Page 22 of Faking It with my Billionaire Grump

I hear her snort behind me. “Not sure how hard it is to shovel… manure.”

I grin at her choice of words. I know what she wanted to say, but she decided to be a lady instead. Not that it would bother me. I know many great women who curse like sailors.

“Still, the stables haven’t looked that good in months.”

“Don’t you have anyone here to help you?” she asks.

I turn and slide the plate with her sandwich on it across the island. “I just haven’t had time to look for help.”

“Oh, the irony,” she says with a smirk, repeating my earlier thoughts.

Even after ten years, some things haven’t changed. We used to be completely synced, each knowing what the other was thinking. I suppose that’s the case with a lot of couples who have been together for a while. I always used to think it was pretty cool. I’m just surprised now that after all this time, there’s still a shadow of that left.

Have we both changed that much? I can’t speak for Tilly. I haven’t spent enough time with her to know. For me, probably not. I’m still the same old Jake. A little older, a lot wiser, and now, far more prudent.

For example, even though the woman I used to love is sitting not five feet away, I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her. Actually, with my strength and her slight frame, I could probably throw her pretty far, so maybe that’s a bad analogy, but the point remains.

When she left, when she abandoned me without a word of farewell or a reason for doing so, my heart did feel like someone had smashed it to pieces. I won’t lie. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life. But in another way, it’s made me stronger. I had to come back from that, and like a broken bone, repairing itself to be even more dense than it was before, I did the same.

Not that I’m dense. But I am stronger. I now know what I’m capable of and how much I can tolerate. I found myself as a man, who I really was. It was enlightening, terrifying, and a lot of hard work, but I’m better for it. Which is why I won’t fall for Tilly’s charms, should she try to use them on me.

After lunch, I figure Tilly’s done enough hard labor, and giving her a far easier job, I set her to work grooming the rest of thehorses in the stables. I really do need to hire some help, and after today, I realize I need it not just for myself, but for the health of my animals.

I find her again just after 5:30.

“Right, I think we can call that a debt paid,” I say, walking into the stall she’s in.

Tilly surprises me when she says, “But I haven’t finished.”

“You’ve done enough. Like I said this morning, a deal’s a deal. You’ve kept to your end of the bargain. Now, it’s time you were going.”

She genuinely looks disappointed, and I can’t help but smile. But she puts the brushes back on the shelf where they belong and after saying farewell, she heads to the truck. I watch her go, partly to make sure Elsa doesn’t terrify her to death again. Which she doesn’t. And partly because, whether I want to acknowledge it or not, I’ve actually enjoyed having Tilly around today.

Careful, Jake.

I shake my head as though I’m trying to silence my conscience. I’m not a fool. It’s been nice having her here, but not permanently. Besides, she’s made it perfectly clear that there’s nothing left between us, and I tend to agree.

Yeah. Right.

9

Tilly

Okay. So, Jake gothis own back. I did say I would do anything, and he totally took advantage of that. After the fake date night at Maggie’s, I can’t really blame him. It was a disaster on more levels than the skyscraper I work in.

While I was fuming with him at the start—spade in hand, dabbling with the idea of hitting him in the head with it—it didn’t take long for me to calm down. Not because he had disappeared, and so was out of my sight, but because I actually found that I was enjoying myself.

Shoveling the deposits of huge four-legged beasts doesn’t quite sound like fun, but I don’t mean that job particularly. I mean I enjoyed doing physical work in an environment I have always loved. In fact, I hadn’t realized how much I really missed it.

Mom and Dad don’t have a farm, but when me and Jake were together, I was always at the ranch. If we weren’t riding horses,we were chasing chickens, collecting eggs, or feeding the pigs and cows. At the time, I took it all for granted.

But after being stuck in a cubicle in a lifeless office with people who spend all their spare time commuting to and from work, I felt like I had been released from prison. The air was clean, and the smells came back to me as though I was here only yesterday. I’d forgotten the soft, sweet smell of hay.

So, as exhausted and sweaty as I am, now slowly sliding into the deliciousness of a hot bath, I’m doing it with a smile of contentment on my face.

Of course, I didn’t get away with coming back to the house after spending a whole day at Jake’s without Mom accosting me the second I walked through the front door.

“You’re home,” she cried with delight, sounding as though I might have never returned.

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