“Luce. Earth to Luce!”
“Huh?” I mutter and look up to see Sierra glaring at me with her hands on her hips. After a moment, I realize that she’s waiting for me to pass her another bale of hay. “Oh, sorry,” I add on before picking it up and handing it over. I sneeze with force and shake my head, cursing myself mentally.
“Forgot your allergy meds again, didn’t you?” Sierra questions, an edge to her voice. “That’s every day this week, Luce.”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s not like I’ve meant to,” I sigh, wiping my nose on my sleeve.
Sierra walks away from me, heading toward the cab of the truck before returning with a bottle of pills and an inhaler— my allergy meds. I grumble gratitude before taking them. “I’m super glad you got laid and all, but you’ve gotta get your mind off dick and back to reality,” Sierra huffs.
“What’s the matter, you jealous?” I tease, tucking the bottle and inhaler into my pocket before grabbing another bale.
“As if,” she huffs before blowing her bangs out of her face as she takes the hay to stack in the shed. She’s chopped her blonde hair into a blunt bob just last night, after she got it caught in the truck door for the final time. “I’m quite happy with my weekly meetups with Tyler.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Which you’ve been doing since you were sixteen. Isn’t it common law marriage at this point?” Sierra narrows her eyes at me and sticks her tongue out before we share a chortle. “Listen, I don’t know… It was totally different than anything I’ve experienced. It was sweet, romantic, yet erotic. It was almost like he knew how to navigate my body better than I do.”
“Maybe because Rupert’s fifty and likely does have more years of experience than you do with the female form,” Sierra teases.
“He’s thirty-eight. Major difference,” I correct as we continue to relay hay into the storage shed.
“Say he started getting laid at twenty, that’s eighteen years of sex. You’ve been doing it for what? Six years?”
“Yeah,” I mumble. “But everyone is different. And why are you trying to discount my connection with him?”
“It’s not that I’m trying to discount it. It’s that I’m trying to help you be rational,” she corrects. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you. He sounds like a great guy, especially since he didn’t snitch on us for that car accident. But he’s rich, he’s older, and… I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“It’s not like that,” I frown. “I don’t know how to explain it to you, but I know that he doesn’t see status or anything like that. He sees me for me. Not my weight, my job, my economic standing. It’s me he likes. Or do you not think that’s possible?”
Sierra sets down the bale of hay and turns around to me with her hand in the surrender position. “You know I don’t think that. It isn’t at all what I meant. What I’m trying to say is, we don’t know him and for you to be this obsessed with him so quickly, is a fast track to a broken heart. You guys haven’t even had that what are we talk.”
“Yeah, because it’s too soon.” I blush, but I sigh and raise my hands in truce. “I get your point, I do. I’ll try to brush it off for now. I know we have things to do and I’m being a liability at best.”
“Thank you,” she breathes, sounding relieved. “I don’t mean to rain on your parade or anything. Maybe I’m being a bitch.”
I tilt my head side to side as I hand her the last of the hay. “Maybe a little of you being right, and maybe a little of you being a bitch.”
Once the shed is shut and we head back to the truck, I can see the look on her face. I know there’s more going on than being frustrated with me. It’s possible she’s been stewing in it all week and I haven’t noticed because I was off in my fantasy with Rupert. Guilt eats away at my stomach and my brow creases.
“What’s going on?”
Sierra runs a hand over her freckled face as she takes a deep breath. Then she slouches in the seat and props her elbow against the door. “Marcus is telling me we need to breed the horses faster. Start using invitro fertilization and as soon as a horse recovers from birth, try again.”
My eyes widen and I shake my head. “You know that’s not a good idea for the health of the horses to—”
“I know, I know,” Sierra groans. “And I have been trying all week to explain that to him. That we prefer to naturally breed and give the female horses more than enough time before putting them through the pains of birth again… But you know how he is. Stubborn, rude, and unbearable. He wants to start seeing his investment turn a profit next year or else he’s going to start looking for options to buy us out of our shares, and hire people who will do what he wants.”