Page 13 of Keep You Safe
I made a warning noise. “That phone of yours is gonna end up in a pile of manure.”
“Sorry.” His cheeks went bright red. He sure was pretty when he blushed, which was a thought I needed to not be having right now.
“Don’t be sorry to me.” I shrugged, keeping my expression indifferent. “I’m not the one who’ll be out the replacement fee.”
“Okay.” He pocketed the phone again, motions clumsy in the work gloves I’d given him to use. “Then I rake the bedding.”
He moved the bedding so gingerly that we’d be here till supper if I didn’t intervene.
“Less like you’re berry hunting.” I made a clucking noise. “You’ll spend an hour on each stall if you keep moving like you’re scared of a little horseshit.”
“I’m not scared.” Glaring, Adler bristled up to his full, gangly height. “I don’t do well watched.”
“Says the guy who loves attention and showing off,” I countered.
“Who said I like to show off?” Adler narrowed his eyes, glancing around like a pack of gossips might be around the next stall. Again, I had to work double time to not chuckle at his antics.
“Anyone with eyeballs.” I gestured at the half-raked pile of bedding. “Back to work.”
“I’m on to you.” Adler let out a chuckle a few moments later. “You’re trying to make me hate the work so I run back to Maverick and drop this plan.”
“Ain’t no one who loves mucking stalls.” I wasn’t going to flat-out lie, so I neatly sidestepped his accusation. “But it’s part of barn life.”
“And I’m happy to learn.” He let out a cheery whistle like some sort of six-foot elf, a merry little tune as he finished the pile and fetched fresh bedding. He stepped back to admire his fifteenminutes of handiwork on the stall. “There. Did I add enough dry pellets?”
Adler’s small, proud smile was going to be the death of me.
“Fair enough.” I needed to walk away before a real compliment slipped out. “Okay, you do the next two or three stalls on your own while I go check some other things around the barn. I’ll show you where we dump the muck cart when I get back.”
Kat caught me to discuss whether to summon the vet for a pregnant mare who was acting a bit off, then I got pulled into a lengthy discussion about winter hay needs that necessitated a call to Maverick. By the time I made it back to Adler, I was certain he’d either be done with the work or ready to give up, possibly both.
Instead, however, I found him dancing in the third stall I’d requested he clean, using the rake as a dance partner and a pole. That dang phone of his was propped up near the stall window, blasting some sort of beat better suited for four shots of tequila and last call at a Denver bar.
“What…?” I trailed off as Adler spun around, not embarrassed in the slightest. Yeah, he liked showing off. He grinned at me.
“What?” Smile firmly in place, he mocked me with no shortage of glee. “I work better with music and didn’t have my headphones with me.”
“This is a barn, not a nightclub.” I glared like I hadn’t watched him wiggle his ass for a good thirty seconds before he’d noticed my presence.
“I’m sorry.” Adler’s greenish eyes sparkled at me. In the light of the bunkhouse, they’d appeared bluer. By the pond, they’d been a blue-green, and now, surrounded by all the dark wood of the barn, his eyes were decidedly green. I seriously needed to stop cataloging the man’s eye color and get on with the work athand. Adler, though, seemed in no such rush as he chuckled. “Do your horses only like country music?”
“Can’t say as they’ve ever voiced an opinion,” I deadpanned.
“When do I get another riding lesson?” Adler leaned on his rake like an extra in an old-time musical. His joy for riding had been something to see, more of that childlike wonder of his, and I wanted more of that in the worst way. Which was why I shouldn’t have it.
“You here to work, or you here to play?”
“Would both be the wrong answer?” He rested his chin on his hands on the rake, another pose designed for maximum cuteness, but I refused to be moved.
“Yep.”
“Don’t hands need to know how to ride?” Adler added some logic to his ongoing efforts to charm me with big eyes and soft grins.
“There’s plenty that needs doing without tossing you in a saddle.”
“What if I finish early?” Adler used the same tone that had worked to get me to swim with him. He’d said he had a pack of siblings. I’d bet good money he’d been the one swindling the others via bets and dares. “Then can I get another lesson?”
I offered him my harshest stare. “You best be planning on impressing me with your quality, not just your speed.”
