AllFreeNovel
Share Us
SEVEN
Cole
I wasup before the sun and heading to town to grab a coffee and a newspaper.
At least, I would have gone to a town to get what I needed that morning. Instead, with New York City itself so close, the most practical thing for me to do was to head into the outskirts of the city and find something suitable. Not that I was looking for anything remarkable.
Just a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper. Something that should be available at nearly any grocery store or gas station or coffee shop along the way. But, when it came to anything going on in the City itself, I was skeptical. I didn’t like anything about New York City, and if there was any other way for me to get my morning paper without venturing into it, I would have.
But, I wasn’t going to cave in and get a smartphone, so if I wanted to keep up on what was going on in the world, I’d have to make compromises. I had a feeling I’d be able to find some sort of diner or truck stop that would have what I wanted, so I didn’t have to deal with the City itself.
I headed out in my truck, noticing that right now, I was the only one awake at the facility. I knew Raya didn’t live here, but there were others who did. I didn’t have to deal with them, which was fine with me. I would rather just keep it simple talking with one person I was doing business with rather than getting the entire group involved.
If Raya was the only one I dealt with besides the horses while I was here, I was okay with that. I wasn’t here to make friends, that was for damn sure. But, I did need the money, and she was paying me really well for doing this. I could tell from the day before she wasn’t sure how I was going to get through to the horse with my broken leg, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me.
I would show her clearly that I really was as good with one leg as anyone else was with two, and I could get through to any horse provided I had the time and resources to do it. Horses were incredibly intelligent creatures, and I knew whatever was wrong with Romeo could be fixed with the right amount of care.
He was here, he was alive, and that was all I needed to work with to get through to any animal. I actually looked forward to what she was going to say when she saw how I was able to work with this horse.
I tried to keep my thoughts on the horse alone as I drove the half hour to find my coffee and newspaper. But, my brain had other ideas. It didn’t take long before my mind wandered back to Raya herself, and how attractive she was. I had done a fine job of getting under her skin the day before, and I was proud of myself for doing that. I wasn’t going to let a pretty girl take that from me. Not when I already relished the idea of doing things my way. But, there were moments when it was a little difficult for me to keep my front up while talking to her. I wanted to ask her what her personal life was like.
Fuck. I wanted to ask her out.
But, she had been so adamant about telling me how we were doing things, I couldn’t help but fight against that. It was like it was engrained into me to fight against anyone who was trying to tell me what to do. I didn’t care who it was. I was my own boss. Plain and simple. I didn’t care if someone was paying me to do a job for them. The fact of the matter was that I knew what I was doing when it came to these horses, and I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me otherwise.
So why did it have to be so difficult? Why did she have to be so drop dead gorgeous?
Looks weren’t everything, I already knew that. But damn, did she have the looks.
I didn’t want to make assumptions about her personal life, but perhaps it would do my own mind some good to tell myself she had to have something about her that would make me not want to date her. Something. Anything.
So far, she had an attitude that turned me on. She had the looks that turned heads. She clearly knew what she was doing with horses if she was in the position she was in, and that was also something I found incredibly attractive. Not to mention the fact it was pretty hot the way she held her ground and told me what she wanted to tell me despite the fact I was being difficult toward her.
She struck me as the kind of woman who knew what she wanted in life and went for it. She didn’t put up with bullshit from anyone, and she wasn’t going to let me come in and railroad my way around. Little did she know I was still going to do things my way, but with her reaction to me and our initial meeting, I was going to have to be a little more subtle with doing things my way.
But just a little. I didn’t mind making my point where my point needed to be made, that was for sure. I just might have to be a little less aggressive with it moving forward. Maybe.
I headed straight back to the facility as soon as I had my coffee and paper, but I was surprised pulling up. There was another car in the parking lot, and now there were lights on in the stables. Of course, the horses were always up early, but I was a little surprised to see that there were people who came in early to be up when the horses were.
I grabbed my coffee out of the cup holder and rolled the newspaper under my arm, pinning it against my body with my elbow as I headed into the stables. I had to admit, I wasn’t expecting Raya of all the staff members to be the one I found in the stable with the horses. She was clearly someone who liked to be up and ready to go. Her hair was done nicely, and she had done her makeup, too. It was a subtle look, much like she had the day before, but just as captivating as it had been the day before, too.
“Morning,” I said.
“How’d your room treat you?” she asked, not even returning the morning greeting.
“It’s fine,” I said. “With what you’re paying me, I’ll put up with it for how long it takes to get through to Romeo. I see you’re the type who likes to get up when the horses do.”
I didn’t tell her how attractive I found that to be, nor how rare it was for me to meet other people with the same habit I had of doing the same thing.
“I like to talk to them for a while before they have to get started with their work for the day,” she said. “It’s kind of like having a cup of coffee and touching base with them, I suppose.”
“I would have gotten you a cup of coffee when I did if I had any idea you were going to be here this early,” I told her. “I didn’t expect to see you until closer to nine.”
The facility opened to the public at nine, and I figured most of the staff didn’t show up until close to opening. It was an assumption on my part, and it could very well be accurate for the rest of the staff members who worked at this facility.
It was becoming very evident to me that I couldn’t assume anything about this woman. She was bound to surprise me again and again with her way of doing things, and I didn’t want to have to recover each time she did. I might be smooth in my recovery – smooth enough she didn’t see me even phased, but that still wasn’t how I wanted to do things.
“I already had two,” she said. “I drink one when I first get up in the morning, then another on my way out here, but thank you.”
