“I’m done cleaning the stalls. What’s next?”

Taking a deep breath, I scrunched my nose. “I think you need to take a shower. You smell like shit.”

She turned on her heel and grumbled the word ‘asshole’ under her breath. I burst out laughing and followed closely behind her. When she got inside, she quickly rushed upstairs and slammed the bedroom door. I wondered how long it would take her to break.

Hadley

One Week Later

Blake was a fucking prick. There was no way I could survive being with him for months. Hell, just a week with him was torture. The physical labor I could handle, but the mental jabs would be my downfall. I needed support more than anything and I wasn’t going to get it from him.

Luckily, I had the phone Logan left me. I needed to hear Felicity’s voice. She answered on the second ring.

“Hello?”

I cleared my throat. “It’s me.”

“Oh my God, Hadley, you sound horrible. Are you okay?”

“Trying to be. It’s been a long day. How’s Nick?”

She blew out a frustrated breath. “Still the same. He hasn’t woken up yet. You wanna talk to him?”

A tear slid down my cheek. “Yes.”

The phone shuffled and I heard her voice in the background. “He’s on.”

“Hey Nick, it’s me. I wish I could be there with you. I miss you and Felicity so much. When you pull through this, we’re going to celebrate, okay? It sucks not being able to hear your voice. I could use it right about now.” The line grew quiet and Felicity got back on.

“How’s it going out there?” she asked.

I had just gotten out of the shower and my arms were on fire from shoveling all day. All I’d had to eat were a bowl of carrots and a cucumber. “It’s horrible,” I answered honestly. “The guy they have me with is a complete douche. I’ve tried to be nice, but he’s still an ass.”

“What have you been doing?”

I snorted in disgust. “You don’t want to know. Let’s just say I hate the guy I’m with more than I hate Lydia Turner.”

“Wow,” she gasped. “That’s pretty bad.”

Lydia was my nemesis and it was no secret we had bad blood. When I started winning more awards than her, she openly trash talked me to the media. The paparazzi had tried to get me to retaliate, but I refused to fuel the fire.

“It’s worse than bad,” I stated.

“I’m sorry, Hadley. I know it can’t be easy. In other news, I did spend today going over your schedule. I know you said you were going to handle it, but I went ahead and canceled your shows. Everyone’s talking about you right now.”

I sat down on the bed. “Great. I can only imagine what they’re saying.”

“Just do me a favor and stay away from the TV. Can you do that?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t even have time to watch TV anyway.” The line went quiet and all I could hear were the beeping of machines and the sound of Felicity’s breathing. She had to be exhausted. “Felicity?”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Thank you for handling my schedule. I promise I was going to do it.”

“I know, but I needed something to take my mind off of Nick. I’ll talk to you later.” We said our goodbyes and hung up.

I didn’t want to leave my room, but I was starving. There were no smells coming from the kitchen, which only made me hungrier. A can of beans wasn’t going to cut it tonight. The only reason I ate them all week was to prove a point. I wouldn’t do that every day.

My dirty clothes really did smell like horse shit, so I piled them in the laundry basket and took them downstairs. The laundry room was right by the kitchen. I started up a load, then made my way into the kitchen. My cheeks flamed when I saw what was on the counter.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I snarled. There was a bottle of water and a pack of beef jerky. I could see Blake through the window with that smug grin of his, but the asshole didn’t know I was watching. He rode off on the black horse and disappeared across the pasture. “Payback’s a bitch.”

I searched through his refrigerator and cabinets until I found everything I needed. It wasn’t going to be much of a dinner, but at least it would be hot and substantial. I was starved, so anything I could cook up would be heaven, even if it was eggs, bacon, and frozen biscuits. Ever since I was a kid, I loved breakfast for dinner.

As quick as I could, I whipped up the eggs and bacon and threw the biscuits in the oven. He might think I’m Hollywood and not be able to wipe my own ass, but I was going to show him. Once everything was done, I put everything on my plate and ate it all. I’d never eaten so much in my life. I was down to my last piece of bacon when he waltzed through the door.

“Damn, something smells good in here,” he announced.

“Have a nice ride?” I asked, turning to face him. Why did he always have to have his shirt off? It was distracting, making it hard to hate him when he looked like that.

He took off his cowboy hat and strolled over to the stove. “You didn’t cook me any?” he asked.

I held up the last bite of bacon and tossed it in my mouth. “I did, but I ate it all. Here,” I tossed him the bag of jerky, “bon appetite.” Not waiting for him to speak, I turned and walked back to my room. But I did catch the look on his face. Absolutely priceless.

The next morning, I went right out to the barn. Blake was already out there with Snowflake, so I grabbed the rake and went straight to her stall. I gagged a few times from the stench, but after smelling it all morning, I got used to it. I may not have been raised on a ranch, but I was pretty damn good at adapting.

The day went by slow but once Blake was done with the horses, he lounged out on the hay bales and fell asleep. What the hell was with that? Gritting my teeth, I finished cleaning the stalls. “Have you heard anything from Robert?” I asked, raising my voice with each word.

He tilted his hat and acknowledged me before lowering it back over his eyes. “Nope. He’ll call when they find something.”

I slammed the rake against the wall and started toward the house. “All right, well I’m done here. I’m going inside.”

Jumping off the hay bale, he rushed up behind me. “Hold up, princess, there’s something else I need you to do.”

“Seriously?” I scoffed. “I’ve been shoveling your horse shit all day. I might be in hiding, but I still have a job to do.”

He motioned for me to follow him. “Like what?”

Rolling my eyes, I followed behind him. “My songs don’t write themselves. As soon as I get back home, I’m going to be expected to have some songs to record. Being knee-deep in shit doesn’t exactly give me inspiration.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “You write your own songs?”

“Shocked?” I countered.

We walked inside and past the staircase. “A little. I thought most of the singers out there only sang shit other people wrote for them.”

“Just goes to show how ignorant you are.”

He let the comment go and led me into a bedroom where clothes were scattered all over the floor and the bed was unmade. Mouth gaping, I stepped over one of the mounds of dirty clothes.

“Uh, what are we doing in here?”

The room smelled exactly like him, all done up in earthy tones; very cowboyish, with fur-skinned rugs on the floor. There were plaques on the wall, but I couldn’t see what they said. Maybe they were given to him for being Douchebag of the Year. Even on the fireplace mantle there were pictures of him and other people, including one with him and a young woman. I wondered who she was.

He waved toward the mess, grabbing my attention. “I need you to clean all this up. I have a date tonight and I don’t want her seeing it like this.”