Chapter 19


    Amber


    Jake keeps his word and comes back to check on me, but he’s not the only one. Ray visits me twice during the afternoon, although I miss his first visit because I’ve fallen asleep from sudden exhaustion. Marjorie and the children also come by later that afternoon. Violet and Olivia have made me a drawing, Tom and Benjamin argue about who gets to be on my team the next time we play soccer and Fiona kindly offers that I can ride her pony next time, if I still want to learn how to ride a horse. Marjorie just gives me the biggest hug and holds me longer than my own mother has ever done, expressing her great relief that I’m uninjured. She also promises to bring me dinner later, encouraging me to eat and rest in the privacy of my own quarters tonight.


    To my surprise, even some of the ranch workers stop by when they’re finished with their work. Sylvester is the first one to knock on my door. He comes alone, right after his shift, covered in mud and sweat. He still looks tormented by his guilt about not speaking up against Walter and Gary. I assure him at least four times that I really do not hold it against him, but Sylvester refuses to let himself off the hook. Despite his dirty clothes, I allow him to pull me into another one of his bear hugs before he leaves to go home.


    An hour or so after dinner, the next delegation arrives on my doorstep. David knocks on my front door, flanked by Nick and Kenneth. I invite them inside and both David and Kenneth almost trip over each other in their haste to apologize for laughing at me that afternoon.


    ‘It wasn’t even fucking funny,’ David says, guiltily shaking his head.


    ‘Well, I did fall right in the mud and dropped all those cookies,’ I say dryly. ‘Isn’t that like, slapstick 101?’


    I can see the corners of their mouth turn upwards.


    ‘Don’t make me laugh again, damn it,’ David laments, frowning at me. ‘Not when I’m trying to apologize for laughing in the first place!’


    ‘Well, I guess that part was a little funny in retrospect,’ I say, even though it didn’t feel very funny when it happened.


    ‘The part after that wasn’t, though,’ Kenneth emphasizes. ‘I can’t believe that none of us spoke up when Walter pulled that stunt with Rustler. Or that Gary didn’t put a stop to it in the first place. And then, I mean, shit! We all sort of froze when Rustler took off with you. If Jake hadn’t come running out…’


    ‘... then we would not be having such a calm and friendly conversation right now,’ Jake steps inside, finishing Kenneth’s sentence for him. He looks around and raises his eyebrows. ‘I see that I’m not the only one who wanted to check in on our girl.’


    With four of these giant men inside it, my living space suddenly feels pretty small. Since both of my dining room chairs and the small two person sofa are occupied, Jake resigns himself to leaning against my kitchenette. He doesn’t kiss or touch me, but the way he locks his eyes onto mine and smiles at me makes my entire body tingle.


    ‘And Ray would’ve had reason to fire a lot more of us than just Walter and Gary,’ Nick adds with a sigh. ‘Although, honestly, I think he probably would have fired us all, if he didn''t need us so badly to keep his ranch running. I’ve never seen him this furious before.’


    ‘He fired them?’ I ask, shocked. Ray didn’t mention that when he was here.


    ‘Of course he did,’ Jake replies sharply.


    ‘Oh, no! He shouldn’t have fired them over me. That''s not right! They’ve been working for him much longer than I have,’ I say, distraught.


    The four men look at me in disbelief.


    ‘This wasn’t about you personally, Amber,’ Jake says, furrowing his eyebrows at me. ‘They wilfully put your life in danger. Ray would never tolerate such a thing from anyone working for him, regardless of whose life was endangered.’


    ‘And they knew they were in the wrong,’ David adds. ‘I heard Gary was still a jerk about it, but Walter didn’t even fight Ray about being fired.’


    ‘But it was an accident,’ I protest weakly. ‘I mean, Walter couldn’t have known that the horse was going to bolt. Or that the rope would slip from his hands.’


    ‘That doesn’t matter,’ Jake replies determinedly.


    ‘He should have known!’ Nick exclaims simultaneously. He leans towards me and scowls. ‘You are too bloody nice to us, Amber. Rustler is an untamed horse. The risk of letting you mount him was too big, under any circumstance. Any of us, all of us, should’ve spoken up against Walter. He deliberately put you in danger! And then Gary put you in even more danger by refusing to let us inform Ray right away. He ordered us to just wait for Jake to either come back or call, so we’d know if something needed to be done.’


    ‘Is that what he said?’ Jake asks, outraged.


    ‘Are you even surprised?’ Kenneth snorts disdainfully. ‘He was just trying to save his own ass, thinking maybe he could hide his involvement in the whole ordeal from Ray. We all knew that.’


    ‘Yes! So we should’ve fought him harder on it,’ Nick says with a clenched jaw, unexpectedly punching his fist on my table. He meets my startled gaze. ‘You are one of our women, Amber. We should have defended you against people messing with you, just like we would have for Marjorie or Ray’s daughters. Even if it was against our own bloody foreman and coworker. And when Gary was too chicken to inform Ray, we should’ve gone over his head and informed Ray ourselves anyway. Then we could have formed a bloody rescue party or something. We should’ve all gone after you, instead of letting Jake handle it alone.’


    I briefly meet Jake’s gaze. By the suppressed smirk on his face I can tell we are both thinking the same thing. Considering our activities in the field, it’s probably for the best that they didn’t form a search party to come after us. I actually feel a bit embarrassed that they’re all making such a fuss over me. I honestly feel kind of bad that Walter and Gary lost their jobs over this too. But hearing Nick repeat Jake''s sentiment about me being one of them, warms me to my core. I’ve already forgiven them all for this afternoon. Honestly, I still think it was mostly my own fault, since I was the one who stupidly chose to get on the horse. But having all these people on the ranch openly caring about my well-being, about me, makes me feel grateful for being here with them.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The guys spend over an hour in my living room, comfortably talking and laughing with me and amongst themselves. I revel in it and try to hide my yawns from them, but Jake’s observant gaze doesn’t miss my exhaustion.


    ‘Alright, that’s enough. Everybody clear out,’ he orders loudly when he sees me desperately trying to conceal another yawn. He stands up straight and claps his hands twice, to get everyone’s attention. ‘Amber is tired and you all need to get your asses in bed too, or you won’t be of any fucking use to me in the morning.’


    ‘Sure thing, boss,’ Nick salutes, leaping up from his chair so quickly that it tips over. David and Kenneth start grinning as Nick scrambles to set it upright, but they both rise from their spots on my sofa as well.


    ‘Boss?’ I ask in surprise.


    ‘Jake is our new foreman,’ David explains with a proud smile, patting Jake on his back.


    ‘Really? Wow, congratulations!’ I say admiringly to Jake.


    ‘Yeah, Ray called me in after he fired Walter and Gary. It’s not really the way I wanted to get the job though,’ Jake sighs modestly. ‘It probably should have been one of the others. Kenneth and Eli have both worked here longer than me.’


    ‘Screw that,’ Kenneth shrugs. ‘You were the only one with enough sense to actually do something this afternoon. We were all standing around with our heads up our asses, like a bunch of idiots. You deserve the job. I reckon you’ll make a decent foreman.’


    ‘Yeah, well, you may not feel like that tomorrow, when I assign your ass to scrubbing cow''s shit all day for not getting out of Amber’s hair on time,’ Jake shoves Kenneth''s head towards the door, making us all laugh.


    ‘Even then, you’d still be better than Gary. You might actually contribute to the work, instead of just pretending to supervise us all day,’ David snorts, while he lets Jake usher him outside after the other two. He glances over his shoulder. ‘Goodnight, Amber. I’m glad to see you''re okay.’


    ‘Night, Amber!’ Nick and Kenneth call out as well.


    Jake is the last one to leave. He turns around in the doorway. He doesn''t kiss me with the others standing nearby, but he briefly squeezes my hand.


    ‘I’ll see you soon, yeah? Sleep tight.’


    Jake flashes me one of his killer smiles, before he jogs after the others and they all disappear in the direction of their cabins.


    I feel beyond grateful that Jake came to my rescue when Rustler bolted with me on his back, and perhaps even more about how worried and caring he has been towards me afterwards. Although Jake continues to be busy, especially now with his new job as foreman, he definitely makes an effort to spend time with me. Our weekends are mostly spent apart, but that is as much on me as it is on Jake.


    The first weekend after my terrifying horseback adventure Jake is on duty on the ranch, so we actually do see each other. The next two weekends, Jake goes home to his family. I spend the first of those weekends looking after the Jenkins family as both a nanny and impromptu nurse, because Ray, Marjorie, Fiona, Tom and Violet simultaneously come down with a nasty case of the flu. And the Friday after that, Hailey comes to pick me up after dinner, so I can spend the weekend with her in her apartment.


    However, Jake and I now frequently spend our evenings on weekdays together. Once we are in the privacy of his cabin, we can barely keep our hands off each other. I discover that it really turns me on when Jake is a little dominant during sex. My knees turn straight to pudding when uses that low, authoritative voice of his to order me around in bed. I love the sensation of giving myself completely over to his experienced hands, because Jake introduces me to a lot of things I never knew I would enjoy so much. Like the time he blindfolds me and ties my hands behind my back, before he penetrates me from behind. I almost died from bliss during the three consecutive orgasms he gave me in that position. Who knew! I''m having a great time with Jake, but there''s a small, nagging voice in the back of my mind that keeps telling me it could all be over between us at any moment.


    Truthfully, I’m not a hundred percent convinced that Jake was telling me the truth when he said that he was just busy before. He seemed a bit deflective when I mentioned it to him. I suspect it may only be my recently discovered kink for dominance that sparked his interest in having sex with me again. Jake is definitely enthusiastic when it comes to helping me explore this new side of myself. And although I''m thoroughly enjoying it too, it does come at the price of some very conflicting feelings.


    Because apart from the mind-blowingly good sex, Jake can also be surprisingly sweet sometimes. Like the time he uses a spatula to spank me, which makes my behind sting so much that I can barely sit down the next day. Jake feels so guilty when he finds out that he insists on treating it with a cooling lotion. I spend the next evening lying flat on my stomach across his lap, watching a movie with him on his couch, while he gently massages my butt cheeks with the lotion for over an hour.


    Or that time I mention that I’ve been wanting to get my ears pierced. Jake spontaneously offers to drive me all the way to a mall in Madison after work, just so I can get it done. It takes much longer than I expected and by the time we get back to the ranch it’s already kind of late, so there''s not really any time left to have sex. I worry that this may annoy him, but Jake simply drops me off behind the horse stable and kisses me goodnight before he drives himself towards his cabin.


    I both crave these sweet moments and simultaneously wish they wouldn’t happen, because they make it very hard for me not to think of Jake in terms of a boyfriend. But I’m not naive enough to think that anything changed between us. Jake has made it clear from the beginning that he only wants us to stay casual, and I’m determined to respect that. I try very hard not to be clingy or to put any claim on him. I don’t touch him in the presence of others when we run into each other during the day, and I also never sleep over. I do prefer to go over to his cabin when we have sex, because it feels like we have more privacy there than under Ray and Marjorie Jenkins’ actual roof, but I always go back to my own quarters when it’s time to go to sleep. The first night after the whole horse bolting thing, I actually wasn''t sure what to do. Jake didn''t explicitly tell me to leave that night, but he also didn''t ask me to stay. Eventually, I just mumbled something about having to care for the children early in the morning and I left. Jake never addressed the issue after that, so I think this is the arrangement he prefers.


    Sometimes, I wonder how much longer I''ll be able to do this. The longer I continue to spend time with Jake, the more it will hurt when this thing between us will eventually come to an end. On the other hand, I already know that heartbreak will be inevitable when that moment comes, because I''m absolutely, definitely, undeniably in love with Jake Harmon. So, despite all my conflicting feelings, I decide I might as well keep enjoying myself while it lasts.


    Then, on Friday, a nightmare happens.


    I’ve only just gotten back from picking up Fiona, Tom and Benjamin from school. They are very excited about the weekend, because all three of them will be participating in a soccer tournament with their respective teams. We are in the process of exiting the minivan and I laugh at Benjamin, who is boldly proclaiming that he plans to score at least ten goals tomorrow, when we hear a roaring engine in the distance. A pickup truck is racing towards us at a high speed.


    I quickly get the children to stand on the porch, so they won’t accidentally be run over, and frown when I see several people sitting in the bed of the truck. I know Ray doesn’t like people speeding over the terrain like this, certainly not when there are people sitting in the back. He’s the type of boss who is always lecturing his workers about safety over speed and convenience. But when I see the pale faces of the men in the back of the vehicle, I immediately understand that something must be wrong.


    ‘Find Ray. See if you have cell service now and call an ambulance, or have Ray call one from the landline,’ Jake yells at Kenneth, who is sitting across from him.


    Before Jake is finished speaking, Kenneth already jumps out of the truck. He pulls his cellphone from his pocket as he runs past us towards Ray’s office. My head snaps back in the direction of the pickup, and that''s when I get a glimpse of the limp body next to Jake.


    It’s Zane.


    He’s covered in dust and blood, and he doesn’t seem to be moving.