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THIRTEEN
Cole
I was just finishingwith the day’s work when Raya came over to me.
She caught me in the barn as I was feeding the horses, and I was surprised to see she almost looked sheepish. It was totally different from her usual attitude, and I wondered what she had to say to me. It was the first I’d seen of her all day, which was surprising in itself as there wasn’t anyone else in the barn with me when I worked with Romeo that morning.
Perhaps she decided it wasn’t worth it to have someone constantly watching. I didn’t care, and in the event it was a mistake, I didn’t want to say anything so she didn’t feel the need to find someone to watch me tomorrow. I worked better with the horses when we were alone, and I felt this week was off to a strong start with Romeo.
I would work up to the point I would introduce working with him while there were other people around, or while he was in the middle of the corral with other horses, but for now, I was happy to take the time to just get to bond with him and get to know what he was like.
I felt strongly that horses were just as intelligent as humans. I didn’t have any studies to back it up, and it wasn’t something I went around telling people, but I believed it was true. And I also believed they just waited for the right person to come along and give them that courtesy. If I was that person, then they would trust me.
The more trust we had between us, the better off we were when it came to training. I needed him to trust me entirely – no doubts whatsoever. And that was best achieved with our one-on-one work. I would make a point of showing Raya that if she wondered why I was alone, but that was something I would save in case it was needed.
There wasn’t any point to telling owners anything if I didn’t want their interference. It was something I had learned a long time ago, and something I had kept close ever since. If I wanted to do things a certain way, it was best for me to just do them. Anyone paying me to work with their horse had to trust I knew what I was doing, and they would see the results.
It was the one thing that had been frustrating with Raya the day before. I wanted her to trust me on how I was working with her horses, and just give it the time it would need before she saw the results. With her there hovering, progress was slowed, and I didn’t feel like the results were as obvious or as amazing when she was there to see the whole process. While it would do her some good to know these things, I still wanted to do things my own way. It was how I had managed to become the trainer I was today, and how I planned on keeping my career going.
But, there was only so much I could do when I was working with animals that didn’t belong to me. The owner had the final say of what was done with any of them, even if I was the one who was being paid to train. I had to stay patient, I knew that, and I was doing my best.
“Hey,” she said as she put her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Standing like that really showed off her breasts, and I had to force myself not to stare. I looked into her eyes and gave her a small nod.
“Good evening,” I said. “Didn’t see much of you today. Wasn’t sure if you were even here, really.”
“I’ve been busy with clients all day,” she said. “But I really wanted to get the chance to talk to you. Is now a good time?”
I gave her another short nod, and she continued. There was something in her tone that told me she wished to have my full attention, and I was rather surprised she didn’t say something about me stopping what I was doing so I could focus on what she had to say. Instead, she just dove into what she wanted to talk about, speaking quickly like she was actually nervous to be talking about it with me.
“I just wondered what happened after I left on Friday,” she said. “I looked at the paper both Saturday and today to see if there was anything newsworthy that went down, and I’m relieved it doesn’t seem anything made the papers.”
“It was nothing,” I told her with a shake of my head. “Once you left, the guy turned to me running his mouth. I told him I wasn’t having any of it, and if he knew what was good for him he’d get the fuck out of my face. He was clearly ready to make a bigger scene when my friend walked over, making it two against one. He looked to the bartender to try to get us out of his way, but the bartender had evidently seen the entire thing before I got involved, and he didn’t do shit. We were free to do as we pleased, and we let the guy know in no uncertain terms that we weren’t going to put up with him creeping on women like that. He left without it really turning into anything, though I wish I had gotten the chance to hit him. Just to teach him that lesson.”
She listened with wide eyes and her mouth set in a grim line. Clearly, she wasn’t happy with what she was hearing, but what could she do about it? She wasn’t there when that went down, and I wouldn’t have let her be involved in the situation if she had been. If she hadn’t been leaving the bar and had wanted another drink, I would have made it clear to that guy he wasn’t welcome in the building at all.
But, things dissipated easily enough, and I wound up going home shortly after myself. I wasn’t the kind of guy who stayed out late, especially at the bar. I had my own things going on back at my ranch, and I wasn’t going to waste time being drunk or recovering from drinking when I had plenty of things I had to get done during the day.
“Thank you,” Raya said at last. “I do appreciate you coming over when you did. I tried to find the bartender when I was in the thick of things, but I didn’t see him anywhere. It kind of pisses me off to think that he had seen it going down and hadn’t done anything about it.”
“I don’t know why he let it slide,” I told her. “But I let him know in no uncertain terms that if I ever heard of something like that going down and him not stepping in to do anything about it, I would be making a few phone calls about the safety of the place. He should have been paying better attention, and even if he was busy, he should have stopped what he was doing for your sake. A lot could go wrong with drunk idiots like that guy, and I hate to think of what might have happened if you had been there alone.”
“It wasn’t pleasant,” she said, clearly uncomfortable with the thought. “And I just wanted to let you know I appreciate you stepping in for me. There’s times I really think it would be better for me not to go to bars at all. I don’t have the patience for people like that, but they don’t take me seriously when I say no.”
“Just don’t go alone,” I told her with a shrug. “Leave with your friend next time.”
“If there is a next time.” She sighed. “Anyway, I see you’re almost done here – do you want to go grab a drink? I was pretty rude to you on Friday, and I wanted to apologize for that since you came to my rescue anyway.”
“If you’re apologizing for calling me a dick, don’t,” he said. “I am a dick, and I’m proud of it.”
“Still, I was pretty rude to you over the drink and you came to my rescue anyway. I don’t know how I would have reacted if someone treated me the way I treated you, then I saw them being hit on like that. I probably would just walk away myself, to be honest.”
“I think you would do something,” I told her. “You have balls, I know that. I can see it from the way you run your side of the business here.”
She blushed. “Thanks. I try not to take shit from anyone, but it’s hard when there’s alcohol involved. I’m not sure how much of it is them being an ass because they’ve had something to drink and how much is me overreacting because of the fact I was drinking, too.”
“You didn’t overreact in the slightest, and I’m glad I was there to help,” I told her. “As far as going back out tonight, I’m not going to. I have to get up early in the morning, and I don’t want to dump more money into that bar after last night. Not to say I’m not ever going back, but I think I’ll give it some time to cool off about what happened before I wind up going back for a drink. Thank you, though, I appreciate the offer.”
“I wasn’t meaning going back out to the bar,” she said. “I’m a little put off with how that went, and I’m not sure when I’m going back to that place, either. But, I do have beer at my place, and I was wondering if you wanted to come over and have one or two with me after you’re done here. It’s not too much of a drive to get to from here. I recently moved into a bigger place that was closer to this facility. I wanted to be closer to work.”
