Open Skies

by Marysol James

  “Oh, nothing.” She looked at Jake again. He had his back to them and was walking toward the enclosed area outside. Hmmm. Actually, he did look pretty amazing in those jeans when walking away. Tammy would be thrilled.

  “OK, so. Tell me a bit about how things are done around here.” Julie looked around. “How many horses, who does what, what the horses need. How it works with the guests. Anything else you think I might need to know.”

  “Sure thing. I’ve been here for ten years – Dave and me built this place up from the ground. I’ve been here from the beginning.”

  “So you’re the expert. Go ahead. I’m listening.”

  **

  Rosie glared at Julie as she and Mattie walked around the stalls. Mattie was talking a mile a minute, showing Julie the horses, pointing things out. Julie was mostly quiet, nodding a lot. Every once in a while she seemed to ask a question.

  How unfair was it that Julie looked just as stunning in jeans and a plain old shirt as she did in expensive clothes and jewels? God, life sucked sometimes.

  “So, what’s she doing here?” she asked Jake.

  He shrugged, his eyes stormy. “I dunno. Looking around her property, I suppose.”

  “Yeah. I guess. Heads up, she’s coming.”

  Julie and Mattie were in the fenced area now, and Mattie was gesturing with her arms. Julie looked around and her eyes met Rosie’s. Julie nodded and did something with her face that might have been a smile. Rosie nodded back. Oh, God. She’s coming over to me. Urgh.

  “Mornin’ Ms. Everett.”

  “Hi Rosie.” She glanced up at Jake. “We haven’t officially met. I’m Julie Everett.”

  “Jake Weston.”

  “You know, I got a list of all staff members from the lawyers in New York, and I didn’t see your name. Are you new here?”

  Jake leaned back against the fence. “No, ma’am. I’ve been here for seven years.”

  “Oh. Well, it isn’t really important… I mean, you’re clearly here, so it’s all fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  Julie peered up at him. Wow, his eyes were cold as they stared down at her. What had she done to get this kind of reaction from him?

  Mattie cleared her throat. “Julie’s never ridden a horse before, guys. Maybe one of you can –”

  “Oh, Mattie. Mattie, no.” Julie was horrified. The only thing worse than getting up on a goddamned stampeding beast is doing so with Pollyanna Cowgirl or Glaring Cowboy Jake here. No. Way.

  “Why not, hon?”

  “Yeah, why not?” Rosie asked.

  “Well. Well, the thing is… I don’t really… like horses.” She finished in a low voice. “I’m very sorry. No offense taken, I hope.”

  “Why don’t you like them?” Rosie asked.

  “Umm. Well, I’m just not really an animal person.”

  “You’ve never had a pet?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a goldfish?” Rosie asked.

  “No.”

  “So, you’ve never taken care of anything in your life?” Jake said.

  Julie blinked at him. “Sorry?”

  “You’ve never cared for an animal?”

  “No.”

  “So you have no idea what it’s like to have something depend on you? Need you? You don’t know what it’s like to put something else’s needs above your own?”

  Julie froze up inside. Jake was getting awfully close to one of her most sensitive spots, to a nerve that was never, ever fully under the skin. If he said one more word, he might give it a direct hit, and she wouldn’t be able to handle that.

  It’s OK, Julie. He’s just being an asshole. Blue. Blue.

  Jake was startled to see a look of pain flash across Julie’s face – what was that about? The pain was there, just for a fraction of a second, then it was gone. Her gorgeous face was stone again.

  Julie tilted her head, giving him her death-stare, the one that could level people at three hundred feet. She said nothing.

  “So, maybe no horseback riding today,” Mattie said. “Another time?”

  “No,” Julie said, her eyes trained on Jake’s face. “Not another time. Not any time. I’ll just need updates three times a week about how things are going over here in the stables. What you need, orders, budgets.” She paused. “OK, Mattie?”

  “Yes, fine.” Mattie was flustered at the tension between Jake and Julie. “So, shall we go to the main building now? I can go over some of the documents to do with the stables, to give you some idea what kinds of things have come up in the past.”

  “Sounds good.” Julie broke eye contact with Jake. “Let’s go. Bye Rosie.”

  “Bye.”

  Rosie turned to Jake once Julie and Mattie had left the stables. “What the hell was that? I mean, she’s a bitch, but she hardly asked for that.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” Jake was pissed off at himself; pissed off that he let Julie get to him so badly. “That was a bit much.”

  “A bit?”

  “OK, OK. It was too much.”

  Rosie shook her head at him. “Listen, she’s an unknown quantity. She doesn’t give a good goddamn about you, and has no idea what you do around here, how important you are to us. You piss her off, she’ll can your butt without batting an eyelash, Jake. You want to go job-hunting early?”

  “Shit.” Jake sighed. “You’re right. I’ll be a bit nicer.”

  “A lot nicer.”

  “OK, OK. A lot nicer.”

  **

  “Hey, Jules. How’s it going?”

  “Tammy. Thank God. A voice from civilization.”

  “That bad?”

  “Actually, no. This place is gorgeous.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh, yeah. It’ll fetch a nice price when I sell it.”

  “OK, now to get the important stuff out of the way… any hot men?”

  Julie took a sip of her wine and thought about what to tell Tammy. “Well… ummm….”

  “Oh. My. God.” Tammy was quivering with excitement. “There is one. Isn’t there?”

  Julie rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah.”

  “Is he a cowboy? Please tell me he’s a cowboy.”

  “He works with the horses, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Does he wear jeans? Does he look hot in them when he’s walking away?”

  “Uh. Yes.”

  “So he’s a cowboy. What’s his name?”

  “Jake.”

  “Yeah. Good start. Now, does Jake have a last name?”

  “He does.”

  “Let me guess… is it Starr? Talon? Steel?”

  “Nope. It’s Ryder. With a ‘y’.”

  Tammy was struck with delight. “Please tell me you’re not joking. Please tell me that you actually do employ a sexy cowboy named Jake Ryder.”

  Julie let her writhe in anticipation and suspense for a few seconds. “Nope. Sorry.”

  “Aw.”

  “But he is named Jake Weston.” She drank some more wine. “Is that sexy cowboy enough?”

  “It totally is!” Tammy was re-energized. “You are serious, right?”

  “I am now.”

  “Jake Weston?”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh. My. God. And he is hot, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. But he’s an asshole.”

  “Hot cowboys are always assholes,” Tammy explained.

  “They are?”

  “Yep. They’re all tough and hard and morose and damaged, but underneath, they have sweet and sensitive souls.”

  “Where do you get this shit?”

  “Romance novels.”

  “Well, stop reading them. They’re rotting your brain.”

  “Pshaw.”

  “Pshaw?”

  “Tell me more about Jake.”

  “Seriously, Tammy. The guy is a dickhead.” She told Tammy about the staff meeting, and about what Jake had said to her in the corral, and about all the crossing of arms and glaring.


  By the time she’d finished, Tammy had decided that Jake Weston was “the lone sexy cowboy who was not a sweet and sensitive soul under all the asshole. This one’s just an asshole. Sorry, Jules.”

  “I told you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, OK. I believe you now. So – maybe just have wild sex with him and make sure he doesn’t talk to you? You can bind his hands with a lasso and cover his mouth with a cowboy bandana! I mean, what the hell else are you going to do this weekend, stuck in the middle of nowhere?”

  Julie laughed. God, she missed Tammy.

  **

  On Monday evening, Julie sent Mattie on her way after a marathon four-hour meeting, going over all kinds of horse-related stuff. Her head was still spinning: she had no idea what any of those tools or medicines or pieces of equipment were. All she knew was that they cost a bloody fortune. The beasts weren’t cheap, that was for damn sure.

  Julie had spent the weekend and most of Monday in her cabin, poring over all the paperwork that Maria, Rob, and Mattie had brought over to her from Dave Reid’s office. At first it had all been a jumbled mess, as rows of figures blurred in front of her eyes and unfamiliar names, dates, and terms puzzled her. But she had been at this for three full days now, and it was finally all starting to fall in to place.

  She returned the last of the documents to the file room and was just leaving the back offices of the Reception building when Rob poked his head out of his door. At the sight of him, she almost sagged. She was exhausted; all the drama and instability of the past week was really catching up to her now, and she wanted to go back to her cabin and get to bed early.

  “Ma’am? Can I speak to you for a second?”

  “Sure.” Be nice, be nice.

  Rob beckoned her in to his office and wearily, she followed. She sat down across from his desk. "OK, Rob. What’s up?”

  “I just took a call from Mr. Gregory Peters.”

  “OK.”

  “He’s a very loyal customer. He comes up here every couple of months, stays for at least four days at a time.”

  “Right.”

  “Anyway, it’s really short notice, but he’d like to come up the day after tomorrow. But there’s a bit of a problem with the accommodation – all the cabins are fully booked until next weekend. Except for one.”

  Julie realized what Rob was getting at. “Except mine.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You’d like me to move out.”

  “If that’s OK.”

  Julie sighed. “And none of the other cabins are free for me to move to?”

  “Just the Big House.”

  “The Big House. Right.”

  Rob waited anxiously. Greg Peters was a very important client, and he sent a ton of business their way – his word-of-mouth was invaluable.

  Julie stared out the window at the Big House in the distance, clearly visible from Rob’s office. She wasn’t ready for this, but she wasn’t about to turn away a customer.

  “OK,” she said. “I’ll move in to the Big House the day after tomorrow.”

  Rob was surprised and delighted. He thought that for sure she’d be unreasonable about having to move. Thank God she understands money.

  “I’ll ask Joe to help you, alright?”

  “Thanks, Rob.” Julie gave him a tired little smile.

  “Sure. And hey, are you OK? You look a bit wiped out.”

  “I am,” she admitted. “I’ll head up to the cabin now, have an early night.”

  “Well, I’ll call Mr. Peters and then I’m off too.”

  “OK. Goodnight.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  Julie started back down the hallway, and then she paused. She had still not entered David Reid’s office at the end of the hall; she’d made a point of avoiding it all weekend, and all day. She’d sent Mattie in to gather all the documents she’d needed for their meeting that day, but they’d actually sat in the conference room. In her purse, she still had the key that Rob had given her the week before.

  Julie stood in front of the office door, turning the key over and over in her hands. Well, come on. In two days, you move to the Big House, so you might as well just get this over and done with too. It’s like ripping off a bandage – just do it all at once. It’ll hurt like hell, but only for a few seconds. You can do this.

  Her fingers trembling, she put the key in the lock, turned it. She pushed the door open slowly and stood in the hall, peering in to the darkened room. There was a bit of light coming in through a massive window next to the desk: she saw bookshelves and cabinets, a sofa, some chairs. She groped on the wall next to the door, found the light switch, flicked the light on.

  David Reid’s office – now her office – was a place of organization and style and grace. She stepped in, closed the door behind her, and turned around to look at it from a distance. It was beautiful, actually: practical and streamlined, but not cold or overly masculine. She’d been expecting leather everywhere and animal heads mounted on the walls. Sure enough, the sofa was leather, but it was a deep, rich mahogany that warmed the whole room.

  She started to walk around, looking at things on the shelves now. Lots of photos. She braced herself, and picked up the one on the desk.

  It was a man and a woman on a sailboat, a bright blue sky overhead. They were smiling hugely, holding hands. They looked happy. Julie focused on the man’s face: this must be her father. He was handsome, she supposed, and the silver hair made him look distinguished. His eyes were exactly like hers.

  In shock, she sat down in the desk chair. His eyes. Her eyes. Shit. All this time, I’ve been carrying around a piece of him, right on my face and I had no idea. Goddamn him.

  She stared wildly around the room and saw her eyes, his eyes, watching her, looking out at her from every single picture. She jumped to her feet and went to the first bookshelf. A photo of her father and Jake, drinking beer; one of her father and his staff at a barbecue. She opened the doors at the bottom of the bookshelf, found some empty space, and stuffed the pictures in there. Shut the door. There, that felt better.

  Methodically, she hid every photo somewhere deep and dark and way out of sight. Stop fucking staring at me, you bastard.

  Horribly shaken, she sat down at the desk again, and looked around the office. OK, that was much better. No mint-green eyes staring at her anywhere. She could function in this place now.

  She took a deep breath and focused on the papers in front of her – a large pile of CVs, she saw. Glad to have something to do, glad to have a distraction, she pulled them towards her, flipped through them. They were all young people who wanted to work with horses, for some ungodly reason. Julie guessed it would be a good thing to always have some CVs on hand, in case extra help was needed over the busy periods.

  She stared down at the CV of a man named Brett Shaw, but she didn’t see it. Tears blurred her vision as she processed her new knowledge: she now knew her father’s face, the face that her mother had loved and lost, the face that her mother had both hated and wanted back. And now Julie had to add it to the things to carry in her life. Its weight was huge.

  **

  Jake stood in the stable, staring up at the main building. He’d been waiting for Julie to come out so he could apologize to her for what he’d said a few days ago. Mattie had come out from the meeting about an hour ago, so where was Julie?

  She’d been locked up in her cabin all weekend, and for most of today. She hadn’t even come out for meals. According to Mattie and Rob, she’d ploughed through every single piece of paper from the past two years in just a few days, so it seemed that the brat had some work ethic after all. Jake didn’t feel right interrupting her at work, and was hoping to just catch her outside somewhere, as if they had met casually or by accident.

  Jake still had no idea why he’d bitten Julie’s head off about the horses. Lots of people didn’t like horses, and he knew that damn well. Manny hated them, Maria was scared of them, Rob just didn’t like them much. He didn’t hold that agains
t any of them, so why had he used her dislike of horses and animals as a stick to beat Julie over the head with? If he was going to go for her jugular about anything, it wouldn’t be about that.

  He’d been an asshole, plain and simple. He was angry that she was there – because her being there meant that Dave wasn’t.

  He sighed and looked up at the main building again. He’d have to go and find her, he supposed. Maybe she was in the restaurant having something to eat.

  Jake walked over to the Reception area and smiled at Linda. “Hey. You seen Julie?”

  Linda smiled back at him. God, he is one sexy creature. “Nope. Maybe try the back office?”

  “OK, thanks.”

  Jake walked down the hall to Dave’s office, saw the light on under the door. Shit. He hadn’t been in here since Dave had died.

  He braced himself and knocked on the door.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s Jake.”

  A pause. “Come in.”

  He walked in to Dave’s office – Julie’s office. She was sitting at Dave’s desk – her desk. She looked exhausted.

  “What is it, Jake?”

  He shut the door behind him and crossed the room. “I just wanted to – ” He stopped and looked around. Wait one goddamned minute. “Hey, where are all the pictures that were in here?”

  Julie looked up at him. His handsome face was tight with anger, his gray eyes wide and disbelieving. Huh. He cares about those pictures. His cruel and cutting words from Saturday still stung her, and she saw a chance to hurt him back.

  She spoke as coldly as she knew how. “I got rid of them.”

  Jake blinked at her. She what? “Why would you do that?”

  She shrugged. “They don’t mean anything to me.”

  “But they mean something to me. To the rest of us here.”

  “Surely you have others.”

  “That’s not the point…”

  “Yes, it is, actually. You have photos of the man, but why should I stare at them all day long?”

  “Because he was your father!” Jake said. “Because he gave you a ranch and a hotel in his will! Because you owe him!”

  Julie got to her feet. “I don’t owe that bastard anything! You hear me? Nothing!” She was glaring at Jake and he was surprised at the hot anger in her eyes. “He owed me – and don’t you ever, ever forget it!”