Page 12 of Ace of Spades (Hidden Creek Ranch #1)

HAILEY

A knock at the front door startles me awake, a groan leaving my lips as I roll over and rub my eyes. Who had the audacity to wake me up this early?

I get to my feet, throw an oversized hoodie over my satin pajama shorts set, and make my way to the door, my hand lifting to shield my eyes from the early morning sun.

I find Rafe on my doorstep, a coffee in hand.

“Ava told me to not bother showing up this morning unless I brought you one of these,” he explains, handing me the cup.

Shit , I had completely forgotten that he had agreed to come shoe my horses this morning. I had been so exhausted from the five-mile walk home last night that I had forgotten to set any alarms.

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Rafe—just let me grab some boots real quick,” I tell him, grabbing some boots from the entryway.

“The stables are right this way,” I tell him, throwing my messy bed hair into a bun on the top of my head as I walk past him.

“Wait,” he says, placing his hand on my shoulder and spinning me to face him.

“What happened to your face?” he asks, concern etched on his face.

It takes a moment for me to register what he’s talking about. My hand reaches up, my fingers feeling the scab that had started forming on my lower lip from where I must have bit it during the impact.

Shit, I had woken up in such a rush that I hadn’t even thought to check my face before opening the door. I could feel the pain blooming across my left eye and cheekbone, as if awakened by the reminder of last night.

“Nothing, I… I…”

Shit, I was still half asleep, and my brain was lagging too much to think of a response.

“I don’t know, I drank way too much after leaving the dance last night and probably ran into something. I swear, I’m such a clutz.”

There—nailed it .

The look on his face tells me that I did not, in fact, nail it. Rafe didn’t seem to believe me one bit, but he let it slide, the two of us walking down the gravel path to the stables.

“So…” I start. “I didn’t know you were a farrier. Is that what you do at the ranch?”

“Amongst other things. I also train horses and oversee all of the day-to-day stuff when it comes to the breeding operations.”

“Oh, gotcha. So do all of you have jobs, then?”

“Yeah, all four of us have equal shares and we all have something to contribute. Chance has his business degree, so he helps with all of the accounting and finances, and sometimes the legal stuff. Weston also trains, and he’s been overlooking the guest ranch stuff, he also works with any third-party stuff we have going on.

Beau is our resident mechanic and he does a lot of the sale barn work when it comes to buying new animals.

His girlfriend—Chelsea—who I’m sure you’ve met, helps out with cooking and cleaning and all of that.

Don’t let her fool you, though. She’s a cowgirl through and through, she was heavily involved whenever we worked the cattle up until she dislocated a disk and the doctors told her to take it easy ever since then. ”

“That’s actually really cool.”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad,” he says. “Now which horse threw a shoe?”

I lead him to Vegas’s stall, haltering her and leading her back outside.

“She threw her back left, the others are all a bit overdue anyways so if you have the time and wouldn’t mind just going ahead and re-doing all of them, I would appreciate that so much. ”

“No problem,” he tells me, going to grab his tools from his truck.

Thunder rolls in the distance, the sky turning grey with the threat of rain.

I tie Vegas to the wash rack and then make myself comfortable on the bed of my truck where I can watch him, pulling my phone out of my hoodie pocket and scrolling through my socials.

I check my messages to find a few offers for different brand deals, taking the time to read and respond to each one, but my heart sinks when I still don’t find a single full-time job offer.

Letting out a sigh, I place my phone back in my pocket, turning my attention to Rafe as he gets to work trimming Vegas’s hooves.

“So how’s everything at the ranch?” I ask.

“Good,” he tells me. “We should have the guest ranch up and running any day now. Turns out that with all of those new TV shows recently, the city folks are willing to pay good money for a week out in the mountains, or at least that’s what we’ve heard.

Nothing like that fancy resort of your father’s, but we’re hoping it catches on. ”

“So like a tourist destination?” I ask.

“Yeah, I guess so. The four of us can teach them how to ride, take them on trail rides, and show them what ranch life looks like—up close and personal.”

“I like that,” I tell him truthfully.

“Yeah,” Rafe says, but I notice a pause in his tone, as if he’s leaving something left unsaid .

The sound of tires on gravel catches my attention, and I look up to find none other than Weston’s navy blue truck pulling through the front gates and down the driveway directly toward us.

What on earth was he doing here?

I look at Rafe who doesn’t seem the slightest bit surprised, glancing from Weston’s truck then to me before continuing what he was doing.

“Did you call him?” I ask incredulously.

“He would have killed me if he found out and I hadn’t,” he tells me, offering me the closest thing he had to a pleading look.

“Dammit, Rafe!”

Weston was the last person on this planet that I wanted to see right now after, especially given my current state.

I hop off of the tailgate as Weston pulls up next to our trucks, making my way back inside the stables.

“Hey man, what’s going on?” I hear Weston ask.

“Why don’t you ask Hailey,” Rafe answers, and I’ve never wanted to strangle him more.

I keep walking, pretending not to pay attention to either of them.

“Hailey,” Weston calls out, his boots crunching on the gravel as he catches up to me. “What’s going on?”

I’m almost to the stables when he grabs my arm, spinning me around to face him.

I give up on hiding, tilting my chin up and facing him head-on instead.

He looks down at me, studying my face and taking a moment to register what he sees.

Whatever it is has his face turning stone cold, expression murderous .

“Who the fuck did this to you, Sorrels?” he grinds out through clenched teeth, his grip on my arm tightening.

“Let go of me, Weston.”

“Not until you tell me who did this. Was it Bradley?”

“Why does it matter!” I yell at him, reaching my breaking point. He had put me through a whirlwind of emotions in the last couple of hours, and I didn’t have it in me to deal with this.

“Because you should have called me!” he argues.

“Why? Why would I have called you?” I ask, my voice cracking in the slightest. “You told me to leave you alone. So this is me leaving you alone, Weston. Now can you please do the same for me.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened. If Bradley did this to you, I swear—”

“You’ll what? I can handle myself, Weston. It’s none of your business.”

“Hailey—”

“No,” I cut him off, putting my foot down. “You were right. We should stay away from each other. I think that’s the smartest thing for us.”

A million different emotions swirl in those green eyes of his.

“Fine,” he finally relents. “But just so you know, it’ll always be my business when it involves you. That fucker is dead the next time I lay eyes on him.”

His eyes bore into mine, as if trying to memorize every little detail about them, or hoping I would change my mind. At the end of the day, he was the one who had told me to stay away from him—I was only trying to respect his wishes. I couldn’t do this back and forth anymore.

He finally turns to walk away, getting into his truck and driving off, leaving me with Rafe and the horses.

I stand there for a moment longer, letting a lone tear roll down. Why did I care so much? I hadn’t known him for more than a few months, and I didn’t even know him well—so why did it feel like I was shattering? Why did it feel like I was losing him, when I never even had him in the first place?

“You okay?”

I hadn’t even noticed Rafe coming up beside me.

“Was that really necessary? Telling him to come over?”

There was a pause, as if he was trying to find the right way to answer.

“If the roles had been reversed, I would’ve wanted him to tell me. He needed to know,” he tells me gently.

I give him a nod, turning to walk away.

“Hailey,” he calls after me. I stop, turning to look at him over my shoulder. “You ended things with him, right? With Bradley, I mean.”.

“How do you think I got this black eye?” I manage to laugh.

He gives me a sad smile.

“Just promise me that you’ll let one of us know? If he gives you any more trouble? I know you and Wes aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, but he cares about you. We all do.”

I feel a pang hit me in the chest, a ball forming in my throat.

“Why?” I ask .

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind,” I tell him. “Thank you for coming this morning, I really do appreciate it.”

With that, I walk back to the guest house, crawl back into bed, and allow myself to stay there for the rest of the day.