One side of his mouth hitches as he stands. “Yeah, well, I already expect you to disappoint me, Benson. The only question is—how long will it take?”
He stands before me, hand outstretched.
“One month,” I say, pushing to my feet, holding his gaze as I slide my palm into his. Yep, I was right. Calloused. “Give me one month, Jackson.”
“Fine. One month.”
We shake on it.
He can underestimate all he wants, but I’m determined to prove him wrong on both counts.
One, Iamgoing to turn this place around.
And two, I amnotgoing to disappoint him.
5
Jackson
“Why can’t you just admit he’s not as big an asshole as you originally had him pegged as?” Pip asks, raking the corners of the stall.
I break up the old bedding and toss it into the wheelbarrow more forcefully than necessary. “Ugh. Not this again. Go make yourself useful and get some new hay, will you?”
“Sure thing. But I think you doth protest too much.”
“And I think you doth bring up the guy too often. I’m starting to thinkyoumight have a crush on him.”
His chuckle rumbles out of him, and it’s such a striking contrast, hearing such a deep chuckle coming from someone as petite as him. “I’m not the one with the crush. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
“You’ve seen shit. I’ve deliberately been avoiding him, so I’ve barely even seen the guy.”
“A-ha. Exactly. Who goes out of their way to avoid someone unless they like him?”
I let out a low grunt because you cannot reason with the unreasonable. “New hay. Now.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He leaves with a shit-eating grin, and I get back to mucking out the stall.
Not that I’d ever admit it, but Pip might be right. In the week since his unexpected arrival and announcement that he’s taking over the sanctuary, Maverick hasn’t been as much of an asshole as I expected him to be.
In fact, he’s stuck to his word. Just like he said, he hasn’t made any immediate, major changes, something all of the previous owners did as their way of establishing authority by swinging their dicks around. Apart from a fancy new coffee machine in the break room and enhancing security around the perimeter of the property, the only major change underway at the center is happening on the second floor above the barn.
Maverick’s office.
A slew of contractors have been coming and going all week, hauling lumber and ceramic tiles and tins of paint up the stairs. The weird thing is there’s hardly been any construction noise. There’s an occasional thud and a faint hum of activity coming through the floor now and then, but overall, the workers have managed to keep the noise to a minimum. I wonder if Maverick directed them to work as quietly as possible, knowing loud noises would disturb the horses below in the barn. It would be a nice thing if true.
And just like he promised me, Maverick has stayed completely out of my way. Apart from his two quick site visits, both of which I observed from a safe distance, I haven’t seen him at all. He emailed staff, informing us he’ll be working from home until his office build-out is finished, which won’t be done until next week.
So, yes, Maverick Benson has managed to surpass the exceedingly low expectations I had of him. But it’s still early days. There’s still plenty of time for his true colors to come out.
Pip returns with fresh hay, and we continue mucking out side by side, shovels scraping and hay rustling as we move between stalls in easy silence.
Mornings are my favorite time of day. I love the routine of it. The familiarity of feeding and refilling water buckets, cleaning out stalls, grooming and checking on the horses. I may not have any clue what the rest of the day will bring, but there’s a consistency to this part of it that grounds me.
And the repetitiveness makes it easy to remember things like which horses are in which stalls and the distance to the tack room and wash bay. I’ll have to start holding on to little details like that more and more as my condition deteriorates sooner than expected.
“Wanna grab some more water and refuel our internal caffeine supplies?” Pip asks, waving two empty buckets at me.
“Sure,” I say, hoping that one of the items near the top of Maverick’s to-do list is getting running water in the barn. Hauling it from the rainwater tanks multiple times a day is not fun. “When we come back, I can show you how to inspect hooves if you like?”
