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She stretched a shaky hand toward the grain bin. The horse backed up and stood in front of the box, waiting. Relief welled up, and she dumped the grain. The horse dove his nose in and started munching, completely ignoring her. Maybe he wasn’t so scary after all.
By the third
stall, she gained some confidence and zipped right along. The hay proved to be a bit more difficult when she discovered she had no choice but to enter each stall. Still, there was only one incident where her foot got stepped on for about three seconds. Making sure it only felt broken, she fed the last horse and limped for the broom to sweep the aisle.
In the second barn, she saw with dismay that she’d used half her allotted hour already. Remembering Colton’s expression, she resolved to work faster and climbed the ladder to the hayloft in record speed. Getting the hay down was a whole other matter. She lifted on the strings of the first bale. It rocked a bit, rose about an inch, then gravity won the battle with her arm muscles.
A picture of Colton tossing the bales one handed flashed in her mind. If she’d had time, she would’ve pouted about the unfairness of it. After two more tries, she took a step back and considered her dilemma. Maybe she could roll it end for end.
That worked, but after the fourth bale, she sat down, huffing the hair out of her eyes and cursing her vanity that had prompted her to leave it loose. She now knew better for tomorrow, and who the hell cared what the ‘boss’ thought. She already needed another shower anyway.
By the time she finished with the bales, her time was almost up, and she wondered if Colton would come looking for her. She didn’t want to see his mocking grin. Deciding on another new approach, she fed the hay and grain at the same time which cut the feeding time in half. One more barn to go.
Leaving the aisle as clean as when she’d first come in, she continued to the final barn. Only after she’d rolled the hay down and loaded up the wheelbarrow did she notice Colton sitting behind a desk in an office near the entrance. As she wheeled past, he looked at his watch and a moment later she heard the scrape of his chair.
Great. She steeled herself for his criticism, but was granted a reprieve when Britt entered the barn.
“Good morning.”
Colton’s heavier footsteps slowed, then stopped as he greeted Britt. Kendra’s relief was short lived as Britt joined her. What if Britt saw her helplessness with the horses? She’d managed everything okay this far, but with her luck of late, things could change any moment.
“How’s the first day so far?” Britt asked.
“Fine,” Colton answered before Kendra could. “She’s almost finished feeding.”
“Great, I’ll help.”
Britt picked up a bale without apparent effort and carried it halfway between two stalls. It infuriated Kendra that she couldn’t do that, though when Britt glanced in her direction, she smiled. After her fib about having worked with horses before, she couldn’t let Britt see her frustrations.
“So, how do you like our horses?” Britt asked.
“They’re the best I’ve ever seen.” That was the truth. She’d never really looked at horses much before today. She was a city girl, through and through.
When they were almost done feeding, Britt halted Kendra, a piece of string from one of the hay bales in her hand. “You look like you’re getting warm, would you like me to tie your hair back for you?”
“I was planning to do that at lunch,” Kendra admitted. “Thanks.”
When Britt left to check on some mares in the client barn, Kendra gave a wistful sigh. The company while she worked had been nice. When she’d dragged out the aisle clean-up as long as she dared, she headed for the office to tell Colton she was done.
He didn’t look up until she gave a light rap on the door. She forced enthusiasm into her voice. “All done, what’s next?”
He rose without a word and joined her by the door. After a silent, critical assessment of her work, she was pleased by his frown. Because he couldn’t fault her on anything but the time.
“Follow me,” he said shortly.
Back in the first barn, he led a horse from its stall. Kendra backed to the far side of the aisle without thinking. She kept her distance, watching from the doorway as he put it in a pen outside. Then he proceeded to show her where the cleaning supplies were, filled a different wheelbarrow with the gross stuff from the stall and started out of the barn with it. Her nose wrinkled at the smells he’d stirred up.
A cough from Colton drew her gaze to his face. The jerk was trying to hide a grin. Well, what’d he expect? The stalls were disgusting! She looked down at her three hundred dollar pair of suede leather boots and wanted to cry. In about five minutes, they’d be covered in horse shit like Colton’s.
“I’ll show you where to dump the manure.”
She heard the satisfaction in his voice and made a concentrated effort to smooth her expression into indifference. The sacrifice would have to be made; she wasn’t about to quit now. After her birthday, after she inherited her trust fund, she’d make a trip to Fifth Avenue to buy a new pair.
She followed Colton as far as the door as he pushed the heaping wheelbarrow outside through two muddy puddles before reaching a pile of the gross stuff.
“Dump as close to the manure pile as possible. Let the stalls air out as you clean, then add the clean shavings at the end. I’ll take the horses out while you get started.”
At least he didn’t expect her to do that. He turned around, and she hoped the distance between them made her grimace pass for a smile of acknowledgment. Back inside the barn, she loaded the wheelbarrow as he had, then set the fork thingy aside. Pitchfork, he’d called it. And I know just where I’d like to pitch it, she thought, lifting on the handles of the wheelbarrow.
