurate.
“I figured we could do groundwork today.” I saw Susan bit her lip trying to show that she seemed innocent, but I knew that this was all a game to her.
“Sorry. But we did groundwork last week and I explicitly told you that we needed to work on some other techniques this week. You were fifteen minutes late and you show up dressed like that. Well, my schedule just became busy. You can show up next week, on time and in the proper clothes, or next time you will be bringing your trailer and taking your horse elsewhere. Do I make myself clear?”
“Who in the hell do you think you’re talking to? I am a paying customer.” Susan tried to bring herself up to my height and even tried to get into my face. Which was comical.
I stepped back from her. No woman has ever been that close to me, and I wasn’t going to allow her to have that privilege.
“No. Your daddy is still your bank.” I didn’t pay her any other mind as I left her standing there next to her car.
“Boss, I’m running into town to grab some mineral blocks. You want anything?’ Parker came up alongside me chuckling to himself.
“I’ll go. Anything other than mineral blocks?” Anything that could get me away from that woman the better.
Said woman that was still standing right beside her car door while she had her phone pressed to her ear. I knew that she had just turned thirty, and the biggest turn-off for me, was someone that was already in their prime and not making their own way. Grow up.
Just as I had climbed into my truck and started it up, my cell rang. I didn’t have to guess who that could be.
“Yeah?” Normally I would have greeted the caller with a hello, but I knew that number.
“Why was Susan calling me and telling me that for no reason you refused to work with her this week? I thought we were good friends. I thought you were a good man…”
I would hear no more, “First of all, you need to tell your daughter that she needs to be on time when she agrees to be somewhere. Second of all, how about you ask her how in the hell she planned on getting on a horse in a mini skirt and in heels. She pulls another stunt like this, then she needs to bring a horse trailer with her. I won’t train someone who is just wasting my time.
” I hung up on the man after I heard Mr. Waters not saying a word as he was breathing hard in my ear.
Now some might call me an old fool, however, twice a week I went into town even when I didn’t need something and that was to go to Redman’s Store. Some men saw beauty when they walked through their front door. Some men saw their beauty on television, and even some saw their beauty in magazines.
But there was a beauty in Silver Springs, Wyoming that I couldn’t deny.
Believe you me, I had tried, ever since I had learned just how young she really was, I had made it my mission to try to steer clear of her.
However, on days like today, whenever my temper is flaring, I need the calm that only she can provide.
Corrine Matthews was that calm, she was that calm for the already silver-streaked dark-haired rancher.