Page 12 of The Wreckage of Us

His brows lifted. “You don’t get paid for this.”

“I didn’t punch in. I know how jobs work.”

“Clearly you don’t, because showing up to said job on your day off isn’t how this goes.”

I stopped brushing Dottie and let my hands collapse to my lap as I stared at Ian. “Why are you so grumpy toward me?”

“Why do you do idiotic things to make me grumpy?” he barked. His hair was wild and untamed as he stood there with his arms crossed tightly across his toned body. If his biceps could wave, they’d probably flip me off.

“Just ignore me,” I offered. “I’m not in anyone’s way, and Dottie is enjoying my company.”

“She’s a horse. She can’t enjoy people’s company.”

“It’s kind of silly to think that just because she’s a horse she doesn’t have feelings. When was the last time you asked her how she was feeling?”

“For the love of ...,” he murmured, before running his hand through his hair. “You can’t be on the property while you’re not working. That’s called trespassing. It’s against the law.”

“What? Are you going to call Sheriff Cole to come arrest me for brushing Dottie?”

“Don’t test me, Hazel,” he said through gritted teeth. “Are you trying to push my buttons, or does it come naturally to you?”

“Like breathing air.”

He grumbled some more and brushed his thumb beneath his left eye. “If I hear about you getting in anyone’s way, you’re out. And I don’t just mean for today, but I meanoutout. Fired. Do you understand?”

“I hear you loud and clear, Coach.”

“Stop the sarcasm.”

“That comes naturally to me like breathing air too.”

Before he could bark his annoyance at me, a woman walked into the stables and looked toward Ian. “Are you ready to go, Ian? I only have such a short lunch break if we are going to ... you know.” She glanced over to me and looked away, growing a bit red in the face.

Oh, trust me, sweetie, we all know.

If I had a dollar for every woman I’d seen approach Ian in the past few days, I wouldn’t even have to work at the ranch anymore. I’d be Kylie Jenner–level rich. I could’ve probably made a whole makeup palette based on the eye colors of the females that crossed his path and made it into his office.

Emerald green. Midnight blue. Black shadows.

Ian looked at me as if he wanted to scold me some more, but his desire to take that girl to his pen was higher than his want to boss me around. I was pleased when he left me alone. Dottie and I had more to catch up on.

4

IAN

“She’s a pain in my ass,” I complained to Big Paw after a few weeks of training Hazel. Day in and day out, that girl kept showing up in her black wardrobe and messed-up combat boots, ready to work. No matter the task I gave her, she completed it. Sometimes she’d stay late into the night to finish, but she always left her work completed, giving me no reason to fire her. Even though I really wanted a damn reason to let her go.

Plus, on her days off, she was still lurking around. It was as if she had no fucking life outside the ranch. Her favorite pastime was talking to the livestock as if someday they’d talk back. I knew Dottie well enough to know that she didn’t care a lick about what Hazel was saying—she just wanted those damn apples.

All the other guys on the ranch seemed to be fine and dandy with Hazel wandering around like a lost dog. James said she stayed out of the way and even came in handy when he needed an extra pair of hands. Marcus and Eric found her equally helpful, and I swore Old Man Eddie had kissed Hazel’s cheek when she’d offered to help him in the chicken coop.

It seemed I was the only asshole who didn’t want her around, and I knew damn well that it was because of my personal issues with her connections to Charlie.

Seeing Hazel every day reminded me of Charlie, and thinking of Charlie reminded me of my parents. I tried my best not to think about them. I worked hard to keep them buried deep in the back of my mind, but seeing Hazel made that near impossible.

I didn’t know the girl, but the taste she left in my mouth made me sick. If she was connected to a snake like Charlie, no good could come from her working around the ranch. She came from a world of toxicity.

“And you’re a pain in mine,” Big Paw replied, sitting at his desk in his home. He scratched at his overgrown beard that Grams had been trying to get him to shave down and yawned without covering his mouth. “She’s been working harder than half the blockheads out there. Every time I’ve passed by the ranch, I’ve seen her working hard, struggling sometimes, sure, but working. Unlike half your team that I find slacking off and shooting the shit.”